I was listening to the Thom Hartmann show on SF's Air America station and he brought out one of his classic little history lessons I've come to love. He said that in the days of the founding fathers there was concern that our national concept of God was too masculine, so we invented a goddess. We called her Columbia because there was a strong interest in Columbus as the supposed discoverer of the Americas. For a while it was argued that our country should be named for her, rather than the unpoetic United States of America. Eventually a major river and the District of Columbia did get named for her. She has sister embodiments of nationalism in the United Kingdom's Brittania and France's Marianne. She, incidentally is featured in the last act of Roger Waters' Ça Ira.

Among many symbolic appearances of Columbia is on much of our coinage up until about 30 years ago and she's the basis of the Lady Liberty standing in New York Harbor.

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