TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

George Foreman seems like a good guy, with a distinguished boxing career and a grill known round the world. He also named all of his children George. Now I guess with the first child it's cute. With the second and third and fifth and even the girls, it starts getting a little weird if not obnoxious.

Who would do that? Who would use the same name over and over until overkill is an understatement?

Well, how about the American people?

The National Park Service is reviewing some 80 different sites from Arizona to Keene to Sacramento tied to union activist Cesar Chavez for possible preservation and/or national recognition of some sort. On Wednesday, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus named a new Navy vessel after the longtime farm labor leader.

Regardless of the wide range of opinions about the work and legacy of Chavez, one thing is clear: His name is fast becoming the George Foreman of a nation either too lazy to find someone new to honor, or too busy pandering to notice other worthy honorees.

I mean no disrespect to Chavez at all. My opinion is based on the fact I found at least 52 American schools, 24 streets and a small territory in Texas named after Chavez. I could find 11 schools with George Washington's name and only 20 streets named after JFK! Even our first black president only has one school named in his honor and it recently closed.

Do we really need 80 national parks and a Navy ship named for Chavez on top of the parks, plazas, avenues, buildings, schools and libraries already in his name?

How does one get these honors anyway?

Turns out it all comes down to an act of Congress. Congress names the ships and designates the national parks. While there are no necessary criteria for ships, there are for parks.

According to the National Park Service, the location must "possess a unique natural, cultural or recreational resource. It must be in need of protection, and no organization other than the National Park Service would be able to secure adequate protection."

Of all the criteria, the one that best fits a park for Chavez is the cultural and maybe recreational resource. Problem is, the list says "unique." If you have 80 locations on the application to Congress and well more than 100 places already bearing your name, you kind of lose your uniqueness, don't ya think?

I phoned all of our valley congressmen to ask their position on the national parks and heard back from Reps. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, and Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield.

Andrew House from Nunes' office said "This kind of request would not be looked on kindly by Congress. The park service can't maintain the sites they currently have. We're in an environment where we're trying to reduce costs," referring to the fact that if the UFW/Cesar Chavez sites became national parks, the taxpayer would in part or in full be responsible to support and maintain that land.

That includes a 300-mile stretch between Delano and Sacramento where Chavez led a march.

The response from McCarthy's office wasn't much different. It released a statement from the congressman saying: "At a time when we are dealing with record deficits and out-of-control spending, we should not be adding to our burden by creating new national parks. We should actually be looking at any surplus federal property we could sell."

I agree. And as a conservative, I would agree that if we we're talking about Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan or Elvis Presley (who has a gas station in his honor between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that I've been to, and a park in his honor in Budapest, Hungary).

As for the ship in San Diego's harbor: In fairness, Cesar Chavez reportedly served in the U.S. Navy so it's not a stretch. But there are others who've not been honored in this way.

Congressman Duncan Hunter has suggested a new name: Rafael Peralta of San Diego who, on a mission in Iraq, was shot multiple times. Knowing that his brothers wouldn't get out of the building alive if they tried to save him after a grenade had been thrown their direction, Peralta grabbed the grenade and tucked it under his own body.

Now I ask you, is it such an awful idea to christen the SS Rafael Peralta? Can we accept the idea that honoring someone new isn't an attack on someone old? Or will we go the easy route and stick with the George Foreman plan?

-- Inga Barks, who hosts a talk show on KMJ AM 580, is one of three community columnists whose work appears here every Saturday. These are the opinions of Barks, not necessarily The Californian. You can email her at ibarks@bakersfield.com. Next week: Ric Llewellyn.