Who’ll be enshrined as heroes?
website on Friday afternoon. It’s the latest example of governors ignoring White House requests — ranging from statues, to school openings to nursing homes testing — amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I haven’t given it a moment’s thought,” Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly told the Associated Press. “I have other things to do.”
Some were highly critical of the effort as an ill-timed political stunt.
“We would encourage the White House to spend their time on the response to the coronavirus,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s spokeswoman, Lyndsay Kensinger.
“It’s a shame that some governors are unwilling to celebrate and recognize the significant achievements of their own residents who have heroically impacted our nation’s history,” Interior Department spokesman Ben Goldey said.
The list of heroes submitted by Republican governors included some obvious choices — civil rights hero Rosa Parks; Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice; and Sacagawea, the Lewis and Clark expedition’s indispensable guide — that stick out for their lack of inclusion in Trump’s list.
Prominent Native Americans highlighted some state and local nominations.
“We have so much history in Montana and our country,” said Yellowstone County Commissioner John Ostlund, a Republican, talking about his board’s decision to nominate revered Crow Tribe leaders as well as cowboys, famous explorers and others.
“It was a conscious decision to include all sides of our history. All of the history ... I don’t want to erase anything,” Ostlund said.
Favorite sons and daughters little known outside their borders also made the cut: a National Rifle Association president, Harry Truman’s vice president, air conditioner inventor Willis Carrier.