What's in a name?

It's no secret that I am not a fan of some of the judges currently sitting on the Supreme Court. I'm talking about the U.S. Supreme Court, aka SCOTUS. SCOTUS sounds like the name of a pet. "Here Scotus;" "Be a good dog, Scotus;" "Lie down, Scotus;" "Roll over, Scotus."  Recently we learned that SCOTUS does not consider itself anyone's pet. And even though I disagree with many of the recent majority decisions rendered by SCOT... whoops, I mean our high court, referring to it as SCOTUS in light of some of its past glorious history is demeaning. Granted we may differ concerning which opinions of the past we consider glorious. Nevertheless, let's scuttle the name SCOTUS. I bristle when people condemn a court for a decision they dislike... unless it is a unanimous decision. A praiseworthy dissent or concurring opinion deserves honorable mention. 

I did some research on the origin of the term SCOTUS. I thought it was part of the recent trend to abbreviate everything, as in "call u later," and POTUS. Hmm...recently I kind of potus when I consider the head of state. In fact, it was in the last 20 years of the 19^th century that the acronym SCOTUS was first used. Why? It was all about saving money. What else is new? It was faster and more economical to write "SCOTUS" than the Supreme Court of the United States in sending telegraph messages.

When I think of whom I would have liked to sit on our high court, I think of names like Roger Traynor or Learned Hand. Learned Hand--his first name is so ... appropriate. But what were his parents thinking when they named him? I can just imagine... the umbilical cord has just been cut, or maybe even before he was born, Learned's parents decided to saddle the poor kid with the name Learned. And I bet they would have done the same if they had a girl. In 1872, the year of Hand's birth, prenatal blood tests and amniocentesis had not been invented. It took another 100 years for that to happen. "Our kid is so... or is going to be so special, so brilliant, that our child's first name will be Learned."

Can you imagine what the poor kid had to endure in grammar school? Grammar school? What about, what do they call it now... middle school? In yesteryear when I went to school, the school one attended after grammar school was called junior high school. Can you imagine what poor Learned had to endure? It was a tough time for me as well. Imagine what it was like having the name "Art." For the discerning reader with a rhyming dictionary, I need not elaborate.

And one of our nation's less impressive... well, at least, not the least impressive president was named Chester Arthur. Staying with "at least," at least his parents did not burden him with the first name Arthur. Incidentally, General MacArthur named his son Arthur. Because of Arthur MacArthur's name, I took some heat when in 1951 President Truman recalled General MacArthur for insubordination. Yes, I was around then, as a skinny 12-year-old. Contrary to Truman's order not to do so, MacArthur threatened to expand the Korean war beyond the 38th parallel and possibly initiate a war with China.  

I wonder what Chester Arthur would have thought of the principle that President Truman enforced--civilian control over the military. More importantly, what do we think of it today? And let's include freedom of the press to express our views about it or anything else the government does.

But getting back to the unlikely rise of Chester Arthur to the presidency, I recommend "Death by Lightning," the Netflix series that dramatizes in remarkable detail the short presidency of James Garfield and the unexpected presidency of Chester Arthur. Arthur is at least credited with establishing civil service reform, and though he was opposed to the Chinese Exclusion Act, historians contend he was politically compelled to sign a less onerous version of the act that thankfully was mostly ignored. And he implemented a program to build a strong navy with steel cruisers instead of those made of wood and canvas.

Pardon the apologetic tone, I just feel duty bound to protect the name Arthur. Notice, I eschewed mention of the roundtable.  

Getting back to Learned Hand, and at the risk of sounding presumptuous, I have something else in common with the learned judge beside a problematic name. We both began our judicial careers at the age of 37. Unfortunately, that's where the similarities end.  

Names are just words, yet they illustrate how words can have profound effects on our lives. "Learned" and "Arthur" are inconsequential compared to a boy named Sue. Johnny Cash cashed in on that one. Shel Silverstein wrote the song for a male friend of his named Jean, who like me endured some razing because of our names. Let this column be an inspiration to people with troublesome names. We can and do overcome this handicap. But our handicap is miniscule to that endured by one of the prosecutors in the famous Scopes evolution trial, Sue Hicks. He was named after his mother. I truly lucked out. My mother's name was Gertrude.