With Ukraine in the news because of the war Russia has started with them, I thought it would be a good idea for our city of Odessa to ceremoniously change the spelling of their name on a temporary basis to show solidarity for this senseless war.

Odessa is the Russian spelling that Odesa, Ukraine used to go by, but since Ukraine has become its own country, the Ukrainian spelling for the city does not have the second "s" in the name.

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I am not talking about a permanent change because that would be a costly change not only for the city but all the businesses that reside in Odessa, I am just talking about a ceremonial change just to show solidarity for the people of Ukraine.

After seeing the devastation that is occurring in Ukraine from the video President Zelenskyy showed during his address to Congress, I just feel that doing a ceremonial name change, not a permanent name change, just to show solidarity not only to the citizens of the city that Odessa, Texas was named after but also the people of the country of Ukraine.

If you didn't know, Odessa, Texas got its name in the 1800s when workers on the Texas/Pacific Railroad were from, at that time, Odessa, Russia and named the area Odessa because the terrain resembled the terrain around Odessa in Russia, now Ukraine.

My idea is just a ceremonial change of spelling for a month or so just to show the people of Ukraine and the city of Odesa that the Texas namesake of their city is standing behind them and supporting them during this tough time.

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