‘Gulf of America’ unleashes an ocean of renaming

President-elect Donald Trump’s idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico is a bad one because once that kind of thing gets started, there’ll be no end to it (“Trump promises to rename Gulf of Mexico to ‘Gulf of America,'” Jan. 7). Gulf of America is obviously confusing. It could be anywhere — even Cape Cod Bay — so what’s it going to be? The Gulf of New Mexico? The Gulf of Florida? The Gulf of Alabama? The Gulf of Mississippi or Louisiana or Texas? And after that, what’s next?

I’ll tell you what’s next:

You change New Mexico to Old New Mexico and Old Mexico back to just Mexico (and vice versa). Gulf of Old Mexico and Gulf of Old New Mexico are also viable options for the above. And, while we’re at it, let’s change Tegucigalpa to something everybody can spell and, likewise, Sverige to plain old Sweden because that’s just science.

Moving on, switch the names of Greenland and Iceland like Erik the Red and Leif Erikson should have done to start with and change the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland to an Inside Straight. Now then, just to be clear, California Republic (see flag) should be simply California, and while you’re at it, cut Gulf of California and paste Gulf of Mexico because look at a map, genius.

After the new administration’s annexation of Canada, they’ll certainly want to change Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which nobody can spell or pronounce, to New Minot, North North Dakota. Finally, when they get back around to it, the United States of America plainly should be the United States of Vespucci.

— William O. Miles, Towson

Every City Hall worker should be on-site

Recently, I read in The Wall Street Journal that JP Morgan Chase, led by CEO Jamie Dimon, will be making all employees return to the office five days per week. Baltimore’s leaders should be ashamed of the state of downtown, especially the Charles L. Benton Building, the Abel Wolman Municipal Building and City Hall. They are ghost towns because no one is back at work (“Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott outlines his priorities for 2025 Maryland legislative session,” Jan. 8)!

Mayor Brandon Scott should learn from real leaders like Dimon and order his workers back to the office. If Faith Leach is serious about running the business of Baltimore, she will order those workers back to work or fire them.

— Jack White, Baltimore

Survey on taxes asked the wrong question

As a retired designer of survey research, I find it very frustrating to read articles that say Maryland residents oppose raising the income tax to reduce the deficit (“Poll: Marylanders oppose tax hikes as lawmakers enter session with debate over taxes versus cuts,” Jan. 7).

The question asked was if you approve or oppose raising income tax. I’m sure the results would have been very different had the researchers asked some of the following questions:

“Under Maryland’s current income tax system, very high earners pay a smaller percentage of their income in tax than people with low incomes. Would you approve or oppose reforming the system so very high earners pay their fair share?”

“About 50 of the largest corporations that do business in Maryland pay no income tax to Maryland in any given year. Would you approve or oppose closing loopholes so these companies pay their fair share?”

“Would you approve or oppose a plan to lower income taxes on the very poor while increasing taxes only on very higher earners?”

The Fair Share Maryland plan would do all these things and should be passed by the state legislature and signed by Gov. Wes Moore.

Then the number of cuts to programs that help people could be kept to a minimum.

— Carol Rice, Baltimore