www.montereycountynow.com JULY 2-8, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 19 and fielded anger toward the soldiers. Yet they found Preston not guilty and likewise acquitted six of the men. Two were declared guilty on the lesser charge of manslaughter and were branded as punishment. In his 2025 executive order— number 14253, with the ironic title of “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”—Trump lashes out against fact. The retelling should “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.” The order goes on to demand that monuments, markers or other memorials “do not contain descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).” The order has been appropriately mocked. Writing for the International Bar Association, Tim Ryback, executive director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation in The Hague, noted that Trump failed to clarify what appropriate disparagement of American heroes might look like. Race is a central theme through American history, and the one most often met with cultural somnolence or false narratives. In Executive Order 14253, Trump insists that National Park Service guides presented “a divisive, race-centered ideology” when it comes to slavery. The order instructs historic sites that are federal property—both parks and museums—to teach an ideal of “consistent progress” of “advancing liberty, prosperity and human flourishing,” blaming previous administrations for reconstructing our past as “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive or otherwise irredeemably flawed.” Humans, of course, are naturally flawed. How do we cope with baseball hall of fame manager John McGraw, who in 1901 signed Negro League infielder Charlie Grant, hoping to pass him off as a Cherokee to bypass the color barrier, and who hoped to bring dozens of other Black players to the New York Giants, but also reportedly accepted a piece of rope from a lynching as a good luck charm? One of the most persistent national myths is related to a massive racist blight that Trump shrugs off: slavery. Some people insist that the Confederate States seceded in defense of states’ rights. But was there a right, in particular, that slave-owning states wished to preserve? The answer can be found in Mississippi’s Declaration of Secession, which states clearly that “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of the commerce of the Earth… These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization.” How noble. Granted, there were mill owners in England and merchant shipping operators in Northern ports that also profited off the labor of enslaved people. Yet the message is clear. Mississippi’s delegates complained that slavery was not allowed on federal land, that abolitionists schemed to emancipate their property or—apparently worse—advocated for Black equality. That fighting against the United States was merely an action in support of states rights is further contradicted in a song popular in the South following the war. “I’m A Good Old Rebel” includes lyrics such as “I hate the Constitution” and “I hate the Freedmen’s Bureau,” the latter a reference to the agency responsible for aiding refugees and emancipated slaves. It would, of course, be a mistake John Trumbull’s 1817 painting of the presentation of a draft for review is often mistakenly referred to as the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The document was sent to the printer on that date, but most delegates signed the document later. WE STAND
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