(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) The National Parks Service announced the removal of a statue of William Penn, the founder of the state of Pennsylvania, from a Philadelphia park in order to make the park more “welcoming, accurate, and inclusive.”
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that the Welcome Park will include more displays providing information on the indigenous groups that lived in the area before European settlers came to American shores, according to the New York Sun.
Haaland proudly reported that she and her team consulted Native American groups on the expansion of the displays.
The Department of the Interior also posted to social media, requesting “input [for] Welcome Park rehabilitation.”
We need your input on Welcome Park rehabilitation! More info at: https://t.co/owkb3jxBIV pic.twitter.com/nh092m4S5W
— IndependenceNPS 🇺🇸 (@INDEPENDENCENHP) January 5, 2024
NPS erected Welcome Park in 1982 to commemorate the founding of Pennsylvania. It is the only place in the state’s most populous city honoring Penn’s achievements.
Several Twitter users voiced their vehement opposition to tearing down the Penn statue and replacing it with a woke-ified version of Native American history.
“The Biden administration is taking down a statue of William Penn,” columnist David Marcus said in a reply to the NPS post. “Not Robert E Lee, not Stonewall Jackson, but William Penn. These people hate America, there’s no doubt anymore.”
The Biden Administration is taking down a statue of William Penn. Not Robert E Lee, not Stonewall Jackson, but William Penn. These people hate America, there’s no doubt anymore. https://t.co/ZHVrJ8GkQ9
— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) January 7, 2024
“If you think that tearing down William Penn is justified, then I think you should be defunded and disbanded,” another user chimed in.
If you think that tearing down William Penn is justified, then I think you should be defunded and disbanded.
— Hernan Cortes (@CyberPunkCortes) January 7, 2024
“No foreign ‘enemy’ hates us like our own government,” a third user added. “Why don’t you just build a statue of whatever criminal filth you and your pets decide is the next civil rights hero?”
No foreign “enemy” hates us like our own government.
Why don’t you just build a statue of whatever criminal filth you and your pets decide is the next civil rights hero?
— James Kirkpatrick (@VDAREJamesK) January 7, 2024
Penn was born in London in 1644 and emigrated to the British colonies after facing religious persecution.
His Charter of Privileges laid out religious liberties and civil rights laws that had a tremendous influence on the Continental Congress that drafted the American Constitution.
The park founders named Welcome Park after the ship that Penn took from England, the Welcome, which now sits on the Delaware River.
