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We have had a tradition in America, not always but mostly, of trying to avoid the perils of businesses that get too big.
The most prominent example in our history was likely the passage of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act which became law in 1890. Though its primary target, twenty years later, became John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company--its original passage resulted from a growing public concern about the concentration of power in big business, the elimination of competition and the resultant driving up of costs to everyone else.
Today, we are seeing big business on a new and immense scale. Recently, Meta, the Facebook company, agreed to pay $18 billion dollars to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of not protecting young people from its content. That is a lot of money in anyone's book.
We are also seeing billions of dollars being put into Artificial Intelligence (AI) by big companies like Meta, Amazon, Google and others.
What we don't see are the "behind the scenes" shenanigans of these big companies in "cozying up" to the federal government in order to gain advantage. We saw it a bit when Jeff Bazos, the founder of Amazon who also owns the Washington Post, quashed its intended endorsement for President in the last election.
Since then, we have seen a lot of big business executives, especially in high tech, sending their CEO's to Washington in order to curry favor with the White House. The federal government itself has also become a player in investing directly or in making large loans to public and private companies. I remember back to the days when the Congress had to be involved in such decisions (think of the General Motors bailout or the Savings and Loan scandal,) but, apparently, today, Congress is no longer needed.
What really caught my eye most recently, however, is that one of my favorite websites, Google Maps, has complied with Donald Trump's edict that Lake Ontario has now become "Lake America." Why would Google do that? That is just "nutty," anyway you look at it.
I even tried to "google-up" the words "Lake Ontario," but it kept flipping over to the new Trump name--”Lake America."
When you push Google further, it says that this is all based on the requirements of the federal government. But, let's be real, it is likely based on a political calculation that Google will be able to do more business with the federal government if it jumps in line with the Trump anti-Canada agenda.
This, in my view, is treacherous ground that we are getting into. Our government was meant to advance the needs and best interests of its citizens, and the renaming of Lake Ontario is not one of them.
I suppose some would say: "Well don't worry about it. It is a small thing." (The only official local outcry I have seen is that the Seneca Nation has opposed the name change.)
But, for me, it is not a small thing. I will still call it "Lake Ontario" no matter what the President or big company Google says.
Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.