The Interior Department asks society members to identify and report content in the Independence National Historical Park, which they think shows the United States in a “negative” lightweight when the administration of President Donald Trump takes steps to review or remove materials to understand the history of breed in America.
The Trump administration is currently considering whether to remove displays referring to the history of slavery in INHP after they were marked by employees during a review caused by Trump executive order.
Without them, the walls in Independence Hall would look completely different.
After entering the Inhp campsite to the market Street “House & The People WHO, Pracow in it” is the first marking of visitors, on the eastern wall of the president’s home place, where the presidents of George Washington and John Adams lived. It provides “a short schedule of freedom and slavery on this page.”
“These pages are important because they illustrate that black people have been in the city since its foundation. The black story of Philly is actually older than Philadelphia itself,” said South Philly, Mijuel Johnson, the organizer of the community who travels a black journey: African American History walking tour with stops in society and independence hall.
“The earliest black people arrived just two years after the foundation of the city in 1682. But the presence of African in the Philadelphia region as early as 1639.”
Laminated paper characters displaying QR code, which leads to the online feedback formAnd the compact paragraph of the instructions is stationed at INHP places, including Holorts Bell and Independence Hall.
They encourage society to provide feedback about areas around the park that require repair or improvements of services, and also ask for comments on “all signs or other information that is negative about past or living Americans or do not emphasize the beauty, size and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.”
Executive ordinance of Trump, issued in March, calls, among others, the internal secretary of Douga Burgum to provide all public monuments, monuments, statues, markers and other real estate “do not contain descriptions, performances or other content that incorrectly discredit the past or living Americans (including people living in colonial times)”, and instead promote the American “greatness” and “progress”.
Burgum published Directive in May application Plans to carry out Trump’s order and call to “encourage society to participate” by marking “in so many locations in each property, how much necessary and appropriate to ensure public awareness.” It also provides the language of QR code characters.
Hall Independence Hall is where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the USA has been debated and signed and is considered the birthplace of American democracy. Millions They come from visitors to INHP places, including Liberty Bell and the president’s website.
Spokesmen of the Interior Department and Public Affairs Office of the National Park said in a statement that Trump’s executive ordinance “strengthens our commitment to the story of the full and accurate history of the past of our nation.”
They added that public applications were closed on July 18, but the signs were still used in Independence, and Bell Liberty from Friday morning, and the last notification of visitors comes from July 21.
But at INHP, Trump administration officials do not receive as much aid from society as they may want.
“It’s not only frustrating, it’s outrageous”
Only 13 comments were received via QR codes at INHP from June 13 to July 21, in accordance with the database of public comments sent through the code, obtained and checked by Inquirer.
None of the comments concluded complaints regarding the content of the site in Independence; In fact, several applications were highly complementary for the trip and employees.
“What upset me the most in the museum – primarily on real exhibits – were signs talking to people to report everything that they think was negative about Americans. This is not only frustrating, this is outrageous,” wrote one person. “I felt like an open invitation to the police and attacking historians for simply doing a job: telling the truth.”
Johnson, who travels from 50 to 100 people from around the world every week, said that he did not see any of his customers of the code scanning.
If the signs are removed, Johnson said: “We lose the full perspective of Philadelphia’s history.”
“What defines the American size is the values it tells,” he said, “but also understanding that it has not always fully met its ideals.”
If the truth “ends, making America look bad,” he said: “Well, it’s because America did some bad things.”
Visitors in IHP were deeply dissatisfied with the perspective that the materials can be assessed.
A resident of Pennsauken, Nancy Sullivan, often visiting the park, said that the review process is “terrifying”.
On Friday, she visited the president’s website to take pictures in case the exhibition panels were removed. He says that the story of slavery “is not something that can be removed.”
“We know that these things existed,” she said. “This does not mean that we are not a great country.”
The park service can always teach more about the black and indigenous history and history of women (the President’s House side was devoted only in 2010), Johnson said: “But the basic intentions of this administration are not teaching history, not teaching it better, but whitening it, literally and portable.”
On Thursday, the father and son of Colin and Colin Martin, visiting Seattle, stopped at Independence Hall on the way to Cooperstown, New York, to see how older Martin said, “where everything was created in the United States.”
He thought that the exhibits’ sentence would be a “terrible idea.”
“The story of suppressing has never been good,” added his son, a recent graduate of College.
US representative Brendan Boyle, a democrat who represents the area, which includes Inhp, said in a statement that “instead of censor the history of America, the administration should give InHP the support needed to present the history and ideals of our nation, especially in our upcoming 250th anniversary.”
“Dog whistle”
The disadvantage of guests in other national parks in the region.
10 comments were received in Valley Forge and only one – it concerns sexuality speculation Gene. Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who helped transform and professionalize the American army in the 1870s – focused on the content of the exhibits. The internal commentary of the park staff says that “he will advise employees in a timely manner to discuss”.
Gettysburg National Military Park, a place of key battle The Civil War and the eminent address of President Abraham Lincoln had 25 reports from visitors.
Several of them came from public opinion members who want the confederate General Robert E. Lee and his army to be marked as traitors. Park employee recorded in the internal database on two of these comments that “the use of the term” traitor “can be considered incorrectly discredit against the group in violation [Burgum’s order]”And” The use of the term “traitor” to describe the general Lee can be considered improperly discrediting to the individual. This is an excessive simplification of difficult decisions made by leaders during the Civil War. “
Lee was accused of treason Through the Federal Grand Jury a few weeks after the end of the Civil War, although the case finally did not go to the trial, because the administration of President Andrew Johnson priority treated national reconciliation after the war.
Gettysburg employees “also marked a review” monument that the park’s staff says “loves” “lost cause” A myth that romanticizes the confederation and disregards the role of slavery in the civil war.
The spokesmen of the Interior Department and the Public Affairs Office of the National Park said in an identical statement that any public feedback is checked and evaluated by hand before being sent to the subject expert.
“This deliberate process helps to ensure that the contribution we act is both important and credible,” we read in the statement.
After returning to Philadelphia, Ed Welch, president of the local 2058 employees of the American Government Federation, who represents employees at the National Park Service in Philadelphia, including IHNP, said that “this is not a purpose of obtaining negative comments about every park in the country.”
“These bar codes are a whistle for dogs,” he added.
Ariana Perez-Castells, a staff writer, contributed to this article.
