r/MurderedByWords 1d ago

Washington DC’s name change

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u/ahuramazdobbs19 1d ago

Like, OK. Go ahead. Change the name.

What you don't get is that we, as a country, have full legal possession of the District of Columbia and can, in fact, change the name with no legal consequences. We can say "We are now calling the federal district that contains the United States capital the District of America. Please make sure this is updated properly in your records so that there is no problem with postal or other communications".

Whereas we do NOT have full legal possession of the Gulf of Mexico and cannot, unilaterally, change the name and expect everyone else to just accept it.