No one knows my name.

Forgotten hero: Exhibit honors Lafayette - Yahoo! News

And while hundreds of American counties, cities, squares, streets and schools bear the name Lafayette, how many people today could identify the Revolutionary War hero? "Not many," says Richard Rabinowitz, curator of a new exhibit on the Frenchman at the New-York Historical Society. "The American Revolution has ceased to be a story that we tell in our popular culture."

Here in Lafayette, Louisiana, we're celebrating Lafayette with a year-long series of events. Lafayette was an amazingly dedicated and idealistic man. It is a tragedy that America no longer fosters or honors such men.

I have heard that we got our town's name when the original Lafayette, Louisiana, then a part of New Orleans -- near Carrollton-- when that town gave up the name when it was incorporated into New Orleans proper. Before that, we were known as Vermilionville.

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