Palestine, USA

Dear Readers:

As his readers know, Dr. Ink loves names, proper names, animal names, and place names. He remembers what may be an apocryphal story that, because two towns in Illinois are named Normal and Oblong, produced this newspaper headline: Normal Man Marries Oblong Woman.

And now it turns out that last week’s rescued American prisoner of war, Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, is from the little town of Palestine, West Virginia. Which has led Dr. Ink to wonder:

• Do the 900 or so inhabitants of this town refer to themselves as Palestinians?
  
• Do they pronounce their town, a la Gene Wilder, not Palace-STINE, but Palace-STEEN.
  
• Does anyone ever say, “Yas, sir,” to the town’s leader?
  
• Does anyone ever travel from Palestine (West Virginia), to Bethlehem (Pennsylvania)?

Before we’re through with this story, the news media machinery will have played out all the archetypal and mythological elements of this story. A young woman from a small American town travels half way around the world to fight for the freedom of the Iraqi people. She stumbles into harm’s way, transforms herself from the girl who wore combat boots under her prom dress into a warrior princess, and, through a combination of pluck and luck, survives in spite of terrible wounds, and comes to represent the best of her generation.

We celebrate with her when she is returned to the bosom of her family and her town folks, and when, one day, she climbs the steps of the U.S. Capitol to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. (Cue Ray Charles singing “America the Beautiful.”)

[ What are some the best place names in your region? ]