The continued erasure of America’s historic statues continues under President Joe Biden. Late last year, a statue dedicated to reconciliation between the northern and southern states was removed from Arlington National Cemetery after a brief hold was placed on the removal by a judge.
Now, it’s the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, who is being cancelled.
The Penn statue that sits atop his historic home site will be removed from the property, according to the U.S. Park Service. In its place, more memorials to American Indians will be installed.
Penn was a Quaker who came to America to avoid religious persecution in England. By most accounts, he was a stellar advocate for democracy, justice, and fairness to indigenous people.
“The National Park Service proposes to rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors. Welcome Park was designed by the internationally acclaimed design firm Venturi & Scott Brown Associates. The park is located on the site of William Penn’s home, the Slate Roof House, and is named for the ship, Welcome, which transported Penn to Philadelphia. The design and construction of Welcome Park was funded by the Independence Historical Trust and was completed in 1982,” the Park Service said.
The proposed “rehabilitation” of Welcome Park includes “expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia and was developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma,” according to the agency.
“The reimagined Welcome Park maintains certain aspects of the original design such as the street grid, the rivers and the east wall while adding a new planted buffer on three sides, and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches. The Penn statue and Slate Roof house model will be removed and not reinstalled. In a separate and future effort, new exhibit panels will be installed on the south site wall to replace the Penn timeline,” the Park Service said.
Penn befriended local Indians and ensured that they were paid fairly for their lands. He learned several Indian dialects in order to negotiate land deals without interpreters. Penn introduced laws in the colony that guaranteed that if an Indian was wronged by a European settler, there around be a fair trial, with both Indians and Europeans in equal numbers on the jury.
“Penn chose to acquire lands for his colony through business rather than conquest. He paid the Indians 1200 pounds for their land under the treaty, an amount considered fair, according to ushistory.org. “Voltaire praised this ‘Great Treaty’ as ‘the only treaty between those people [Indians and Europeans] that was not ratified by an oath, and that was never infringed.'”
The public is invited to submit comments on the proposed design for the “rehabilitation” of Welcome Park for a 14-day period from Jan-21, 2024, through the National Park Service’s Planning, Environment and Public Comment at https://parkplanning.nps.gov.
Comments submitted through social media, phone calls, email or mail will not be accepted.
Time to defend the park service
defund?
Penn? Really?
Grandpa Bloodstains (his handlers, actually) really hate this country.
Trump could score a lot of voters by promising to return statues to their rightful place.
Those not destroyed, that is.
Lack of statues is not why I won’t vote for him if on the ballot.
I hope Trump restores all of our history by executive order on day 1 when he’s re-elected. All historical statues need to be put back. History is history; good, bad or indifferent. You cannot change the past.
I like the way you think.
Fair point history is history. But statues are not history. You can choose to educate with public monument, and shine a light on untold history at school.
If “statues are not history”, Mo, then why is your side — the anti-American, pro-globalist, radical leftist extremist side — so damned determined to tear them down?
The dishonesty and disingenuousness of the radical leftist knows no bounds.
It’s just a matter of time they go after the Founders.
You didn’t really believe they were just going after Confederate symbols, did you?
And, with the statues is the US Constitution which reminds me, strongly, that Barack Obama hated the US Constitution, trampled all over any law under the Constitution and as I recalled, was for immigration for law breakers and sharia law, mostly illegal. That was at a time when he did not hide being a Muslim as he does today. Today, he became a Christian for whatever purpose that gives him. So, we know that Biden has close relations with Obama and could very well be the person whose ideas are still in the works to destroy the US Constitution with Biden’s power as the President.
DK. Sharia law? Never happened. You’ve been fooled. You like being fooled.
They already have. George Washington, Abe Lincoln, etc. Just Google it.
They alreadyHave been. You’re late!!
Sooo, after getting rid of the statue, will they next want to rename the state? Instead of Pennsylvania, they might prefer Transylvania. Yeah, they might like that one.
They’d get one vote from King Charles III of England who apparently owns the castle in Transylvania!
We I want all statues and political names removed from all public places. No more recognizing any names from famous people, politicians or movement leaders. Do way with all naming.
Remember when they tell us they aren’t trying to erase history by removing history, they are in fact trying to erase history. Remember when they tell us they aren’t banning gas stoves by banning stoves, they are in fact trying to ban gas stoves. Remember when they tell us they are the only hope to preserve democracy while removing your choices, they are in fact trying to destroy democracy.
