Tonight the President has issued a new Executive Order that identifies the Smithsonian and the National Park Service as deceptively depicting American history.
The new Executive Order identifies the so-called incorrect ideology rampant at the Smithsonian:
“Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth. This revisionist movement seeks to undermine the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light. Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed. Rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame, disregarding the progress America has made and the ideals that continue to inspire millions around the globe.”
Several of the Smithsonian museums present our nation’s history. I went to two of the museums in the last year, the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of American History. Both were outstanding. They each retold the story of America in an professional manner which included aspects that most Americans could be proud of without overlooking the racism, violence, and dissention that have also characterized our history. The history of the Civil War cannot be told without the fact that 650,000 men died at the hands of other Americans. Realistic history is not just to make “us proud,” but to recount the past and learn both good and bad from the record of history.
The next section of the Executive Order discusses what the president sees as a major besmirching of America’s past at the site in Philadelphia where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was drawn up. Of course, as you all know, this site is not part of the Smithsonian. It must be directed at the National Park Service. Here is what the Executive Order says:
” At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — where our Nation declared that all men are created equal — the prior administration sponsored training by an organization that advocates dismantling “Western foundations” and “interrogating institutional racism” and pressured National Historical Park rangers that their racial identity should dictate how they convey history to visiting Americans because America is purportedly racist.”
Having been to Independence National Park, which is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service, not the Smithsonian, just a few years ago, I did not hear any rangers talking about dismantling “Western foundations.” They did note that while the Declaration made a bold statement on behalf of freedom for everyone, it was drawn up in a country-being-born which still had slavery. I don’t see that as distorting the past at all.
The next section of the Executive Order says that the Smithsonian has come under the influence of a “divisive, race centered ideology”:
“Once widely respected as a symbol of American excellence and a global icon of cultural achievement, the Smithsonian Institution has, in recent years, come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology. This shift has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive. For example, the Smithsonian American Art Museum today features “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” an exhibit representing that “[s]ocieties including the United States have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.” The exhibit further claims that “sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism” and promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct, stating “Race is a human invention.””
The author of the Executive Order, Donald Trump, objects to the Smithsonian for saying that “race is not a biological fact.” So race should be presented as something determined by nature? He also objects to the Smithsonian for saying that “Race is a human invention.” Considering that 125 years ago, many Americans thought that people from Ireland and Italy were of a different race than those descended from people from England shows that race is not biologically determined. In addition, most states classified people of mixed parentage in which one parent was Black and the other was white as being Black even though they had as much European “blood” as African. Doesn’t this support the approach of the Smithsonian in saying that race is a human construct?
The Executive Order continues:
“It is the policy of my Administration to restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums, to solemn and uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing. Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn — not to be subjected to ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives that distort our shared history.”
The Smithsonian does a remarkable of telling its visitors about the greatness of American history, but it also tells where we failed. Can you really tell American history without mentioning slavery or the Jim Crow laws that were enacted after the end of Reconstruction? Can you recount America’s military history without mentioning the Civil War or the wars against the Plains Indians?
The Vice President is charged with carrying out the policies outlined in the Executive Order. He is to “prohibit expenditure on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with Federal law and policy…”
The Executive Order also gives a command to the Secretary of the Interior, head of the National Park System, to restore a pre-1960s version of American history including the restoration of Confederate statues and the elimination of signage that contains references to racial or gender discrimination:
“(i) determine whether, since January 1, 2020, public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology;
(ii) take action to reinstate the pre-existing monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties, as appropriate and consistent with 43 U.S.C. 1451 et seq., 54 U.S.C. 100101 et seq.,and other applicable law; and
(iii) take action, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to ensure that all public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties within the Department of the Interior’s jurisdiction do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), and instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance, and grandeur of the American landscape.”
This is not how modern United States presidents of either party have behaved. They have not tried to create a reinterpretation of our past to only show America doing good things. That is not history, it is propaganda.
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We have seen the way DoD websites and other agency museums have been purged of history that has nothing to do with “DEI”. Now they’re coming for the big public history entities. It’s dystopian and this administration shouldn’t be trusted to do it.
Vance is the same person who said this:
“American history is a constant war between Northern Yankees and Southern Bourbons, where whichever side the hillbillies are on, wins, and that’s kind of how I think about American politics today, is like, the Northern Yankees are now the hyper-woke, coastal elites. The Southern Bourbons are sort of the same old-school Southern folks that have been around and influential in this country for 200 years. And it’s like the hillbillies have really started to migrate towards the Southern Bourbons instead of the Northern woke people. That’s just a fundamental thing that’s happening in American politics.”
I knew this was going to come down – Down the Memory Hole – Geo. Orwell knew the West was just as susceptible to censorship as the SU. The VP as ‘historian”??? Here is a guy that that says, schools are just a ‘fact of life’…. his perceptions are not acceptable…
Just to the left/east of the picture and a little north virtually behind the spire you see is the fords theatre which is run by the national park services for the government.
This is where Abraham Lincoln was killed by ancestors of joe Biden ,Donald trump, Elon musk and j d Vance and John Wilkes booth.
Who was not at Fords theatre. Lincoln was killed by the relations of the above by British royalty to whom they were all related.
35 miles north east in the circuit court another relative of John Wilkes booth ,
Was Judge Joseph herbst Kaplan who ruled that the claimed vertibrae of John Wilkes booth could not be dna tested.
About 1.5 miles south south east is what is now fort McNair is where the conspirators trial was held of Lincoln’s assassination. Every judge and witness of that trial were related to John Wilkes booth and British royalty.
They were all also related to the Garrett’s of Garrett’s farm.
In that trial those judges related to John Wilkes booth claimed that booth was dead knowing full well that he was alive and well.
If you want to know the truth of American history ask their ancestors, those living are lying through their teeth.
The real killers were related to british royalty and every American president and also to every major university that teaches the lies and to the Wharton school of philadelphia that taught for example joe Biden and Donald trump.
A horse was held north west at the north canal for the escaping real killer.
Bypassing Edwin Stantons house of which was visited on the night by his relation Lewis Thornton Powell who is falsely claimed to have attacked William Seward on the night of Lincoln’s assassinated as reported by the coincidental James tanner stenographer who was a relation of William Seward and employed by Edwin Stanton , Charles Dana who covered Stantons media.
If you want the truth of history simply ask your ancestors.
Those living will charge you money to go and learn their lies.
Was I looking for all of this ? I was not! I was merely following my own ancestry, those ancestors I found were related to all of the above.
So my ancestors took me, to tell you.
Tell your children that American history is a lie and taught by those appointed by there relations that rule our governments.
This by the way is ancestry not conspiracy.
The salaries of the government officials are paid by their relations the British royalty whose relatives run the government finances of both countries.