The editors of the Wall Street Journal remark on the DC City Council’s wish to remove references to Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Francis Scott Key, Alexander Graham Bell, and James Monroe as “problematic”:
Many backers of the summer’s protest movement say they want to perfect the Founding principles, not demolish them—and that they support the removal of Confederate statues for that reason. That’s the image Democrats presented at their national convention. If it’s true, then Biden Democrats should be the first to blast the district’s efforts to dishonor the people who created the Constitution they are sworn to protect.
I have a couple of modest proposals of my own:
- Abolish the DC city government. Congress should shoulder its constitutional responsibility of governing the federal district directly itself.
- Residence within the district should be prohibited. That would solve the DC statehood problem, too. It was never intended to be a highly populous city.
I don’t think there’s any reason for a separate DC anymore. So many of the federal government’s offices and functions have spilled outside its borders. There’s really no need in the modern world for it anymore. I would just make it part of Maryland.
Make it smaller—just the Capitol, the White House, and surrounding areas, make the area non-residential, cede the remainder to Maryland.
Franklin was a slaveowner, but he become an abolitionist — is he guilty of a sort of original sin; that no repentance can cleanse?
That’s the point. If “no repentance can cleanse” the only alternative is divorce. You can’t escape your history.
‘That’s the point. If “no repentance can cleanse†the only alternative is divorce. You can’t escape your history.’
No, the only alternative is the memory hole. Both Hoffer and Orwell discussed how revolutionary fanatics try to erase the past and denigrate the present in order to promote a utopian future which never arrives. We had a recent example of it in what ‘Democratic’ Kampuchea tried to do with Khmer history and culture.
‘Democratic’ Kampuchea tried to do with Khmer history and culture.
But you know how those people are. This is America. That can’t happen here,,,, right?
That doesn’t work. History is in everything—the language, your clothing, the food that you eat, habits you’re not even aware of. There is never an end to the purges.