So what are we to do? I suppose we could hand over naming responsibilities to the people who come up with the meaningless yet evocative model names for automobiles. We could have city, state, and building names like Sentra, Acura, and Elantra. Or we could restrict ourselves to the names of politicians and other public figures who have seen the light, which in practice means people born in the 1950s or later. There problem there is that they may currently hold opinions that will offend our grandchildren. Perhaps every place or building name should come with an expiration date: you get, not 15 seconds of fame, but, say, 20 years.

Now that would be progress, that is, the progressive overcoming of the dead hand of the past, honoring and remembering only those who contributed to our transient and strictly speaking meaningless (because self-defined) perfection.