the awokening

Via Super Punch, we learn that the tiniest American state with the formerly rather outsized and outdated long-form name with the current and hopefully enduring public appetite for social justice and reform finally propelling a decades’ long debate to drop the onerous and hurtful postscript with the announcement from the governor that Rhode Island and Providence Plantations would no longer be using the latter part in official documents, correspondence or on state symbols.
The point of contention that opponents to the change cited in the past—that plantation was a contemporary term for colony when founded was finally mooted, recognising that the word has horrific connotations in the long and tragic history and the fact that after the American Revolution, Rhode Island choose to be incorporated into the Union with the word already having taken on that meaning despite the original context. Since no one really knows what Rhode Island refers to either—possibly a passing similarity to Rhodos (although the territory is a peninsula and part of the mainland) or due to ruddy fall foliage, they should go for a wholly new and fabulous identity. Legislation to change the state’s name officially will be taken up by the its House of Representatives for a vote in July.