The New York Times reports that “the Trump administration has ordered several National Park Service sites to take down materials related to slavery and Native Americans…” The basic criteria is to target anything that might make white settlers of America look bad. So, for example, we can’t have a plaque at a National Park indicating which tribes lived on the land prior to displacement to reservations. And we can’t have any displays that highlight the brutality of slavery.

In Philadelphia, the whitewashing is even more extreme.

At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, officials plan to substantially alter an exhibit that memorializes nine people enslaved by George Washington. Mr. Trump’s executive order in March specifically flagged exhibits at Independence National Historical Park for review, claiming the Biden administration had advanced “corrosive ideology” there that taught visitors that “America is purportedly racist.”

Here, the problem is that people will learn that the “father of our country,” owned slaves. This has never been a secret. But I guess it’s taking things too far to humanize the slaves by remembering their names. Visitors who have the capacity for empathy will feel a certain kind of way about George Washington after viewing the display, and it won’t be 100 percent positive.

This seems to be an obsession on the right these days. They feel like if their white kids learn what the original white settlers of this country did to African slaves and Native peoples, they’ll develop some kind of self-hatred, and that it will undermine their patriotism.

I had multiple ancestors on The Mayflower. I have learned a full and accurate history of this country, and it did not make me despise myself or stop loving the USA. I also have an ancestor from Italy who signed his entry form with an ‘x’ because he was illiterate. He was doubtlessly subjected to hysterical anti-Catholic and anti-Italian bigotry. Knowing this doesn’t make me hate the USA either.

But this kind of knowledge does inform how I look at the experiences of Blacks, Native Americans and current waves of immigrants to America. It’s one reason why I’m committed to creating a country that is fairer and kinder and more welcoming than in the past.

I’m not wracked with guilt. I’m motivated for all of us to do better.

I don’t know why it’s so impossible for conservatives to take the edifying lessons of history as anything other than a personal attack.

And when we celebrate the many good deeds and accomplishments of America, we should celebrate all of it, not just the things white settlers have done. Why is this so hard?