Democrats and the far left are gaslighting America at virtually every opportunity.
They are proven liars.
So very true!!! I think we should also “remember” that this may also be a strategic tactic to whip up an emotional outburst to further exercise potential lockdowns, suspending elections, implementation of this digital dollar with associated social scores, more intrusive censorship and monitoring of what they plan to classify as extreme citizens.
……
Sounds somewhat conspiratorial until it’s later to be found real and truth!
What gullible and ignorant radical leftists like to call “conspiracy theories” are in truth nowadays mostly just “spoiler alerts”.
George Carlin once observed, “You don’t need a formal conspiracy when interests converge.”
Carlin’s observation about human behavior, power structures, and societal dynamics calls attention to the subtle ways in which shared interests can lead to aligned actions without explicit coordination. In societal structures, it’s common to assume that organized, covert plans (or conspiracies) underlie certain outcomes or events. When different entities have shared objectives or can benefit from a particular outcome, they may independently act in ways that, when viewed collectively, appear organized and planned. Such convergence is not necessarily the result of secret meetings or nefarious plots; it can simply arise from a mutual, often unspoken, alignment of interests. An alignment of shared ideology would also suffice.
Well said. And amazingly, it works on about half the country. Communism 101, re-education starting in grade school.
17 slave holders signed the Constitution, it’s gotta go.
This administration will not stop until we stop them. For those of you who do not vote, shame on you! For those of you who do vote and choose the Extreme Left way of looking at things, shame on you for not being educated and that is on you. Learn the History of this beautiful country, how are freedoms were won and how we were founded on Judeo Christian beliefs and if you are still bent on the Extreme Left, go visit or live in countries that are truly that way and have been for a while. You will learn to appreciate what we have here in the U.S.A. We have the ability to vote out the Extreme Left parts of this country and we better use that ability this year!
Agree! But, that statement … “This administration will not stop until we stop them” could potentially be a very dark time whereby dark measures are justified and/or exercised!!!
Are there enough of the citizenry ready to go there?
They are chomping at the bit to tear down the constitution as quickly as possible.
I’m all for honoring our indigenous peoples. 100% they deserve to be honored and remembered. Why does doing so require the removal of a remembrance of William Penn? Is it not historically accurate to have both parties represented? Cannot they coexist in the same park?
This is crazy!
Been tired of the Nazi Park Ciecus for several years now.
William Penn was America’s first billionaire and way more honorable than most with the title today.
Part of my childhood was growing up in “Penn’s Woods”…N.E. Pennsylvania… Montrose. William Penn negotiated for acquiring the land with the Indians. He purchased the land. No theft. Purchased. His evil faults…. White and Christian… Quaker at that! This is the absolute lowest of the low by tribes that are now “Indian Takers”.
Next up: the melting down of the Liberty Bell, to recast it into a statue in honor of all the historic trans-gendered differently abled non-cis-binary Native Americans of color.
“The National Park Service” is a British corporation. Of course they are going to throw their weight around.
Remember when William penn was an advocate for democracy and religious freedom?
Pepperidge farms remembers.
…….and Biden brags about being born in Scranton, PA. I bet Trump takes Pennsylvania in a landslide.
Joe Biden is a complete derelict. Just like his son Hunter.
Why couldn’t the Park Service just add some statues of famous Indians? This wholesale removal of statues is just the first part of completely re-writing our history. If the statues are not there it is so much easier to just write whoever they represented completely out of history. It makes me wonder when they will go after the veterans’ cemeteries. History is history whether good or bad. Time to tell it all so revolutionaries like those in power cannot get away with the erasure of all they disagree with.
But if you read history books, native Americans had slaves and killed each other. isn’t that a woke sin?
Can’t say the same for his descendants, but William Penn was definitely an early fighter for human rights. He honored the fair treaties with the Indian peoples, which gave fair value and forever hunting rights for the properties until he was cheated out of his own claims by greedy people in power. He gave land grants to the Poor Palentine German farmer immigrants who were then treated worse than slaves by the colonies because of their dark skin and seemingly inability to assimilate. The colonists sent in English settlers to drive them from their farms and lay claim to the land they had developed and drive out the peaceful Indians. By killing them.
His may well have been the first efforts to in the new forming country to end slavery and discrimination. A short research will reveal that that this true believer of God should always remembered well. Or maybe moderns have rewritten history to suit their agenda. Try a book instead of the internet, it can be enlightening.
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