McKinley cannot catch a break. First, they took off his name from Mount McKinley during the Obama Administration on what is now known as Denali. Now towns like Arcata, California are moving to remove his statue as offensive to Native Americans. The use of Denali as the name for the mountain is understandable given its long usage by natives. However, the action in Arcara is the latest example of cleansing public areas of any historical images or figures deemed offensive by any group instead of placing these monuments into historical context.
I have been writing and speaking about the movement to remove statues that range from confederate leaders to Columbus to Supreme Court justices to Founders (here and here and here and here and here). I specifically wrote about the call for the removal of monuments to George Washington and others as the list lengthens of figures to be cleansed from public historical displays. I have a been a critic of this trend.
Despite his other redeeming qualities like seeking to abolish slavery and supporting African Americans in securing positions in government, Native Americans object to the territorial expansion of the United States under McKinley and the mistreatment of Native Americans. He was denounced as a symbol of “settler colonialism” of the period of expansion. Activist Chris Peters screamed “Put a rope around its neck and pull it down.”
As will come as little surprise on this blog, I view this as a wrong-headed and ahistorical decision by the town. As I have discussed in the media, this ever-widening movement to destroy historical monuments is occurring without any real debate or discussion. History is really neat. Historical figures are often deeply flawed individuals who lived in violent and oppressive times. We learn from history not by destroying its images but placing them into context. These are markers that represent the evolution of our society — not just our triumphs but failures.
McKinley, like many early historical figures, had a mixed record including failures. That is the context of such displays and a learning opportunity. He is also one of our presidents who gave his life in office. The picture below was taken just minutes before McKinley was assassinated Leon Czolgosz. Removing his statue is a disservice to him and to history.
Reblogged this on The Inquiring Mind and commented:
More rewriting of history, very 1984
The simple solution is to simply rename all McKinley monuments and landmarks with the appellation, Czolgosz, in honor of Leon Czolgosz. Problem solved. Except, a new problem emerges: How do you pronounce “Czolgosz?” On second thought, why don’t we leave well enough alone and focus on some real problems for a change?
Come in illegally by the many, multiple millions then tear America down, now that’s “assimilation!”
“La Raza” is invading California in its “Reconquista” campaign to return the American Southwest to Mexico. Democrats call this invasion “immigration.” What they really want is the whole country. The unintended, couterintuitive and illegal invasion by “immigration” of America is approaching its ultimate goal of “fundamentally transforming” America into third world “s—hole” and banana republic. You liberal communistic socialists keep it up and your goal of the disintegration of America will soon be “mission accomplished.” The parasites have won and the “massive bacterial infection” has reached “critical mass.” Why isn’t the infected body fighting back? What happened to patriotic Americans?
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“…the harmony of the ingredients is all-important, and whatever tends to a discordant intermixture must have an injurious tendency.”
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Alexander Hamilton –
“The influx of foreigners must, therefore, tend to produce a heterogeneous compound; to change and corrupt the national spirit; to complicate and confound public opinion; to introduce foreign propensities. In the composition of society, the harmony of the ingredients is all-important, and whatever tends to a discordant intermixture must have an injurious tendency.”
So when will this stop?
Answer: when the last vestiges of traditional Euro-American are eliminated.
Diversity means chasing down the last white person and destroying their history and culture.
And making them like it too!
ABSOLUTELY! I for one am gathering history books (pre- 1956) to be distributed to my family, friends and anyone that will take them upon my death.
Writhing to Representatives and demanding action when people destroy such historical references is all ways a thing to do.
The God awful truth is though, We don’t have enough legislators who care or, have the back bone to take action. Every state has criminal statutes that cover the destruction of Public Property. Why aren’t those people charged?
When they’re done with Euro-American culture, they’ll start in on each other. Whichever ethnic group ends up on top will be the next target. There’s always someone with more power, more money, more resources who becomes the target of the envious.
Diversity assuages the guilt of the guilty. Are you guilty?
If you’re not guilty, you don’t need diversity.
Diversity means “give me your money.”
Diversity is legalized robbery.
Legalized robbery is what Karl Marx and Joseph Stalin forcibly imposed.
We need to get rid of all monuments. Let’s start with Mount Rushmore. Then the Crazy Horse Memorial (fair is fair) and it is close by. We should close all National Parks and National Monuments.
You’ll make Ken Burns’ head explode.
DSS – Ken Burns smokes so much dope his head could never explode. 😉
The majority of Americans wanted and want community parks for the greater good. Oligarchy wants all property for themselves so that they can deny access to the 99%. Putin’s $2 bil. and the billions of his favored oligarchs would feed Russia’s people and, provide them with amenities.
Linda – for godsake stop with the macros.
