What’s in a Name?
3rd September 2009
The great buildings of universities and cities alike are sermons in stone. They aim to teach us something about the the fundamental commitments of an institution or a city or polity as much as what might take place inside those buildings. And in the honor we bestow through the names we associate with such monuments, a society teaches something of significance to successive generations. I would be the first to praise the generosity to a benefactor, and to encourage people of means to support a worthy cause – and it is meet to show gratitude in a fitting form. Today, however, an older ethic of according honor for lifetime service and sacrifice – or, more homely still, testimony to the geography of local places (e.g., Three River Stadium, now PNC Park) – is increasingly crowded out in a race to leverage naming rights to the highest bidder. What lesson are we teaching to our young through such sermons in stone?