Biden Admin to Remove Statue of William Penn from Philadelphia Park

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a way of destroying America history to satisfy people who don’t really care. God bless what America use to be😢

It's destroying American history to redesign a plaza from 1982 that has a statue that is a smaller replica of a statue that literally is in the center of the city on top of what used to be the tallest point in the city, making it visible from everywhere? Please do explain how something put up 40 years ago is so sacrosanct, when it's not even an original.

Were you this roiled up when the skyscrapers were built that blocked the view of the ORIGINAL statue you are so nostalgic about? Did you even know this statue existed before Fox News and Twitter told you about it?

Yeah, like most Philadelphians, I was outraged when they raised building height. It wasn't just about William Penn (and I was raised as a member of Central Philadelphia meeting), and my ancestors were Quakers in Pennsylvania. It wasn't really about William Penn at all.

It was something unique that made our skyline special, kept it to a human scale. Philadelphia has always been one of the most walkable, well-designed cities with a solid residential core in the entire country.

But that's beside the point. This thread is full of trolls calling William Penn a racist slave owner who deserves to be wiped from history. This kind of simplistic revisioning of the past is quite dangerous.

But the OP posted about a statue being removed and that brought out trolls who have never given 2 sh!ts about public art to start crying about "history being erased" when that is not what is happening with the decision to upgrade and redesign a dismal plaza space.

Removing Penn's statue is simply silly. It is WOKE going too far. Certainly, we can add statues of others, but Penn's removal is bizarre.

Where did it say it was being removed for “woke” reasons?? From the NPS not some random DCUM poster making that claim.

DP. This is directly from the NPS website:

PHILADELPHIA — The National Park Service proposes to rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.
https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/news/park-seeks-input-on-the-rehabilitation-of-welcome-park.htm

Right, so not a word about Penn or cancelling him, which they didn’t do.

Is a statue of William Penn scary? Does it steal souls?

No it celebrates someone from a religious group whose members refused to fight in the American Revolution. Awesome. Did you know that?

Ah, the sins of the group are visited on an individual. Can I do that with other groups, or does religion get special attention?

[Anonymous]

Statement from NPS:

"Independence National Historical Park has withdrawn the review of a draft proposal to rehabilitate Welcome Park and closed the public comment period. The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned."

LOL. They didn't anticipate the pushback. Glad they pulled their plans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a way of destroying America history to satisfy people who don’t really care. God bless what America use to be😢

It's destroying American history to redesign a plaza from 1982 that has a statue that is a smaller replica of a statue that literally is in the center of the city on top of what used to be the tallest point in the city, making it visible from everywhere? Please do explain how something put up 40 years ago is so sacrosanct, when it's not even an original.

Were you this roiled up when the skyscrapers were built that blocked the view of the ORIGINAL statue you are so nostalgic about? Did you even know this statue existed before Fox News and Twitter told you about it?

Yeah, like most Philadelphians, I was outraged when they raised building height. It wasn't just about William Penn (and I was raised as a member of Central Philadelphia meeting), and my ancestors were Quakers in Pennsylvania. It wasn't really about William Penn at all.

It was something unique that made our skyline special, kept it to a human scale. Philadelphia has always been one of the most walkable, well-designed cities with a solid residential core in the entire country.

But that's beside the point. This thread is full of trolls calling William Penn a racist slave owner who deserves to be wiped from history. This kind of simplistic revisioning of the past is quite dangerous.

But the OP posted about a statue being removed and that brought out trolls who have never given 2 sh!ts about public art to start crying about "history being erased" when that is not what is happening with the decision to upgrade and redesign a dismal plaza space.

Removing Penn's statue is simply silly. It is WOKE going too far. Certainly, we can add statues of others, but Penn's removal is bizarre.

Where did it say it was being removed for “woke” reasons?? From the NPS not some random DCUM poster making that claim.

DP. This is directly from the NPS website:

PHILADELPHIA — The National Park Service proposes to rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.
https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/news/park-seeks-input-on-the-rehabilitation-of-welcome-park.htm

Right, so not a word about Penn or cancelling him, which they didn’t do.

Is a statue of William Penn scary? Does it steal souls?

No it celebrates someone from a religious group whose members refused to fight in the American Revolution. Awesome. Did you know that?

