Naming civic assets

Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to President Kennedy...

I think it's a bad idea to rename places after people who are living. At the very least, time and reflection is a good thing. I know that plenty of places have been named after John F. Kennedy, post-assasination. (Or places after donors who later become "disgraced.")

Still, I can't help but think of all the b.s. (women, anti-Cuban plots, Vietnam--whether or not you believe that he wouldn't have escalated the war) that came out afterwards, every time I see a place named in honor of John F. Kennedy. Or how I would think about justification of torture and the creation of an unnecessary war in Iraq were I to happen by the George W. Bush Elementary School in Stockton, California.

Just as I would be skeptical of naming schools and public parks after George W. Bush during his adminstration, I am not so quick to want to jump and do this for the park at 14th and Girard (Obama Park is suggested by the Friends group, according to the Columbia_heights e-list) or for an elementary school in Prince George's County (see "School board approves Barack Obama Elementary name" from the Gazette)