As George W. Bush enters the final months of his presidency, thoughts naturally turn to his place in history. Ronald W. Reagan and George H. W. Bush had airports in Washington and Houston named after them. Today comes word that San Francisco may honor George W. Bush by putting his name on a vital public institution. So San Franciscans can remember him whenever they use this service.
A petition has circulated for the past several months to rename the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W Bush Sewage Plant.
A group going by the regal-sounding name of the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is planning to ask voters here to change the name of a prize-winning water treatment plant on the shoreline to the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.
The plan, naturally hatched in a bar, would place a vote on the November ballot to provide "an appropriate honor for a truly unique president."
Back in April, the Huffington Post noted the group was trying to get the initiative on the November ballot. Now the New York Times reports that they now have plenty of signatures to qualify for the ballot. Should the voters pass it, this honor will take place immediately at the end of Bush's second term.
The renaming would take effect on Jan. 20, when the new president is sworn in. And regardless of the measure’s outcome, supporters plan to commemorate the inaugural with a synchronized flush of hundreds of thousands of San Francisco toilets, an action that would send a flood of water toward the plant, now called the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant.
"It’s a way of doing something physical that’s mentally freeing," said Stacey Reineccius, 45, a software consultant and entrepreneur who supports the plan. "It’s a weird thing, but it’s true."
Personally, I have problems with the honor. While it intuitively makes sense to associate George W. Bush with fecal matter, this particular honor violates my understanding of his place in history. Water treatment plants are among the great civil engineering developments of the modern age. Cities and suburbs as we know them in this country could not live without them. Using taxpayer money, municipalities across the nation have built and maintained these vital components of public infrastructure, saving countless lives and allowing urban populations to live free from fear of pandemics. They are testaments to the achievements of public society to provide benefits for all.
In other words, the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant flies in the face of everything George "The Ownership Society" W. Bush and his politics stand for. The man who has done more to accomplish Grover Norquist's goal of getting government down to the size "where we can drown it in a bathtub" ought not be honored by having his name on one of the great institutions built by government. The cognitive dissonance would be too much.
On the other hand, such an honor has precedent. After all, the president who fired the air-traffic controllers had National Airport renamed in his honor. If George W. Bush truly sees himself as the successor of Ronald W. Reagan, then perhaps he will take pride in this tribute.