SACRAMENTO, CA—A local group of activists is drumming up support for a new movement to change the map, starting here in California, with hopes of ultimately spreading to other areas of the nation that need change (in their view). With a membership consisting mostly of atheists and agnostics, but including some Jews, Muslims, and one Sikh, their aim is to get religious place-names (mostly Catholic, hold-overs from the early Spanish colonization of America) changed into non-religious names. Vergil Claghorn, a spokesman for the group, summarized the problem. "Look at all the Catholic saints that have towns in our state named for them! San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco—the whole damn state is covered with San this and Santa that! And notice that there's no town named 'Santa Claus,' probably because he's not good enough for the Catholics! What about separation of church and state? Time to change all that! If the Southerners can get rid of their Confederate statues, we can get rid of our saint names." Myrtle Green, another group member, wearing a cap with the slogan "Dename the Saints," nodded approval, and added, "Don't forget Sacramento! It's not a saint, but it's Spanish for the Catholics' sacred host!" When asked what new non-religious names should be used, Claghorn replied, "Simply delete the San and the Santa. Easy as pie! Without the Santa, you'd get Rosa, Barbara, Clara, Cruz, and so on. Diego, Rafael, Mateo—all decent names. Of course, the Catholics would still know who the towns were named after. We don't have a problem with that. And everybody already calls it 'Frisco' anyway." Calvin Slater, another group member, nudged Claghorn and pointed out that Cruz was still a religious name, since it means "cross," referring to the Catholic symbol. Los Angeles was tougher to rename, said Claghorn, since something like 'Angel City' would still have a religious connotation. But Herb Dilly, another group member, suggested 'Anglo City' or just 'Anglos' as being close enough to the original, and also actually describing the town. 'Anglo' has nothing to do with angels, but means 'English-speaking.' "There are large areas of that town that are indeed English-speaking," Dilly said. For Sacramento, the group is considering several possibilities: Mento, Pimento, Memento, or Capital City. Claghorn admitted that the group has as yet been unable to persuade any legislator to draft and introduce an appropriate bill in the legislature. "They all say it would cause too much confusion and cost too much. Balderdash! Cities get their names changed all the time! Peking is now Beijing, Bombay became Mumbai. The Russians changed St. Petersburg to Leningrad, and then back again. Tokyo used to be Edo, Oslo was called Christiania until 1924. If they can do it, so can we!" In spite of the dim prospects of success, the group is aiming at other cities with religious names: St. Louis, St. Paul, St. Augustine. Las Cruces, NM, is also in their sights, since it refers to the three crosses at Jesus' crucifixion. They also want to rename Corpus Christi, TX. "You know that means the 'body of Christ,' don't you?" asked Green. "Who would want to live in a place named after a corpse?"