Devil Trumps Reagan in Duel Over Landmark
(Feb. 24) — Arthur Mijares, a devout Christian, thinks Mount Diablo is no way to identify a San Francisco-area landmark. So he petitioned local officials to support changing it to Mount Reagan in honor of the late president and former California governor.On Tuesday, he got his answer: The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously against changing the name, which is Spanish for “devil” and dates back some 200 years. …
In an address to the board Tuesday, Mijares appealed for the supervisors’ support on the grounds that the name “Diablo” is anti-Christian. “I am a follower of Jesus Christ,” he said. “The devil, for whom the mountain is incorrectly named, is the challenger of Jesus Christ and his followers. To me and millions of followers of the Christian faith, the devil is derogatory, pejorative, offensive, obscene, blasphemous and profane.” …
In an address to the board Tuesday, Mijares appealed for the supervisors’ support on the grounds that the name “Diablo” is anti-Christian. “I am a follower of Jesus Christ,” he said. “The devil, for whom the mountain is incorrectly named, is the challenger of Jesus Christ and his followers. To me and millions of followers of the Christian faith, the devil is derogatory, pejorative, offensive, obscene, blasphemous and profane.” …In the end, Gioia said, the board rejected the proposal for three reasons: the overwhelming opposition, the history of the name and the potential cost of changing hundreds of other Diablo names to match the mountain. “It’s not about rejecting Reagan or Muir. It’s about acknowledging history,” Gioia said. “This is not meant to say we are honoring the devil. It is meant to tell the story of early California.”
Rambulatory Ambulatory 