RBG, GOV. ANDREW CUOMO AND KRUPSKAYA

New York loves naming public facilities after various figures. To much of the public, the old familiar names remain in common use, but road signs and official nomenclature is used by the government, Examples abound. I will name them but put in parentheses the commonly used name if there is one. Thomas E Dewey Thruway-named after a former NYS governor and two time presidential candidate. (NYS Thruway) Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive-named after the four term president. (FDR Drive) LaGuardia Airport-named after the former mayor of NYC and US Representative Robert F. Kennedy Bridge-named after the brother of JFK,Attorney General of the US and Senator from NY. (Triborough Bridge) Hugh Carey Tunnel-named after the former US Representative from Brooklyn and NY Governor (Brooklyn Battery Tunnel) Ed Koch Bridge-named after the former US. Representative and Mayor of NYC (Fifty-ninth Street or Queensborough Bridge) Mario M. Cuomo Bridge-named after the former Governor of NYS and father of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. (Tappan Zee Bridge) John F. Kennedy International Airport-named after the assassinated President of the US. (Commonly called JFK, previously Idlewild) Lehman College-Named after Herbert H. Lehman, former Governor of NY and US Senator. (Hunter College, Bronx. Hunter College in Manhattan is still named Hunter College. Both are branches of the City University of NY)  Javits Center-NYC Convention Center named after the late US Senator (R-NY) Moynihan Station-Named after the late US Senator (D-NY) (Penn Station)

There are numerous other facilities named after various public figures who attained fame and achievement  in many different fields.

With the death of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on September 18, much praise has been bestowed upon her for her pioneering service for 27 years on the US Supreme Court. NYS Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced his intention to appoint a commission to select a location for a statue of Justice Ginsburg and to commission its design and construction. All we know is that the statue will be located in Brooklyn where the late Justice was born and grew up. All of the above brings to mind the comment of Nadezhda Krupskaya, widow of Nikolai Lenin, the founder of the USSR. Krupskaya wrote in a letter to Pravda on January 23, 1924 the following in response to the proposed establishment of a Lenin Fund to raise money to build him a monument.(Lenin died January 21, 1924)“ I want to make a big request:don’t let your grief for Ilyich  run away into outward regard for his personality. Don’t build monuments to him, palaces in his name, grand ceremonies in his memory and so on. When he was alive he had no time for such things, he found such things oppressive.” (Lenin by Dmitri Volkogonov  page 440) 

Krupskaya’s words are worth considering.

Garry S. Sklar Las Vegas, NV Sep. 22, 2020