Signs of change

The past persists in the signs that have not yet been changed.

The future shows in the ones that have.

Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington D.C. went up in 2020.

A workman installing the new name

Trump directed that "Black Lives Matter" paint on the street be removed and the plaza renamed. That is taking place now:

Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, Florida, where I am finishing a vacation, I see signs that reflect a different era.

At the entrance of the museum dedicated to Salvador Dali:

A separate bathroom on each floor is available for men, women, and for "all genders," as the sign put it.

A museum in the city center has a special section in a video noting the participation of Blacks in the military. There is a large room dedicated to the rise of women as full participants in public life. These sections are woven into a larger narrative, but there is a deliberate effort to note these two groups. The Tuskegee Airmen were mentioned specifically, as was the history of racial segregation in Florida prior to the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s. The exhibits also described the suffrage movement of the early 20th century and then featured prominent women -- White and Black -- in past and current government. These exhibits are self-conscious attempts to show divesity and inclusion. Trump calls this attention to specific groups "woke," and is writing this out of federal websites, but it still persists in Republican Governor Ron DeSantis' Florida, perhaps by inertia or inattention.

Both Google Maps and Apple Maps have updated their names for what had been the Gulf of Mexico.

Google maps

Apple maps

Tourist areas sell two kinds of T-shirts. Some read "Gulf of Mexico, est. 1550." Others look like this.

One boat out of hundreds in a sheltered bay off St. Petersburg flew a Trump flag.

A tour guide who described the scenery as the boat left a cove to enter the Gulf, announced, "We are now entering the Gulf of Whatever. Look, I work for tips and I don't want to make half my customers unhappy, so let's just call it 'whatever.' Around here, mostly we have always just called it 'the Gulf'."

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