Where some people got the idea that it’s patriotic to bash the French is anybody’s guess, but if the trend wasn’t tiresome a month ago, it certainly is now. A Minneapolis representative, with a tongue-in-cheek bill to rid the state of many French references, made a statement to that effect this week.

The sad thing is, Rep. Phyllis Kahn’s bill was in response to a serious one offered by Rep. Marty Seifert of Marshall that would force the state investment board to boycott any companies that do business in France. Alongside ridiculous moves like the renaming of french fries in a Washington restaurant, this kind of pettiness over France’s disagreement with the United States is wrongheaded and just plain silly.

Kahn, understanding that, offered a bill that would eliminate county names like Faribault, Lac qui Parle, Le Sueur and Hennepin &045; all French in origin. The state motto, &uot;L’Etoile du Nord,&uot; would also get the axe.

This over-the-top proposal makes a point. Targeting the French is an overreaction to a brief spat that pales in comparison to hundreds of years of history, during which time France has been one of America’s most important allies. Some Americans like to think France owes us its unconditional support because the United States helped bail out their country in both world wars, but let’s not forget it has gone both ways. France’s help was instrumental in America becoming a free state in the first place during the Revolutionary War.

Ripping France doesn’t help anything, and only stokes distrust and hatred for a fellow democracy and deepens divisions between the two countries. It’s time to lay off the France-bashing and think about healing international schisms, not making them worse.