We have admired state Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, for his leadership in helping make Tennessee a financially strong state, and have supported him editorially in his re-election bids, but we have been a bit perplexed at some of the legislation he has proffered this year.
Among those are his bill, on which we have previously opined, that authorizes school districts and public charter schools to refuse to enroll illegal immigrant students.
The latest is a resolution — which fortunately places no mandates or requirements on teachers if approved — that encourages Tennessee teachers to use the names Gulf of America and Mount McKinley, two preferences of President Donald Trump.
The Gulf of America has been called the Gulf of Mexico since at least the mid-1500s and has been its most common name since the mid-17th century. Mount McKinley in Alaska was first so-named in honor of then-presidential candidate William McKinley in 1896 by a gold prospector, formalized in 1917 when Congress designated Mount McKinley National Park, changed to its Athabaskan name, Denali, by the Alaska Board of Geographic Names in 1975, and formally named Denali by Obama administration Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in 2015.
The Department of the Interior, under Trump, changed the names to Gulf of America and Mount McKinley with an executive order in January.