When one thinks about American heroes, children and adults who have not matured beyond grade school intellect name the usual suspects—people like George Washington, Paul Revere, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Abraham Lincoln.
All deserving of praise, appreciation and reverence for forging America into an unparalleled bastion of democracy and opportunity.
But the list of heroes—true heroes who molded our country into the envy of the world—runs much deeper than the picture book caricatures conveyed in elementary school textbooks.
True American heroes changed our country by expanding the rights and opportunities of all citizens and residents, regardless of race, gender or creed.
In Donald Trump terms, American heroes should be military “warriors.” Except Donald Trump sees everything through bigoted eyes, so he and his secretary of defense Pete Hegseth are determined to erase any public display of gay, black and Hispanic achievement on military equipment or establishments. People such as Harvey Milk, Harriet Tubman, Thurgood Marshall, Cesar Chavez, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Lucy Stone, Medgar Evers and Dolores Huerta, who have been considered for honors such as the naming of U. S. Navy vessels, no longer will be recognized (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/us/politics/navy-ships-harvey-milk-renamed.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare).
The erasure of our collective history is an abomination. Half of our elected national legislators—the Trumpers—are acquiescing. Their silence is deafening. Most appalling is the failure of the four black House members, one black senator, 18 Hispanic House members and one Hispanic senator to speak out in defiance of the erasure of their heritage heroes.
Harvey Milk et al epitomized the struggle to overcome adversity, inequality, discrimination and slavery. They are the type of “warriors” we should be extolling. Trump and Hegseth, on the other hand, have exercised a workaround from the removal of Confederate officer names accomplished under President Joe Biden. Biden changed Georgia’s Fort Benning to Fort Moore.
Trump and Hegseth reinstated the Benning name, ostensibly to honor a World War I hero, Corporal Fred G. Benning, but the intent to identify with the Confederacy was impossible to miss. Henry L. Benning supported secession and served as a Confederate brigadier general.
Trump and Hegseth have the power to whitewash black, Hispanic and gay contributions. In response, black, Hispanic and gay Americans should stage a peaceful protest.
How? By not going to work or school throughout the country on Friday, June 13, the day before Trump’s birthday and the 250th anniversary of the U. S. Army.
