Monuments to Me Preserved

The Rio Grande Foundation’s capitol reporter Rob Nikolewski has done a great deal of research over at Capitol Report New Mexico on the naming of public facilities after sitting elected officials. There are many reasons for NOT allowing this practice to continue including the need to remove Manny Aragon’s name from the Torreon at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.

But, as Rob reports, legislation sponsored by Sen. Mark Boitano to stop the practice (at least at the state level), was recently killed. While it may or may not actually corrupt a lawmaker’s decision on a given project or piece of legislation, the fact is that these people are supposed to be public servants. Allowing them to name things after themselves leads to ego inflation and arrogance. That is the real problem with “Monuments to Me.”