Erasure by the letters
After my earlier post, readers may want a chaser that doesn’t burn going down.
Alexandra Petri is among those columnists who have recently abandoned the good ship Washington Post. She now writes for The Atlantic.
This morning Petri lampoons the Trumpian makeover of national parks that mark the experiences of Americans MAGA Republicans consider un-great:
Stonewall National Monument: One of the best places to admire the abundant natural beauty of New York City. The taxis, yellow. The skyscrapers, high! The luminous walk signs, with their flashing white gentleman composed of tiny stars, majestic! Here a community rose up in response to a police raid and sparked a revolution. We cannot say which community, but we hope there weren’t any LGBTQ people present. It seems unlikely; they did not exist before 1967, which was one of many things that made America Great at that time, and which we are trying our best to replicate today. We’ve been removing the movement’s patrons from the Stonewall website one letter at a time and seeing whether anyone notices.
Manzanar National Historic Site: This well-preserved internment-camp site from World War II is a chilling, gut-wrenching reminder of the stunning natural beauty of our flawless nation!
And who can forget The Gettysburg Address and why somebody gave it there?
Gettysburg National Military Park: It appears that lots of brave men fought and died here, but for what reason, we can’t exactly say. Not for us to take sides! We’ll refer you to President Donald Trump’s thoughts: “Gettysburg, what an unbelievable battle that was. It was so much and so interesting and so vicious and horrible and so beautiful in so many different ways; it represented such a big portion of the success of this country. Gettysburg, wow. I go to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to look and to watch. And, uh, the statement of Robert E. Lee, who’s no longer in favor, did you ever notice that? No longer in favor. ‘Never fight uphill, me boys. Never fight uphill.’ They were fighting uphill. He said, ‘Wow, that was a big mistake.’ He lost his great general. And they were fighting. ‘Never fight uphill, me boys!’ But it was too late.”
This is what happened here, and we hope you have no further questions.
And that green lady in New York harbor?
Statue of Liberty: For years, people have made a big deal about how good she looks as you approach, but imagine how nice she’d look if you were leaving. Please disregard the poem; we are trying to remove it.
You get the idea.
That reminds me of the French request in March that she be repatriated, and why:
A French politician facetiously asked the U.S. to return the Statue of Liberty, suggesting the country no longer lives up to the values the green-hued gift represents.
Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, said at a party convention on Sunday that he had a message “to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants … who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom.”
“Give us back the Statue of Liberty,” he said with a smile as the crowd cheered. “We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home.”
That story was by National Public Radio, also slated by Trump for erasure, only three letters at a time along with PBS.
Glucksmann tweeted an explanatory thread captured below.
“Dear Americans, Since the White House press secretary is attacking me today, I wanted to tell you this”:
1. Our two people are intimately linked by History, the blood we shed and the passion for freedom we share, a passion symbolized by this Statue that was offered to the United States by France to honor your glorious Revolution.
2. As the press secretary for this shameful Administration said: without your nation, France would have “spoken German.” In my case, it goes further: I would simply not be here if hundreds of thousands of young Americans had not landed on our beaches in Normandy.
3. Our gratitude to these heroes and their sacrifices is therefore eternal.
4. But the America of these heroes fought against tyrants, it did not flatter them. It was the enemy of fascism, not the friend of Putin. It helped the resistance and didn’t attack Zelensky.
5. It celebrated science and didn’t fire researchers for using banned words. It welcomed the persecuted and didn’t target them. It was far, so far from what your current President does, says, and embodies.
6. This America, faithful to the wonderful words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, your America, is worth so much more than the betrayal of Ukraine and Europe, xenophobia, or obscurantism.
7. We all in Europe love this nation to which we know we owe so much. It will rise again. You will rise again. We are counting on you.
8. And it is precisely because I am petrified by Trumps betrayal that I said yesterday in a rally that we could symbolically take back the Statue of Liberty if your government despised everything it symbolizes in your eyes, ours, and those of the world. It was a wake up call.
9. No one, of course, will come and steal the Statue of Liberty. The statue is yours. But what it embodies belongs to everyone. And if the free world no longer interests your government, then we will take up the torch, here in Europe.
10. Until we meet again in the fight for freedom and dignity, we will be the continuators of our shared history and the protectors of our treasure: more than a statue of copper and steel, the freedom it symbolizes.
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