Erasing History in Our National Parks

New York Times

28-07-2025

To the Editor:
Re 'Park Workers Flag Displays That 'Disparage' Americans' (news article, July 24):
The creation and maintenance of an extensive system of national parks are among the foremost achievements of the American government. But when presenting United States history at these parks, the narrative and context must be honest, even when that history is deeply troubling. As your report demonstrates, that includes the story of the nation's independence as its 250th anniversary approaches.
Explaining what happened beginning in 1775-76 has challenged historians and the public practically since the moment of independence: how to explain a revolutionary war fought in the name of liberty but that denied freedom to hundreds of thousands of enslaved people in the states and territories that chose to permit it? This paradox persisted for 90 years and culminated in the terrible civil war that killed more than 700,000 Americans.
That is fact, not abstraction. And acknowledging it need not disparage Americans. It can be evidence of exceptionalism, not in the sense of superiority but because it accepts an uncomfortable truth.
If an exhibit at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia cannot be honest about this, the result is propaganda, not history. President Trump needs to get past his insecurities if he wants to lead the nation into the future.
Steven S. BerizziNorwalk, Conn.The writer is an emeritus professor of history and political science at Connecticut State Community College, Norwalk.
To the Editor:
The erasure of U.S. history by executive order is unconscionable and terrifying.
What will the Trump administration do about the Manzanar National Historic Site in California, a desolate, isolated World War II incarceration camp where thousands of Japanese American families were forced to live in hastily constructed ramshackle barracks behind barbed wire, watched by armed guards, cut off from the outside world? Their bitter experiences are now preserved and shared there — so that it may not happen again.
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