Whitewash in every sense
A week after taking down signs at Independence National Historical Park referencing George Washington’s ownership of slaves, the National Park Service has been ordered to remove signs and displays pertaining to climate change and Native Americans at a handful of national parks in the West.
“The moves are the latest actions by the Trump administration to whitewash and sanitize history at National Park Service sites by removing or changing signage about slavery, climate change, Native Americans, transgender rights, and other issues,” the Sierra Club said Tuesday in a statement.
[How did “transgender rights” get in there? What can such undefined rights have to do with national parks?]
“The Trump administration continues to politicize our national parks by censoring facts to sell a sanitized version of history. Removing signage about slavery, climate change, and Native Americans doesn’t change history,” said Gerry James, deputy director of the Sierra Club’s Outdoors for All campaign.
No random mention of “trans rights” – was that just thrown in at the top because it’s Forbidden to not mention trans something?
The administration shortly after taking office a year ago ordered a review of signage and displays in the National Park System to ensure they were in line with President Donald Trump’s bid to ensure that “interpretive materials … ensure accuracy, honesty, and alignment with shared national values,”
Nope nope nope. Not accuracy, not honesty. Vanity, hostility, alignment with trumpian politics.
Signage and displays reportedly targeted in this order include information pertaining to the slowly disappearing glaciers in Glacier National Park in Montana due to climate change and interpretive panels at Grand Canyon National Park explaining how Native Americans were displaced from the area.
Maybe Trump should go pay a long visit in Germany, and while there he should urge Merz to get rid of any and all interpretive panels at the death camps.
The display removed last week from the President’s House at Independence National Historical Park depicted individuals who had been enslaved by George Washington, along with a timeline detailing the history of slavery in America. Washington and John Adams both resided at the site during their presidencies.
John Adams on the other hand did not enslave anyone. The fact that Washington (and Jefferson and others) did is important and of interest. Yes it’s a downer, but it’s a necessary downer.
He might also consider, while he is at it, including Germany into the US. By that stage, he will have grabbed Greenland, Canada, and Venezuela: (think of them as ‘pussies’) so he will be a dab hand at it, so to speak.
And he is also removing mention of the history of women, but no one felt the need to include that in the list of those impacted by the removal of history from the National Park Service. I suspect it would be more likely that there would be plaques relevant to things women did than that there would be plaques for trans, but hey, we can’t say the dirtiest five letter word in the English language, right? Not in this case where it isn’t relevant, no, but not in the cases where it is, either.
He is? Tell us more!
I’m finding more. Jeezus. I seem to have missed this last year.