Against the backdrop of protests in Los Angeles and the deployment of both National Guard troops and U.S. Marines, President Trump continues to peddle his cultural revolution with a requirement for national parks to post signs aimed at removing any content that “inappropriately disparage(s) Americans past or living,” and to instead highlight the nation’s progress and achievements. The relevant executive order also directs the removal of what it terms “improper ideology” from museums, monuments and public exhibits under federal control.

No longer is it OK to share the history of women and children massacred at Wounded Knee; no longer will our government encourage discussion about the bloodshed at the Homestead Steel strike in Pittsburgh along with our positive achievements. Learning from our past will be Disney-fied.

Less than a century ago, Mao Zedong directed similar campaigns to scrub history clean of ideas that conflicted with his party narrative, seizing control of every aspect of Chinese life.

That the parks order has been issued during the unrest in L.A. is not unrelated. Few Westerners can forget the image of a Chinese student standing down an armored tank in Tiananmen Square. Today, though, the story of Tiananmen Square is only known to the Chinese people through whispers. It has been erased from public display, from history books, from discussion.

Will Chairman Trump push us to the same moment in L.A. to advance his ideology of party thought? All the evidence says yes, while his supporters continue to cheer this Maoist revolution on our homeland.

Christopher Ring
York