Scrub the scrubbing

Eager to erase “all symbols of hate,” Mayor de Blasio has pledged to remove a granite marker, one of dozens like it on lower Broadway, documenting the historical fact that in 1931 the city gave a ticker-tape parade to Philippe Pétain, a French World War I hero who became a Nazi collaborator. Others are rushing to strip Confederate-flag-shaped tiles from the Times Square subway station. Such histrionic overreaction helps no one but those who scoff at the noble movement to bring down statues paying formal tribute to men who fought to preserve slavery.