Compassionate repatriation of Hamilton’s “heterogeneous compound” will do nicely.
“…the harmony of the ingredients is all-important, and whatever tends to a discordant intermixture must have an injurious tendency.”
Alexander Hamilton –
“The influx of foreigners must, therefore, tend to produce a heterogeneous compound; to change and corrupt the national spirit; to complicate and confound public opinion; to introduce foreign propensities. In the composition of society, the harmony of the ingredients is all-important, and whatever tends to a discordant intermixture must have an injurious tendency.”
JT Says…”…on what is now known as Denali. “, What is “Now” known as?. I’m sorry, it was known as Denali long before McKinley was a twinkle in his great grandfathers eye. Why do humans have to go around always changing the names of geographical features?
Spent some time in Eureka (next town over from Arcata).
I ran the last pulp mill in California and had to live with the California regulations and the Humboldt County Pinkos. Finally we had enough and sold the mill to the Chinese (they ran it for two years and stiffed everybody). The shuttered remains of the mill and the 400 unemployed pulp workers (the highest hourly wage in Humboldt County) are a testimony to the stupidity of those people.
I believe California is ranked 47th in the nation in public education. Our most populous state is producing morons for citizens, all with access to the franchise. And since our political class is a reflection of their constituents…
Currently, the political class reflects the preferences of the richest 0.1%. Read Princeton Prof. Gilens’ research about oligarchy’s replacement for democracy.
Who would be favored in California? I just cannot imagine. Maybe Forest Gump. Or Jack Mehoff.
The ironic aspect of all this cleansing of history is that eventually there will be no vestiges of the ignoble, racist, bigoted, genocidal, piratical, colonial, etc, elements that went into creating the United States. Without the reminders politicians will pander to the America that was never as it was but as it appears in a John Wayne western or a Mel Gibson war movie. We have all seen how lies and snake oil tactics can place an idiot in the White House. This must be an aberration, not the norm.
Americans, as do all peoples, need the reminders of just how ‘bad’ a human being can be under a flag of self centric designs. These reminders, elaborated with cast bronze explanations of the true meaning of the slaughter of the Civil War, conquest of the West, etc. and referenced in the education of every citizen, should serve to educate future Americans as to the direction of ideal social evolution. Without understanding our potential for evil we might revert to that squeaky clean quasi fascist society of the fifties and sixties that spawned the revolution that changed America for the better. Remember when it was separate and equal, my country right or wrong, the White Man’s burden, anybody who advocated equality was a commie pinko, etc. America has been slowly evolving out of that frightened, defensive, and backward state. It has a long way to go but whether or not it is leading the world or catching up with other more socially evolved nations, the absolute worst move to make is to ‘cleanse history’. “Man perishes because he fails to join the beginning with the end.” Some Greek said that, Heraclitus, I think.
“We have all seen how lies and snake oil tactics can place an idiot in the White House.”
And here I thought you loved the rock star Obama.
The incredible lameness of your retort mirrors your hero Trump and the present downward spiral. There is no comparison between the credibility and lack thereof of Obama and the homogenized scumbaggery of Trump. Obama was naive and some of what he said he’d do, he didn’t, equalling lies to some. Trump’s life has been one entire charade of privilege, narcissism, pathological lying, buffoonery, and self gratification.
We don’t know what Obama’s whole life has been, as he sealed it all up. But of course, you’re fine with that, right?
No, we just don’t have his college transcripts. There was adequate material for Stanley Kurtz to write a critical biography.
The thing about the Obamas is that they’ve been handsomely compensated to be placeholders. There just isn’t a whole lot of there there.
“handsomely compensated” is correct. Guy takes a job that pays about $250K/year, and comes out a multi-millionaire.
FFS
‘Guy takes a job that pays about $250K/year, and comes out a multi-millionaire.’
How about self made man, editor of the Harvard Law Review, Senator, elected by a majority of America voters to be their President, Black in a country still substantially racist, intelligent, well mannered, respected by world leaders, etc, etc, etc. As opposed to a narcissistic, lying, cheating, bankrupting, born to wealth, privilege, and connections, womanizing, bone spurring, non payer of bills, sack of sh*t, that has made America the laughing stock of the same ilk as third world dictatorships. And you begrudge Obama any money he can make going for it and winning.
issac – there are two ways to get on the Harvard Law Review, one the professors select the top students, two the students select their peers. The editor is then selected by the students selected for the Review. In this case, it was a closed session 8-hour meeting
He was ‘President’ of the law review at Harvard, elected by the other staff. IIRC, it’s an office-political position which has no analogue at other academic law reviews. He wasn’t the editor.
