The latest target of activists out to erase our country’s history is of course Faneuil Hall. That the location’s namesake, Peter Faneuil, a Revolutionary War Hero was also a slave owner is a fact. So too were many others during the days of the birth or our nation. It was a different era, which of course does not justify it – nothing could. It was an obscene and cruel practice that should never be forgotten, so that it will never be repeated.
A recent online poll on the subject of the name change had results running 92% to 8% against. The fact is that Faneuil Hall was the place where a campaign to give Black Americans the right to vote at the end of the Civil War wasn’t lost on those, who want to keep the name as it is. Yet, when vocal activists, however small in number they may be, and without public input, loudly make their demands, it often has the effect of causing decision makers to run for cover. In other parts of the county, there are similar campaigns to remove the names of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson from parks, government buildings and even churches. These are two Founding Fathers who if not for them, its doubtful there would even be a United States of America.
At some point, the word ‘No’ has to be used in response to these demands and campaigns, or there will be no end to it until the memory of every last historical figure that some activist or another finds offensive has been purged. The goal of these campaigns is thought by many to be to rewrite what actually happened in America’s history or simply act like it never did. But it did happen. These efforts to erase from memory the history of our nation doesn’t change what took place, it simply pretends it never did.
