Washington is the Evergreen State; but it is not Washington State. Almost every month, while editing articles for the Bar Bulletin, I must excise — and exorcise — the word “State” from Washington’s behind.
Why is that, I ask myself. Not why I must viciously delete those superfluous “States,” but why they are there in the first place. Do Washingtonians, by nature, have an inferiority complex? Are we so concerned that we might be confused with our nation’s capital that we feel compelled to identify our home as “Washington State,” even when we are addressing our neighbors in these pages and in the context of a discussion that, without any chance of confusion, is centered on goings-on here at home?
This also crops up incessantly in nationally published books, including those based in Washington. I recently finished reading White Cascade, the story of the 1910 Great Northern Railroad avalanche at Stevens Pass that killed some 96 people, i.e., the worst avalanche disaster in our nation’s history. There were constant references there to “Washington State,” without the slightest possibility of confusion.
I can understand people and publications back east, where Washington, D.C., is referred to simply as “Washington,” wanting to distinguish between the center of the free world and the only state named for a U.S. president by calling us something other than “those people way out in the upper left corner.” But why here? Perhaps “Washington State,” which has a place in the eastern — and even national, it seems — lexicon, has been dragged out here in the vast western migration.
Unfortunately, this urge, this tendency to refer to “Washington State,” I believe, is somehow hard-wired into our brains. We refer to the Washington State Department of Corrections, whose Web site contains the following statement: “As a partner with the criminal justice system and communities the Department enhances public safety, administers criminal sanctions of the courts and correctional programs, and provides leadership for the future of corrections in Washington state.” The Washington State Department of Transportation even includes the “S” for “State” in its acronym. Thank goodness we don’t refer to the Washington State Secretary of State’s Office. Even the Bureau of Redundancy Department kept that one out.
What do they do in other states? Well, there’s the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). No “S.” Do Ohioans refer to “Ohio State” when they are not talking about the Buckeyes of Columbus? I couldn’t find an instance in my two-minute online search of the State of Ohio’s Web site. Down in Florida, where I was born, they have the Department of State and the State Board of Administration, which they just call the SBA, not the FSBA.
I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point. We live in Washington, not Washington State. When you see the geographic reference “Washington” in these pages, it will be a reference to our state; a reference to our nation’s capital will include the letters “D.C.” after it. If you see the words “Washington State” together in this publication, it will be because someone is referring to a certain university in Pullman, where I also used to live and where they call our fine state Washington, so as not to confuse any such reference with WSU.
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