He isn’t a self-made man. He never founded a business. He was a child of the professional-managerial class who went to college and professional school and was licensed to practice law. He only practiced for about three years. He was a (p/t) lecturer at the University of Chicago, but published nothing in that time. He sat in legislatures for 10 years, but is an identified maven in no area of policy. Dilettante, really. He missed his true calling: local TV news anchor. His grandmother, who had a satisfactory career in banking on the strength of her high school diploma, you could argue was self-made, though I think she came from a bourgeois background.
Per Steven Sailer, financial disclosure forms indicate he and Mooch were sinking deeper and deeper into debt until sales of The Audacity of Mope and Screams at My Father took off. Without a doubt, Mooch’s employment and compensation at the University of Chicago was a means of buying influence. So, yes, they’ve been grafteurs for some time, but not wealthy grafteurs.
So Comrade I can see that you have memorized your lessons well. My family has defended the Constitution which protects our Declaration of Independence since 1776 and in each conflict thereafter. We have shed wealth and blood in the defense of liberty. We believe in our natural rights and that as a nation we share a history that has freed millions from slavery and bondage. You are nothing but a thug communist who spews lies and mocks those who love liberty and have defended it. Your exposed!!!
Pass the borscht and get off the government teat. More likely your family are low achievers whose only chance of employment is as fodder for our gubment,
YNOT, My family consist of farmers, miners, building trades, steel workers, several teachers, Nuns and laborers, law enforcement. All of my grandchildren have achieved Bachelor’s degrees and no one has ever been on welfare. We own property, pay taxes and vote! We also carry guns and clutch our bibles! We are the Americans the left fears!
As will come as little surprise on this blog, I view this as a wrong-headed and ahistorical decision by the town. As I have discussed in the media, this ever-widening movement to destroy historical monuments is occurring without any real debate or discussion.
It’s blowhards marking their territory and demanding gestures of deference. They should all be told to go hang.
Previous generations had accomplishments. Chris Peters is a professional nuisance, whose skill lies in persuading donors to grant him an income for being a pest.
http://www.7genfund.org/chris-peters
Are there any rank-and-file Indians the least bit interested in this, or is it just the usual vocational loudmouths?
That aside, this is stupid. McKinley was inaugurated in 1897. The frontier was closed at that point. White settlers were entering Oklahoma, which had previously been set aside as a reservation for Indians, but that had been ongoing for 8 years when McKinley took office and was not an initiative of his administration.
Insufferable,
You could make an opportunity to meet the individuals you describe as “rank and file Indians”, rank and file Black people, and rank and file women, etc. Through varying means, the feelings of “rank and file White men”, collectively or individually, are known to them.
Turley states “first they took off the name … … On what is now known as Denali.”
Wikipedia states: “the Koyutkon people who inhabit the area around the mountain have referred to the peak as “Denali” for CENTURIES. In 1886, a gold prospector named it MM … that name was official US gov from 1917 to 2015. In August 2015, following the 1975 lead of the state of Alaska, … The US changed the official name of the mountain to Denali.
We should change it back. There are 2,300 Koyukons. If they wish to continue calling the mountain ‘Denali’, no one is stopping them.
How many descendants does McKinley have? Plus as many names as you have had, I am surprised your not in favor of AKAs.
… you are …
https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/artifact/s-5716-act-establish-mount-mckinley-national-park-territory-alaska-january-10
It’s a reasonable wager that this Act was approved with the assent of > 280 members of Congress. All of my great-grandfathers were alive and well in 1917. I think between them they have about 120 living descendants, so I’m guessing that those in Congress who approved this bill have > 8,000 living descendants, give or take.
Rewriting history. It is what revisionists such as Hitler, Stalin and other socialists do.
Correct.
I do not condone the removal of monuments. Nevertheless, they are singling out a very minor player when it comes to harsh treatment of Native Americans. The three major antagonists of Native Americans were: William Tecumseh Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, and Andrew Jackson; probably in that order.
Grant appointed Sherman Commander of the Army in 1869. He was tasked with protecting the Transcontinental Railroad and with opening the West up to settlement. Sherman, architect of the scorched earth policy used against the Southern States, carried that philosophy with him out West. After all, that policy made him a Union hero. When Sherman took command there were an estimated 30-60 million buffalo roaming the plains. Sherman believed that the key to subjugating Native Americans on the Plains was to eliminate their main food supply. In response, the U.S. Army threw its support and protection behind civilian hunters, who headed west to slaughter buffalo. Though the U.S. Army itself never conducted an organized hunt, it allowed and encouraged soldiers and civilians to kill huge numbers of animals. Sherman used the Army to escort hide hunters as they carried out their grisly task. Four years later, in 1873, buffalo were nearly extinct. Sherman then proceeded to implement part II of his plan – forcing the Plains Indians onto reservations. Today, there is a Sherman Plaza in Washington DC where a statue pays tribute to Sherman. There is also a statue honoring Sherman in New York’s Central Park. I’m confident they know that their Grand Army of the Republic hero was a butcher in the South where it was socially acceptable to do so but how many know he did the same thing out West on a larger and more devastating scale?
