Place Names

Margaret Court has been, well, courting controversy these past weeks. The former world no.1 tennis star, turned pastor, has raised the ire of many with a volley of comments labelling homosexuality a sin. Earlier this week the tennis great wrote in The Herald Sun: “Australia is in a steep moral decline”, “especially when it comes to the issue of sexuality”.

Doncha think it's a bit odd to have a statue of yourself while you're still alive? Picture: David Crosling

Outraged gay rights supporters have returned serve. They’re pushing for the Margaret Court Arena at Melbourne Park to stripped of its name and they’ve been encouraging Australian Open attendees to drape themselves in rainbow in defiance.

The kerfuffle is sure making a racket, but there’s something else at fault here. Since when were places named after people while they were alive anyway? Isn’t the whole point of naming a place after someone to commemorate the life and achievements of a person, you know, after they’ve died?

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  • Alexa says:

    02:56pm | 18/02/12

    Very good site. Nice commenting system. Apologies for the off-topic posting, yet I had been very impressed with Djokovic’s play in the final of the Australian OPen this year. The guy is just unrivaled. He revealed he had been as formidable as steel. Simply think about he he could overcome… Read more »

  • stephen says:

    02:54pm | 29/01/12

    That last sentence is a very good point Mr. Chop, and I notice that there is no response, here, to it ... maybe because there isn’t one, and we are all whining about the wrong thing. Read more »

 

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