March 21, 2025 Hello , The last decade shines as a golden era for the stories of women formerly left out of the history books. Now, just when we've discovered an abundance of women responsible for contributions in nearly every area of life, the Republican Administration is deleting their stories and pictures, hoping they'll vanish for good. US Government agencies have jumped to comply with the president's executive order Ending Radical Government DEI Programs. Among the tens of thousands of items deleted is a 13-page lesson plan to teach students about the #6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion. The Department of Defense has
restored webpages about Jackie Robinson, some Black veterans and the Navajo Code Talkers after a huge outcry. Pages about a heroic Japanese American WWII military unit had not been restored Thrusday. African American, Women's and LGBTQ history pages have disappeared. Can they really wipe out history? To be safe, you ought to buy my books! 😃
If History Falls in the Forest, Does Anybody Hear It?
Back in 2012, I spent a lot of time on the Naval History Heritage Command website, gathering photos and information and making connections with historians.
Thursday when I tried to access the page, here's what I got:
At least they're offering help to Veteran's in crisis. At the US Army website, this page has disappeared along with information about women soldiers contributions to our nation.
One example of the women's stories you can no longer read on the army website was titled: Making history: Ten women make up elite, small cadre of B-2 pilots. One of the ten featured was the first female pilot to fly the B-2 stealth bomber. In fact, you will not even find the word "female" on any US Government
website when the executive order is fully carried out.
A few of the many words and phrases considered "woke" and unworthy of use by the government: segregation, race, sense of belonging, climate crisis, climate science, Native American, disability, females, equality, discrimination, historically and mental health. Women's history has also vanished from the Arlington National
Cemetery website, as well as African American and LGBTQ history. Information on particular people like Major Charity Adams and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion can still be found on the site if you do a specific search on the Arlington website. But broader history has vanished from the "Education" page. This was perhaps
first noticed by Civil War historian Kevin M. Levin, who wrote about it on his Substack newsletter. "The historians and educational staff working for the US Army at
Arlington National Cemetery have done an excellent job of expanding their interpretation of the grounds and especially in developing lesson plans for teachers that were housed on its website. I have seen first hand the good work that they do with teachers and I know for a fact that teachers across the country have used these lesson plans." You can access the deleted lesson plan for the #6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion on the Wayback Machine Archive. Below is a page capture of one of the important resources no longer available, others include Women’s history, Reconstruction, and the Civil War.
You can still find archives of some of the unpublished pages on the Wayback Machine if you know to look for them. If young students doesn't know to search the Wayback archives of material no longer accessable on the web, for them, it will be as if crucial American history never
happened.
And it's not just history getting erased. This photo titled Jump Like a Girl was taken one year ago on March 20, 2024. Now, it's gone.
U.S. servicewomen (top row) Cpl. Brianna Tucker, Spc. Maythe Cruz, Spc. Brooke Mattos, 1st Lt. Hannah Rhoden, Senior Airman Jacqueline Curran (bottom row) Sgt. Sydney Gay, Spc. Jasmine Siegfried, Sgt. 1st Class
Christina Torres, Staff Sgt. Riley Solomon gather for a photo prior to participating in a static line parachute jump at Ramstein, Germany, Mar. 20, 2024. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Nathan Baker) These female service members participated in a static line jump to commemorate the role women play within the Armed Forces and to celebrate Women's
History Month. You can't help but be proud of them! They're a credit to us all. Among other files vanishing are those deleted from the Department of Justice, Federal criminal charge records, entitled: January 6, United States, Capitol attack. Deleting records is today's equivalent of book burning. The fire's hot and the smoke billowing.
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The Republican Administration isn't focused on deleting lesson plans about the history of the labor movement. They had pretty much cut that out of the history books
already. It's possible the labor movement could again become a force to reckon with. Won't hurt to help educate the kids you know with the story of Fannie Sellins.
Here's what I'm working on to keep myself grounded. I'm moving my vegetable garden to a new spot where I will get more sun and have space to
expand.
In the last couple weeks I've torn out the grass and weeds and leveled the space with new dirt. I plan to layer cardboard to keep the weeds down, then haul all the fertile garden soil from my old garden to the new and add compost. I'm also in the process of moving the shallow rock wall that borders the garden. I plan to have everything ready by the week of April 6, which is when the Old Farmer's Alamanc recommends sowing my spinach, lettuce and snap peas. Until next week...
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