Stop the Park Service from canceling William Penn

January 8, 2024 24 Comments

UPDATE: National Park Service has dropped its ridiculous plan to “rehabilitate” Welcome Park.

—-

Well, I thought maybe the Woke fever was breaking, but it seems I was wrong.

Tiny Welcome Park in Society Hill

That’s the feeling I got when reading that the National Park Service is floating an insulting proposal to “rehabilitate”  the vest pocket park created in 1982 to honor William Penn, and the 300th anniversary of Pennsylvania.

It plans to “rehabilitate” the park, called an open-air museum, by removing a statue of William Penn.

The Big Idea, per the press release posted on the NPS website, is to “provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience.”

That the park becomes more “inclusive” by excluding the white man person for whom the park is named could be described as Newspeak, originated by George Orwell in his grim novel “1984.” “Inclusion is Exclusion” joins Orwell’s “War is Peace,”  and “Freedom is Slavery.”

It’s not like the statue of Penn — a scaled-down version of the 36-foot-tall Alexander Milne Calder masterpiece atop City Hall — was a statue of some random Civil War general that might have been erected more than 100 years ago as a show of defiance. Penn was a progressive, who guaranteed religious freedom under his flag. His design for his City of Brotherly Love was inspired.

Welcome Park was erected with pride slightly more than 40 years ago, but seems to have run afoul of the current Woke trend emanating from the far left, determined to undermine our history and traditions, and sow hate.

The Society Hill park on 2nd between Chestnut and Walnut, the NPS admits, is located on the site of Penn’s home, and is named after the ship, Welcome, that brought him to the new world. It was his home, but it is OK to evict him.

The proposed “rehabilitation” — no person is given blame credit for it — was “developed in consultation with representatives of indigenous tribes.” The press release does not say if any other special interest groups, or historians, were consulted.

And here it is fair to mention that President Joe Biden’s “historic” appointee to head the Interior Department, which includes NPS, is Deb Haaland, is a Native American. Is she exercising a grudge against American originators? [Full disclosure: Although NPS does not mention it, Penn held slaves. So did some Indian tribes.]

The underlying concept, says NPS, is to create an expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia. No problem with that.

But why does that require the dismantling of the statue of the state’s founder, even erasing the Penn timeline on one of the walls?

The word I used was “erase.”

It could just have easily been canceled.

Especially unfair for a rare man who was known for treating Native Americans with respect. Fishtown’s Penn Treaty Park is testament to that. Surely Native Americans could have been added to Welcome Park, with hardly any complaint.

I sent an email to Mayor Cherelle Parker’s spokesman to learn if the mayor knew of this proposal, and whether she favored it. I got no response before deadline.

I also left a message with a NPS spokesman asking the cost, whose idea this was, were non Native Americans consulted, and how does excluding Penn contribute to inclusion?  No answer before deadline.

Here’s the good news: It ain’t a done deal and NPS is soliciting public comment, but only though its website: https://parkplanning.nps.gov/ 

You have until the 21st. Do not delay. Make your voice heard. Spread this around.

24 thoughts on “Stop the Park Service from canceling William Penn”

  2. Just learned the there are Looney Tunes people leading EPA, too.
    A missive went around telling EPA employees to no longer use the word “chief.” Demeaning to our Native friends, natch!, not to mention the word chief does not exist in any Native language and its origin predates Christopher Columbus from way up in the misty Highlands of Scotland! Others claim it is a derivative of the French, “chef.” Take your pick. Never, ever heard it as a demeaning appellation; always denotes power and respect! Oh well. EPA must be right.

    More and more there is a need for anyone to be hired by government, or to even vote, for heavens sakes, to pass a basic intelligence, history and civics test. Correct?

    However!!
    An upgrade of the Venturi design at Welcome Park has been needed since it was just completed; not one of Bob’s best designs!

    There are two great locations for that small William Penn Sculpture by Alexander Milne Calder now in that awkward park.

    1. Place it in City Hall courtyard so we can see it at eye level which none of us can see the massive Calder of William Penn high up above on top of City Hall.

    2. Place it in the new Calder Museum, now under construction.
    Both are far better locations that looking so lost and awkward in Welcome Park.

    And!! Suggest redesigning Welcome Park as a lovely small city park with a cafe as CCD did so successfully along the Ben Franklin Parkway. Friendly, delightful and “Welcoming!”

    And more!! Really make something much better out of our oft forgotten Penn Treaty Park with the installations NPS has in mind for the tribes; really honor them!! Install the exhibitions were they make the most symbolic, historic and geographic sense right next to the river named for a great and powerful Delawares!

    Dilemmas solved.
    Over and out, my friends.

    1. I agree with most of your observations, but NOT under NPS coercion.
      Welcome Park IS flat and uninspired. It could be upgraded, but as far as moving statue — this was the location of his home, so, no.
      And more fed agencies are getting into the language cancel culture game. I did a column on another agency sticking its nose into language. I wish I could remember…

  3. On top of all the items that Stu listed in the article there is also the issue about government being good stewards of our money. Other than the “agenda”, is there something broke about the park that a renovation is even needed? Of all the projects the NPS has on their list, was this little plot of land near the top?

    The other person to speak to is the Congressman. Is this in Boyle’s or Evans district (I think it is close to the border)? Typically these agencies don’t do this sort of thing without first reaching out to the elected official, or do it at their request.

  4. To get to the web site and click the correct links to voice an opinion, one needs a crash course on federal government web site directions. Reading the narrative on the “rehabilitation” is a piece of typical government babel. I agree that the rehab of the park undermines our history and traditions and will sow hate. I would also like the agency to be transparent and post what representatives of indigenous tribes were consulted? It also appears no one on the local or state level was consulted or supplied with details on their plans to remove William Penn’s statue.

  5. I’m surpised that it took the knckleheads this long, It won’t be long before they change the name of the city, West Camden?

  6. This is outrageous. A bunch of WOKE idiots deciding that the statue of the founder of Pennsylvania should be removed from a park solely dedicated to him? Are you all nuts? Did you all graduate from Harvard?

  7. Although this decision seems quite odd and makes little sense to me, I also really don’t care about statues, be they Rizzo, Billy Penn or Pete Rose. Do what you want. I’m too busy living life to worry about trivialities like this.

  8. I suspect the federal government is creating a cemetery of Philadelphia statues somewhere. So far they’ve collected Frank Rizzo, Kate Smith, Rocky, and now William Penn is on the cusp. However, we do have a large clothespin and a LOVE thing to be proud of, right? It will be interesting to see how this revision of Philadelphia’s history plays out, and whether Her Honor will do something that shows she cares.

    1. The feds had nothing to do with Rizzo and Kate. Rocky is still safe at the Art Museum, and NPS has trashed its plan to “Rehabilitate” Welcome Park.

  9. Simple Solution, put a statue of Sitting Bull in the plaza and say how he was a great warrior.

Comments are closed.