The left’s jihad against statues and public memorials has finally hit a roadblock. After removing statues of Gen. Robert E. Lee, President Theodore Roosevelt, Christopher Columbus, and the Confederate Memorial at Arlington, a New York Times columnist even suggested that the father of our country be ripped off like a filthy Band-Aid and tossed. But it was the founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, who resisted and won.
The National Park Service planned to remove Penn’s statue in Philadelphia’s Welcome Park to make it more “inclusive.” The proposal struck enough outrage that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro reversed track. He took credit for convincing the Biden administration to leave the venerable founder alone, at least for the moment.
Why Target William Penn?
It’s a definite win, but it needs to wake conservatives into asking the fundamental question: Why do leftists want to remove Penn’s statue? While Penn owned slaves, he transplanted the Quaker faith to the New World, planted the seed of abolition in the Americas, and arguably set the stage for the entire Anglo world to outlaw the institution.
There’s also the fact that Penn is just not that well known. Given what education levels are today, it would be surprising if even 50 percent of Philadelphians under 45 years old knew who he was or could pick out his statue from those of Thomas Jefferson or Daniel Boone. These are people, after all, who don’t know we fought the British in the Revolution and cannot say when the Declaration
