I am not sure if the name change of Mt. McKinley to Denali is of any consequence to you, but let me suggest why I think you should be outraged.
President Obama decided to rename Alaska’s Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America, to Denali in order to comply with what Alaskans supposedly have wanted and have been calling the mountain for years. Okay, I understand, but you see, what Obama did was just spit in the face of the GOP and the legacy of President McKinley, a Republican president.
I do not want to give a history lesson here, but look up William McKinley’s accomplishments. Besides fighting for the Union in the Civil War, McKinley and his family were abolitionists who wanted to end slavery long before Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. McKinley ran for office at a very difficult time when the Democratic president had damaged the country, and the United States was spinning it into a depression. Enter McKinley, a Republican who believed in the gold standard, approved tariffs to help manufacturers and workers in America, and turned the economy around. He also helped liberate Cuba from Spain. Interesting, don’t you think? He was a popular president who served our country well, but his time in office was cut short by an assassin’s bullet when was shot dead early in his second term by a leftwing anarchist. Another Interesting fact, don’t you think?
Because of McKinley’s towering achievements, Alaskans began to refer to Denali as Mt. McKinley. This became official in 1917, until it was stripped away by Barack Obama in 2015. While this may seem insignificant in the scheme of things, one must take a much deeper look at what this act represents.
My dear fellow Americans, symbols mean something, and while we are all sensitive to the indigenous population, do you think for one moment that this name change is solely about their request? Every Alaskan – including the Alaska Natives – had been using the name Denali interchangeably with Mt. McKinley for years. After all, the area the mountain is located in is called Denali National Park.
Have you heard any of the politicians or pundits really frame the significance of this name change? So far, all we’ve really heard is the localized outrage of politicians from President McKinley’s home state of Ohio – as if this were merely a slight to Ohio and not the entire nation President McKinley served. And even that perceived insult to Ohio is treated as largely insignificant to a modern public that has forgotten so much of its past.
While you may think this name change amounts to a hill of beans in this difficult world, it’s more than that – it’s yet another attempt by modern leftwing progressives to incrementally dismantle our history and culture.
What if in 100 years, some future president decided to strip away the legacy and civic honors bestowed on heroic Americans like Martin Luther King, Jr. or on presidents like John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom were assassinated in office like McKinley? Do you think there would be outrage over that? Or would it seem as innocuous as this current act of historical erasure?
Symbols mean something. History means something, and honors bestowed must be respected and kept. McKinley, my fellow Americans, was initially given the honor by Alaskans during the time of their Gold Rush because he favored the gold standard. In fact, his position on gold might have been why he was assassinated. Now how’s that for a surreal turnabout?
On a very, very side note, I wish some of the smug guests on Fox News’ Red Eye showed a little more balance in their comments on this issue. Out of five guests not one caught the true significance of this act. Greg Gutfeld would have understood. It’s a pity he no longer sits in one of those chairs.
One more thing… I now feel like Peter Falk in Columbo when, just as he’s leaving the room, another thought comes to him that usually nails his case… So, in the spirit of my old friend Peter Falk, I will now throw in a parting reference to Vladimir Putin and his workout videos and shirtless photos riding a horse or a bear or whatever. While some laugh at these symbols of Russian virility, Putin is using them to convey that he is a powerful leader. He’s projecting his strength and battle readiness.
While I care deeply about our environment and the melting glaciers – which are the reasons for Obama’s trip to Alaska – the Russians see Alaska and the Arctic region as a giant repository of wealth and power to be developed, not a playground for polar bears. To Putin with his virile videos, America looks like an effeminate nation on the road to decline. Mt. McKinley overlooks Russia too – the country that once sold us Alaska and has been regretting it ever since. When they owned it, the Russians called the mountain Denali (in Russian of course). Who knows, perhaps Obama is unwittingly preparing the way for Russia to reclaim it. I mean America is the Great Evil nation that needs to beg forgiveness for all its past sins (even the “sin” of scoring a great land deal off the Tsar), so why not give it back, right?
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