'Too Much Fixin'' 

Editor:

Anyway, to address the current mess regarding bird names ... .

I've been shining on the current PC about names and personas until an article in the North Coast Journal about renaming birds, which had someone's name as part of theirs, on grounds that many of these people "weren't very nice" ("Bird Names for Everyone," Feb. 29).

Of course, some of them were — nice that is. And some of those people were just friends of the discoverer, so, hell, let's go ahead and confuse everybody. But how about this ... let's just go ahead and admit that some of the heroes (and heroines) of our youth had feet of clay, and leave the names as they are to remind us of that fact.

The thing that really got me up on this soapbox was Ken Burton's column in the local Audubon's "Sandpiper" in the EcoNews, which listed 38 candidates for renaming!

I was so disgusted by the point of view I couldn't even finish reading it.

Someone once said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." There is entirely too much fixin' going on these days.

Bruce Slocum, Ferndale