National Park Service Scraps Plans To Remove William Penn Statue After Public Outcry

With Ivy League institutions finally revealed as Marxist, plagiarist echo chambers, it appears the public is also officially done with another "woke" ritual: removing statues.

Just hours after the National Park Service announced they would be removing a statue of William Penn at Philadelphia's Welcome Park, located in the Old City section of the city, the service swiftly reversed course.

Though Zero Hedge can't confirm that the outlet received significant pushback on the idea, social media was littered yesterday with objectors to the statue removal. As we noted yesterday, the modest sized Penn statue is located at the site of of William Penn's former home.

The "Welcome Park" site was completed in its current form back in 1982, according to 6ABC, who said yesterday that park officials wanted to "reenvision the park and expand the interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia to make it more welcoming and inclusive for visitors."

The initiative involved consultation with representatives from various indigenous groups such as the Haudenosaunee, Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, Shawnee Tribe, and Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, the report said.

House Republican Leader, state Rep. Bryan Cutler had called the plan "another sad example of the left in this country scraping the bottom of the barrel of wokeism to advance an extreme ideology and a nonsensical view of history."

But it could be the residents of the city who may have had the final say in the matter. By the end of the day yesterday, the Park Service had reversed course, publishing a mea culpa that stated: " Independence National Historical Park has withdrawn the review of a draft proposal to rehabilitate Welcome Park and closed the public comment period."

It continues: "The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted.  No changes to the William Penn statue are planned."  

Said one person on social media, responding to the flip flop: "Everything is a test. From this memorial of Penn, to the taking over the bridges and freeways out West, highways here on the East Coast to Ireland and the UK and beyond, Covid Isolation, trampling on the 1st Amendment. They're seeing how far they can go."

We couldn't agree more. 

Even Democrat governor Josh Shapiro weighed in, stating the Park Service made the right decision. He wrote on social media last night: "My team has been in contact with the Biden Administration throughout the day to correct this decision."

Shapiro continued: "I’m pleased Welcome Park will remain the rightful home of this William Penn statue — right here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Penn founded."

We're glad he stepped in before South Philly had to get involved...