The National Park Service race to rewrite history becomes a slog

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Politico

03/15/2026 06:46 PM EDT


The Trump administration’s campaign to remove National Park Service exhibits that “inappropriately disparage” historical figures is bogged down more than nine months after Interior Secretary Doug Burgum set it in motion.

The sheer volume of park signs, panels and museum exhibits flagged by park rangers because they mentioned topics like slavery, climate change or violence against Native Americans overwhelmed the Trump administration from the beginning, said three people familiar with the process used to evaluate potential changes, granted anonymity because they feared retribution. “They bit off way more than they could chew,” one of those people said.

But even as parks rushed to meet Interior deadlines, NPS last year dissolved in just a few months a team of experts created to decide if the material flagged by parks had violated President Donald Trump’s prohibition on excessively “negative” portrayals of U.S. history, said two of the people familiar with the process.

Many park personnel on the ground now are unsure if NPS will soon demand changes at many parks or leave things as they are, said a park superintendent, who was granted anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to the media.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/15/inside-the-national-park-service-push-to-rewrite-history-00792849

[2naSalit]

1. The slower...

The better. Most of the NPS employees are probably seriously disgusted at the demands.

[OldBaldy1701E]

2. "...said a park superintendent, who was granted anonymity because they are not allowed to speak to the media."

The Park Service.... who rely on the public... cannot speak to the public?

Well, that is not suspicious in the slightest, now is it?

[BumRushDaShow]

3. If they were named

they would be immediately (and illegally) "fired" and would have to spend a lot of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and time to get their situation through the courts to get their illegally-removed jobs back.

[OldBaldy1701E]

4. That seems silly to me.

Why spend a lot of money on getting back a job that treated you in that way?

The fact that it happened means that it could easily happen again. Does one really want to be in such a stressful environment day after day? And, for what amounts to peanuts? Why keep doing that? Because we have no other choice?

Why is that, I wonder?

It seems to me that the oligarchs desire to make us believe that the only way reality itself exists is to do their bidding, and that's what is going on here.

Why are we continuing to pay along?

I guess the reality is that they do own us, eh?

[BumRushDaShow]

5. In many cases

you have whole groups of people - notably POC - where "private industry" will NOT hire them. Period. Regardless of any EEO "laws" that are now being systematically dismantled.

People usually put up with a lot before choosing to leave and in this case, something like the NPS was never a "politicized" entity (versus the federal agency I used to work for). In fact, IIRC, it was often known as the "best place to work", because those who chose to work there (at least outside of the administrative staff) tended to embrace the outdoors and anything needed to enhance and preserve it.

So more and more "under the radar" agencies like the NPS, are getting impacted by and are dying from, the parasitic infection known as "the 45 administration".

[OldBaldy1701E]

6. People 'put up with a lot' because they have been programmed to do so.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Or it's a necessity

particularly those at the bottom of the "99%".

The U.S. has no "Universal Basic Income".

[OldBaldy1701E]

8. They created the 'necessity'.

We don't have to play that game. There are other options.

Of course, those currently in power would lose that position.

That should not be a deal breaker, but for some reason, it is.

I wonder why?

We don't have to be held under the boot of corrupted capitalism, nor a corrupted political system.

We choose to be. We love our sociopolitical masochism.

The ones in power don't care about you. They care about being in power.

And, we seem to believe that this is more important.

The programming worked.

(By the way, I am one of those 'at the bottom'. I have nothing. I am one health issue away from both complete socioeconomic collapse and my end. But, I am willing to suffer a bit more than usual if it means that our general society will improve. To be honest, I did not think that I would see the day when wanting things to be more equitable and ethical is seen as 'radical', or 'undesirable'. I guess I have lived too long. )

[BumRushDaShow]

9. You are talking on the lofty "macro" level

But the average person is not tuned into the evils and vagaries of U.S. capitalism.

And as a note, other than an option of maybe going to library to get on the internet, you are "above" quite a few who have no internet access nor home (or living with many others or living out of a car or on the streets trying to do "side-hustles" ).

They see a different side of "capitalism" but are far from any levers of power to do anything about it. Their lack of residence alone precludes any voting.

IOW, the people who the "Working Families Party" are tapping into that we haven't reached or even reached out to (other than a few charlatans like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West).