Adding a little poetry to our lives

Editor, the Times:

I’m delighted to learn the Salish Sea might have a place in the lexicon of Washington state names [“Salish Sea added to our watery lexicon,” NWSaturday, Oct. 31].

The name has been used by some, more or less officially, since the late 1980s, and likely by many others before that.

I first heard the name a few years ago when the Aqua Chautauqua group made its way from Port Townsend up to Bellingham and down to Whidbey Island, sailing the Salish Sea.

Ah, the poetry in that lovely name.

Puget Sound clunks compared to Salish Sea. And with all else going on right now, we can use a little poetry in our lives.

— Molly Larson Cook, Coupeville

What’s in a name? Just turn your map sideways for a new perspective

I’d love to show you a map you have never seen.

On the bottom is the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. In the middle is a wide berth of water, we call Juan. To the left, a huge island we call Vancouver, on the right a peninsula and mountain range we named Olympic. Beyond these landforms are waters we name Georgia and Puget. Intermingled are gems of islands, shorelines and river deltas. At the top of the map are mountains, mountains and mountains.

True, the Salish Sea is a fabricated name. It references our hosts —and for some, ourselves and our ancestors — who are collectively referred to as the Coast Salish Indian tribes.

History and reality are obviously more complex, as the mental concept of a Salish Sea is a recent construct, and the people who lived along its shores were not always friendly to one another, to put it mildly.

Still, that is a long way from saying it is an empty, politically correct gesture, and a very long way from the idiocy of suggesting Starbucks Sea. It is also far from the idiocy of suggesting that since our elected officials voted for it, they somehow are goofing off, and not paying attention to important things.

Do you really think the U.S. Board of Geographic Names is a full-time entity, where people get paid just to sit around and name things?

When you look at the world from a different perspective, even if by just turning a map sideways, you see something you may have never observed: A vast inland sea, and yet this vast inland sea lacks a name.

I’m not sure if Salish is it’s name, but then again I’m not sure whether Juan, Vancouver, Olympic, Puget, Georgia, or any of the others are its name, either.

Whatever you call it, please just respect and bless our beautiful world.

— Steve Walker, Bellingham