What’s Taking So Long? Rename Those Confederate Bases – By Kevin Baron (Defense One) / February 16, 2022
It shouldn’t be this hard or require this political theater to do what’s right, right now.
For this second Black History Month of Joe Biden’s presidency, the commander in chief should do something he promised his voters long ago: right a wrong by renaming U.S. military bases named for Confederate soldiers.
What’s the holdup? It’s been one year since Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin named his panelists to the Congressionally-mandated commission on base renaming. It’s been nearly six months since the commission asked the public for new base name ideas. After receiving thousands of base name suggestions last fall, a source close to the decision tells me this week that the commission is likely still months from making its recommendations.
Meanwhile, the moment is passing the Pentagon by. Across the country, statues built to honor white men who enslaved their fellow humans for profit have come down by force or decree, their names removed from buildings, streets, and schools built in a time when white Americans tried hard to create a fake history to serve their own purposes.
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