Ah, the sins of the group are visited on an individual. Can I do that with other groups, or does religion get special attention?

Why is it a sin to be a pacifist?

But yes, if you belong to a group whose central tenet is pacifism, then one would generally believe that you, too, are a pacifist. Which Penn was. He didn't live during the Revolutionary War, but had he been alive then he would have refused to fight.

[Anonymous]

Is Biden also going to rename the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like it was an ill-conceived plan by NPS, the director of which is an American Indian. Not sure why NPS wouldn't have planned to keep Penn but add things that pay tribute to the Native Americans. That was just an unforced error that plays right into right wingers' hands.

I'm not sure why some of you feel the need to have such blind loyalty to everything the Biden administration does. It's ok to criticize their decision making sometimes. It doesn't make you a MAGA. You are showing your own extremism in threads like this.

I think people are reacting to the knee-jerk reaction from MAGA that this was a politically charged decision when from all accounts this is kind of a dismal, out of date and decrepit plaza with a not-very-old replica of a statue that is already in a more prominent position in the city. And it's kind of hilarious that people are up in arms about the renovations when most of them have no clue who Penn was (how many of them realize he was a woke pacifist progressive, for example?) or have ever cared about public works of art, and certainly not this particular statue which isn't even all that exciting.

I mean look at this place. It's also falling apart if you look closely at photos of it.





The plaza needs an update, you can barely even see the statue, the pedestal which is way out of proportion to the statue, is falling part. Someone at the NPS thought, no one ever looks at the statue or the panels or really cares about any of this, so let's completely redo this, spruce it up, try something different. And they asked for input so it wasn't even a done deal.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a western state and learned about William Penn. Of course I learned who he was, and the Quakers.

The park may need an update - but the "preliminary draft" was eliminating the park and making an American Indian park in its place. You may think that's fine. Others disagreed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a way of destroying America history to satisfy people who don’t really care. God bless what America use to be😢

It's destroying American history to redesign a plaza from 1982 that has a statue that is a smaller replica of a statue that literally is in the center of the city on top of what used to be the tallest point in the city, making it visible from everywhere? Please do explain how something put up 40 years ago is so sacrosanct, when it's not even an original.

Were you this roiled up when the skyscrapers were built that blocked the view of the ORIGINAL statue you are so nostalgic about? Did you even know this statue existed before Fox News and Twitter told you about it?

Yeah, like most Philadelphians, I was outraged when they raised building height. It wasn't just about William Penn (and I was raised as a member of Central Philadelphia meeting), and my ancestors were Quakers in Pennsylvania. It wasn't really about William Penn at all.

It was something unique that made our skyline special, kept it to a human scale. Philadelphia has always been one of the most walkable, well-designed cities with a solid residential core in the entire country.

But that's beside the point. This thread is full of trolls calling William Penn a racist slave owner who deserves to be wiped from history. This kind of simplistic revisioning of the past is quite dangerous.

But the OP posted about a statue being removed and that brought out trolls who have never given 2 sh!ts about public art to start crying about "history being erased" when that is not what is happening with the decision to upgrade and redesign a dismal plaza space.

Removing Penn's statue is simply silly. It is WOKE going too far. Certainly, we can add statues of others, but Penn's removal is bizarre.

Where did it say it was being removed for “woke” reasons?? From the NPS not some random DCUM poster making that claim.

DP. This is directly from the NPS website:

PHILADELPHIA — The National Park Service proposes to rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.
https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/news/park-seeks-input-on-the-rehabilitation-of-welcome-park.htm

DP where does it say Penn is being removed for any reason related to “woke”? Oh that’s right it does not. Your Jihad against “wokeness” has made you a clueless conservative “woke” warrior. Better head back to the Ackman and Ivy League thread. You can crusade for your right to call people the n-word while attacking and labeling as antisemitic all those people who criticize Israel.

“The proposed rehabilitation of Welcome Park includes expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia and was developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. The reimagined Welcome Park maintains certain aspects of the original design such as the street grid, the rivers and the east wall while adding a new planted buffer on three sides, and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches. The Penn statue and Slate Roof house model will be removed and not reinstalled. In a separate and future effort, new exhibit panels will be installed on the south site wall to replace the Penn timeline.“

The site says they are removing the statue of Penn and his “timeline” and replacing those with the timeline of the Native American tribes, and you don’t think wokeness has anything to do with it?

