The statue of Confederate general Albert Pike was removed from federal park land in the core of Washington, D.C. in 2020. I wrote about this at the time and about the statue earlier.
Now, of course — big surprise — the Trump regime is working on restoring the statue to reinstall it in Washington.
This is about "historic preservation," they say.
At the same time, National Parks staff and visitors are asked to report signage at our parks that include content "negative about either past or living Americans."
We all know what that means: the true history of the U.S., which has only recently begun to be represented at the parks, can't be told. We have to have signs that promote Manifest Destiny and white supremacy. They want parks workers and MAGA visitors to snitch on signs about anything white people did that was bad (like genocide of Native people and enslaving African people).
For instance, the fact that George Washington kept his enslaved servants when he lived as president in Philadelphia would have to be erased from signage, because it disparages Washington. Washington also had his enslaved bodyman sleeping at his feet in the house where he overlooked the Hudson River to prevent a British invasion in the last 18 months of the Revolutionary War. I suppose that information will also have to go away. (The Hudson site is a state historic site rather than a national park, but you get the point.)
Because this regime is all about truth and historic preservation.
No comments:
Post a Comment