This proposal actually started 1-3 years ago. 50,000 had signed a petition back then. It increased to 600,000 this week.
There is a law in TN where you cannot rename until the person has been gone for 2 years. I highly suspect that will be changed next month.
God bless Dolly Parton. We will always love you.
Naming the airport of a great American city after a great American who recently passed to honor her legacy is not something you should be writing "let me explain my position" article about. It is just "yeah, great, of course, obviously." A lot of the "divisiveness" will fade away once we start doing that.
I like the identifier DPN better than DPI. DPN appears to be available with IATA, the FAA, and ICAO (KDPN). The N signals "Nashville" and hews to the phonetic character of "PartoN."
Joint Base Berry Field (co-located at the airport) would presumably keep its name. If the terminal doesn't have a name it seems appropriate to name it the Berry Terminal, keeping Col. Harry S. Berry's name attached to the airport in a meaningful way.
This is really tough for me. I was heartbroken over the loss of Dolly. Grew up to her music and her soul. A foundational influencer of my musical part of my life, to be sure. Loved her and nobody is more deserving.
Naming a building, landmark, road, national park, hospital, etc would be far more appropriate. Airports and their codes represent destinations - cities or regions that call people to go there. Not exactly sure about how BNA became the code for Nashville, but unless we're going to change the name of the city of Nashville to Dollywood or Dollyville, the airport name should not be changed. This is an opinion regardless of the individual or their background. I understand there is JFK in NYC, as well as Laguardia, both based off of named individuals, and there are others. Chicago O'Hare works because it combines the city and the person. Perhaps Nashville Dolly International? I'm sure there are better, but the destination should come first and be recognized internationally pointing to a destination. Despite her popularity not every traveler everywhere will have heard of her.
But in every other sense, I'm in the no-brainer camp, absolutely. There was no better human being among us than her. At least, I cannot think of one.