Editorially speaking…
It’s so easy to think of history as being, well, long ago and far away. In the past. Come and gone. Done with. Move on.
The reality, of course, is that history walks among us as a living, vibrant being. Rather than being static, it’s happening every minute of every day, even in our own backyards. Okay, sometimes it takes a while to be officially recognized and recorded as such; that’s what historians and archivists are for.
Conversely, and it’s happening more frequently these days, we turn the telescope around and, like the revisionists of Communist infamy, we try to undo history—making even more history.
The latest example is the U.S. Defence Secretary’s announcement that the naval ship USNS Harvey Milk will be renamed to honour a Second World War sailor who was posthumously awarded the U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor.
The USNS Oscar V. Peterson, formerly the USNS Harvey Milk. —Wikipedia
I don’t know if this is a precedent but it certainly is out of the ordinary for a naval ship to be stripped of its name because that name has been deemed to be, retroactively and dubiously, unworthy of such honour.
Harvey Milk is a victim of a Trump Republican government purge of names chosen during the former Biden Democratic administration that honour naval veterans including those of—horrors—women, minorities, the LBGTQ community, and others.
Milk, who served in the US Navy during the Korean War and was forced from the service for being gay, went on to become the first openly gay candidate to win office in San Francisco.
In his first and only year in office he sponsored a bill banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations, housing and employment; it was passed by a majority of 11-1 and signed into law by Mayor George Muscone on Nov. 27, 1978, provoking an enraged former board member to gun them both down.
(Left) Assassinated gay rights activist Harvey Milk. (Right) Second World War naval hero Oscar V. Peterson. —Wikipedia
Harvey Milk is considered to be a pioneer in sexual rights, hence, coupled with his wartime naval experience, his name having been given to the USNS Harvey Milk, a naval supply ship.
That was four years ago. Today, it’s the USS Oscar V. Peterson, renamed not for the renowned Canadian pianist but for an American Second World War hero who died of his wounds during the 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea.
"We are taking the politics out of ship naming," said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. "We're not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration. Instead, we're renaming the ship after a United States Navy Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, as it should be."
“People want to be proud of the ship they’re sailing in, and so we’re renaming it after a Navy chief.”
In short, if you don’t like history, change it.
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St. John’s, Nfld. city council has chosen to pre-empt possible controversy by no longer naming public and geographic features after individual people as doing so “comes with a host of risks, including political polarization and uneven representation of different demographics”.
It also comes with the risk of naming street or building, for example, after someone whose legacy later gets tarnished, according to Councillor Ron Ellsworth who presented the motion that was passed unanimously.
“Obviously, we’ve seen what’s happened provincially and nationally around the history of different names being in place, that history was not kind to and therefore may not...represent the community as a whole.”
Last year, St. John’s even renamed a June holiday—from Discovery Day to Indigenous Peoples Day.
The greatest example of a disgraced East Coast historic personage is that of Edward Cornwallis, the British governor of Halifax who issued a bounty on scalps of Mi’kmaq people men, women and children in 1749.
Coun. Ellsworth then hedged his bets by saying that Council would continue to consider applications to use surnames on streets or buildings, “leaving some flexibility to see how the policy is received”.
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Readers will remember the excitement of the Martin Mars water bomber’s final flight to its final home in the BC Aviation Museum in Sidney. It’s safe arrival drew this recent letter to the editor of the Times Colonist from Sue Allison:
Re: “BC aviation museum is booming since the arrival of the Martin Mars, May 4th
—Courtesy Andrew Waldegrave
—Courtesy Andrew Waldegrave
Glenn Martin was my cousin! I am from Bellevue, Washington, and I am eagerly arriving at the air museum to see the Martin Hawaii Mars this week and I'm totally awed by the wonderful photography, videos and stories regarding the history and service to the navy during the Second World War.
As a child, I lived in Baltimore, across from the Martin Co. on Chesapeake Bay where my dad, Daniel Boone Allison, was the attorney for the Martin Aircraft Co. during the development of the Mars.
I often heard my mother speak about the Mars, and now, with all of the great stories, I can hardly wait to see it in person.
I spent a lot of time with my cousin Glenn Martin in Los Angeles in 1955. I was very honoured to attend the aeronautical convention where Bill Boeing, Donald Douglas, Howard Hughes and other amazing people producing our aircraft were featured.
In October 1955, Glenn came to Seattle and spoke at a church, telling the congregation that a man would be on the moon by the year 2000. The crowd booed him fiercely in total disbelief. Oh yes, man arrived on the moon in 1969.
Thanks to the Coulsons and everybody who worked hard to make both the Hawaii Mars and the Philippine Mars fly again and available for the public to share their incredible gift to transport navy personnel in the Second World War, then Korea and Vietnam.
Thank you! Sue Allison Campbell, Bellevue, Washington.
As I said, history lives.
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