The pettiness of the Trump Regime knows no bounds.
We learned this week that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — no doubt at the behest of his leash-holder, the president — had ordered that a Navy ship named for Harvey Milk be renamed. Milk was the openly gay member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who was murdered, along with the city’s mayor, Willie Moscone, in 1978.
Milk’s assassination was a rallying point for the LGBT community. He has been an icon of the movement to gain equal rights for that community ever since.
Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to Newsweek: “Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all DOD installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos.”
Warrior ethos? Let’s remember the commander-in-chief avoided the opportunity to become a warrior by claiming to suffer from bone spurs during the Vietnam War.
Harvey Milk, unlike Trump, was an actual military veteran, a Navy officer. He was commissioned in 1951 and served during the Korean War on a submarine rescue ship and later as a diving instructor. He received an “other than honorable” discharge in 1955 after his superiors learned he was gay.
His dismissal is a shame on our nation. His murder was an outrage. What the regime is doing now to his name is just the small act of small men in big offices.
Trump’s and Hegseth’s “priorities” are evident in the other ships on their hit list:
USNS Thurgood Marshall, named in honor of Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
USNS Cesar Chavez, named after the labor leader and civil rights activist, a NAVY veteran.
USNS Medgar Evers, named for the civil rights activist and World War II Army veteran assassinated by a white supremacist in 1963.
USNS Harriet Tubman, named for the Underground Railroad conductor and Union spy during the Civil War, who was posthumously awarded the rank of brigadier general in the Maryland National Guard.
USNS Dolores Huerta, named after a labor leader and co-founder of the United Farm Workers alongside Chavez.
USNS Lucy Stone, named for a suffragist and abolitionist who was the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree.
USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, named for the late Supreme Court justice.
It’s clear the “priorities” are racism, sexism and homophobia. Add to that a disdain for common working people, such as those the efforts of Chavez and Huerta helped. Poor, hardworking people come from all races.
It’s bigotry on clear display.
Let’s also take a moment to address Parnell’s claim that that the renaming is tied to “our nation’s history.” Every name on that list belonged to someone who is more important to our nation’s history than those who would dishonor them now.
No, this, like so many other actions taken by these people, is about whitewashing our history. And, yes, I chose that term deliberately.
It’s part of a wider effort — along with anti-DEI initiatives and attacks on colleges — to erase the accomplishments of people who look or act differently than the perpetrators do.
These guys probably think it’s funny that they’re doing this during Pride Month, deliberately upsetting people who have benefitted from Milk’s life and death. They’ll probably announce the renaming of USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Medgar Evers and USNS Harriet Tubman during Black History Month, and think they’re clever for doing so.
We’re being ruled, right now, by the worst of us — the bullies from high school, the most entitled fraternity at college — those who think the rest of us are here to serve and entertain them.
Certainly, the renaming of a ship pales in comparison to the tangible harm the Trump Regime is perpetrating against its citizens through cuts to vital services, but it’s a unique look at how little they regard the people they rule.
When the history of this era is written, Hegseth will be a footnote, at most. Trump will be an embarrassing chapter. The names on their list will be remembered and honored, whether or not they adorn the sides of ships.