Does it say that Penn will not be discussed in the “new exhibit panels”? If so you didn’t cut and paste that bit. Do you have insider information about the content of the new exhibit panels?

No, but you must. If they are erasing everything that has to do with Penn, what is the new timeline developed with the Native American tribes going to say about Penn?

I see you are highly offended I cut information that details the situation accurately. Why is that? You don’t like accurate information from the source? You want people to make up information and/or participate in disinformation? Why is the truth so offensive to you?

People need to cut and paste accurate information and provide links and citations to reputable sources when discussing things here. It’s only the people who want to control or manipulate the news that don’t want the facts to be explained and cited.

You really think cutting a paragraph from the actual article is an insult? That says so much about your judgement.

The actual source is clear Penn is being removed. You can make up your own story about the situation. You can type your opinion and make guesses about it. But the actual facts offend you, you are a joke.

Word salad

Nothing in the NPS report said that Penn would be excluded from new panels.

You don’t know much about history or Penn if you think there’s nothing to say about Penn and Native Americans. Maybe read a bio about the man you pretend is one of your heroes before you spout such nonsense.

And as it has been pointed out, he was in his time a woke pacifist progressive. Glad you admire him so.

The Biden administration and the NPS got caught trying to tear down everything about Penn. Now they are canceling their plans. lol. And you are do mad! Pages and pages of attacks on Penn for being a slave owner, now he’s a “WOKE” pacifist progressive. Whatever gets you through the night, pp.

[Anonymous]

What a roller coaster ride.

William Penn has gone from an evil white slave trader to a woke progressive liberal all in the course of 16 pages. Amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a roller coaster ride.

William Penn has gone from an evil white slave trader to a woke progressive liberal all in the course of 16 pages. Amazing.

No. It has gone from they are redesigning a park. Please give us your comments. To Biden has personally ordered the removal of Penn’s statue because Penn is a white man. People ask for proof that Penn’s statue was being removed because of his legacies and you could not provide any links.

Now you flail around on the ground like a little kid screaming about wokeness that does not exist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a roller coaster ride.

William Penn has gone from an evil white slave trader to a woke progressive liberal all in the course of 16 pages. Amazing.

Not really. He was the classic limousine liberal of his time! He did own and sell other human beings (fact), he thought Indians got a rotten deal from white men and were treated horribly (fact), and he belonged to a religious group that was pacifist and progressive, even believing in rights for women when few others did (fact). It was a huge deficiency in character and hypocritical for him to own and sell other human beings, but he otherwise had very liberal stances on issues of the day.

History is nuanced. There's no need to put anyone but Jesus and Buddha on a pedestal and refuse to acknowledge their faults.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a roller coaster ride.

William Penn has gone from an evil white slave trader to a woke progressive liberal all in the course of 16 pages. Amazing.

No. It has gone from they are redesigning a park. Please give us your comments. To Biden has personally ordered the removal of Penn’s statue because Penn is a white man. People ask for proof that Penn’s statue was being removed because of his legacies and you could not provide any links.

Now you flail around on the ground like a little kid screaming about wokeness that does not exist.

Did miss the tantrum some liberal had a few pages back because the evidence “copied and pasted” (one paragraph) that Penn was being completely removed from the park and the park was being redesigned in consultation with several local Native America tribes? They were outraged that information was included in this thread. Now you are claiming no information was given and no links were given. NPS has removed everything because they got caught.

According to the National Park Service, the proposed removal of the Penn statue and the Slate Roof House is part of a plan to “rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.”

Plans for the park, which was completed in 1982, include a new planted buffer on three sides and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches.

New exhibit panels would also be installed to replace the Penn timeline.

The National Park Services says the proposal includes an “expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia and was developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.”

A two week public comment period will be open online from January 8 to 21. Comments submitted through social media, phone calls, emails, or mail will not be accepted.

https://www.abc27.com/pennsylvania/national-park-service-proposes-removing-william-penn-statue-from-philadelphia-park/amp/

So the NPS announced here they were making the changes:

https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/news/park-seeks-input-on-the-rehabilitation-of-welcome-park.htm

They provided a link for the public to comment:

https://parkplanning.nps.gov/

But the document and comments are closed, comments removed.