Good old Ulysses S. Grant. He was the leader that appointed Sherman and approved his plans. Why not? He approved of what Sherman did in the South. Grant was the architect of the plan to remove the Sioux from the Black Hills. He was the President that approved of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s attacks on the Plains tribes and he orchestrated the forced relocation of the Plains Indians onto reservations. The number of cities and counties named after Grant and the monuments to him are too numerous to mention.
Andrew Jackson sought annihilation of Native Americans in the Southeast. His actions were so brutal in Alabama, that David Crockett (he never used the name Davy – that was a Walt Disney invention) and his fellow Tennessee volunteers threatened to abandon Jackson and return home. Jackson pursued the Seminoles in Florida as well. The Indian Removal Act was passed under Jackson’s administration. The “Trail of Tears” was a series of Native American forced relocations that began under Jackson when the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Creek Indians were resettled from the Southeast to Oklahoma. Ironically, the Cherokee assisted Jackson in the Creek Indian Wars. For their service, Jackson showed his gratitude by relocating them as well.
Don’t get me wrong. These guys had broad support from the public for their action against Native Americans. Had I been living back then, I would have probably joined the crowd and supported them as well. Hind sight is 20/20. My point in posting this is to emphasize that when people begin removing historical monuments, it might never end. By the way, there were plenty of Native Americans equally guilty of atrocities and most sided with the French and British against the colonists.
“My point in posting this is to emphasize that when people begin removing historical monuments, it might never end.”
It will end when they’ve cleansed history to look as they wish it to be.
Very good points, Blaine. I agree with you that the atrocities committed by these 3 against the South were and are totally excused. The South is not a pet identity group for the Left.
I’m just wondering if these folks will ever run out of things to be offended by???
There are no ‘Native Americans’. The colonization of what we identify as North America occurred approximately between 12,000 to 15,000 years ago by way of the Beringia land bridge which had formed between northeastern Siberia and western Alaska due to the lowering of sea level during the Last Glacial Maximum. Recent discoveries show that a Pacific colonization had also taken place along the west coast of the Americas . Your ‘Native Americans’ are really Africans, Serbians and Austronesian people. In all cases they where a violent people who survived through conquest and expansion. The Europeans who came later did what they had done themselves and many of them helped the new peoples. Take a course in ‘DNA’ studies and watch how quickly what you thought was truth is not.
Your ‘Native Americans’ are really Africans, Serbians and Austronesian people.
You’re confused. Australoid populations are not African and Serbia emerged as a distinct place only in the Medieval period.
Truth to that but 10000 years from now will any of these figures matter. Why not allow current mores determine who to venerate? I am not celebrating Ceasar’s birthday.
Those of you old enough to be familiar with Carnac the Magnificent May be able to confirm whether Carnac was able to predict the question that precede the following answer: “Mt. McKinley”
The question:” What was Mrs. McKinley’s favorite pastime?”
Bet there won’t be any controversy about Trump statues.
What Trump statues?
Those at mental health facilities.
Then you’ll have a front row seat.
🙂
BTW- Oiley-
I call foul, on behalf of GOP strategist Benjamin Sparks (Scott Walkers campaign) . Commenters defend Trump but, not Sparks.
A really really bad idea. I hope nobody brings this particular lesson home; we will end up abolishing monuments.
What town? Where? When? How many of the litigants are indigenes? How many are only college professor puffs and snowflake students getting extra credit instead of passing exams? Let’s find out?
OK First bit of information It’s Arcata, California home of … you guessed it, a California University.
Not much information and as a non profit no financial information nor number of members….
Nothing in wikpedia. ….
Finally Wikpedia to the rescue ..
William McKinley statue (Patigian) – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley_statue_(Patigian)
The statue, located in the middle of the Arcata Plaza, is in the center of the town’s cultural activity. The statue has been embroiled in controversy in Arcata, a liberal college town in Humboldt County, California, since the 1970s.”
They are also demanding the town to the North of Arcata change it’s name.
McKinley is famous for ….being an expansionest picking up Puerto Rico, Guam, Phillipines but although Cuba and Mexico were involved declined to annex either one. Followed by Teddy Roosevelt the self described first progressive President and in 1909 Woodrow Wilson the first official progressive President who reinstated the draft (from Lincolns days) took the country to war in three place. WWI Europe and Both Russia and Siberian Russia thus beginning the Century of the Great Socialist Wars.
Certainly a historical figure.