You think the fed gov moves quick? Nope. But they closed that down very very quickly, because they got caught playing their stupid woke games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a roller coaster ride.

William Penn has gone from an evil white slave trader to a woke progressive liberal all in the course of 16 pages. Amazing.

No. It has gone from they are redesigning a park. Please give us your comments. To Biden has personally ordered the removal of Penn’s statue because Penn is a white man. People ask for proof that Penn’s statue was being removed because of his legacies and you could not provide any links.

Now you flail around on the ground like a little kid screaming about wokeness that does not exist.

Did miss the tantrum some liberal had a few pages back because the evidence “copied and pasted” (one paragraph) that Penn was being completely removed from the park and the park was being redesigned in consultation with several local Native America tribes? They were outraged that information was included in this thread. Now you are claiming no information was given and no links were given. NPS has removed everything because they got caught.

According to the National Park Service, the proposed removal of the Penn statue and the Slate Roof House is part of a plan to “rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.”

Plans for the park, which was completed in 1982, include a new planted buffer on three sides and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches.

New exhibit panels would also be installed to replace the Penn timeline.

The National Park Services says the proposal includes an “expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia and was developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.”

A two week public comment period will be open online from January 8 to 21. Comments submitted through social media, phone calls, emails, or mail will not be accepted.

https://www.abc27.com/pennsylvania/national-park-service-proposes-removing-william-penn-statue-from-philadelphia-park/amp/

So the NPS announced here they were making the changes:

https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/news/park-seeks-input-on-the-rehabilitation-of-welcome-park.htm

They provided a link for the public to comment:

https://parkplanning.nps.gov/

But the document and comments are closed, comments removed.

You think the fed gov moves quick? Nope. But they closed that down very very quickly, because they got caught playing their stupid woke games.

*Did you miss*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a roller coaster ride.

William Penn has gone from an evil white slave trader to a woke progressive liberal all in the course of 16 pages. Amazing.

No. It has gone from they are redesigning a park. Please give us your comments. To Biden has personally ordered the removal of Penn’s statue because Penn is a white man. People ask for proof that Penn’s statue was being removed because of his legacies and you could not provide any links.

Now you flail around on the ground like a little kid screaming about wokeness that does not exist.

Did miss the tantrum some liberal had a few pages back because the evidence “copied and pasted” (one paragraph) that Penn was being completely removed from the park and the park was being redesigned in consultation with several local Native America tribes? They were outraged that information was included in this thread. Now you are claiming no information was given and no links were given. NPS has removed everything because they got caught.

According to the National Park Service, the proposed removal of the Penn statue and the Slate Roof House is part of a plan to “rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors.”

Plans for the park, which was completed in 1982, include a new planted buffer on three sides and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches.

New exhibit panels would also be installed to replace the Penn timeline.

The National Park Services says the proposal includes an “expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia and was developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.”

A two week public comment period will be open online from January 8 to 21. Comments submitted through social media, phone calls, emails, or mail will not be accepted.

https://www.abc27.com/pennsylvania/national-park-service-proposes-removing-william-penn-statue-from-philadelphia-park/amp/

So the NPS announced here they were making the changes:

https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/news/park-seeks-input-on-the-rehabilitation-of-welcome-park.htm

They provided a link for the public to comment:

https://parkplanning.nps.gov/

But the document and comments are closed, comments removed.

You think the fed gov moves quick? Nope. But they closed that down very very quickly, because they got caught playing their stupid woke games.

More likely they got a call from a local Congresscritter who is… let me check… a Democrat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tribes in PA in and the larger region enslaved other tribes—and enslaved black Africans when it was a thing.

ICYMI: The 13th amendment didn’t free slaves owned by tribes. In fact, black slaves built the new communities/reservations established by native Americans.

History is both sad and fascinating. Our lack of understanding of our own American history makes threads like this interesting.

PS - Tribes willingly fought alongside the confederacy.

Any cite for this or the other PP that Native Americans owned African slaves? I believe you, just had never heard that.

[Anonymous]

Governor Shapiro (Dem) was against the removal of the William Penn statue.