Don't Know Much About History
Over the email transom comes this news release:
HARRISBURG - State Senators LeAnna M. Washington(D-Phila.) and Shirley M. Kitchen (D-Phila.) have introduced legislation to rename the North Office Building in the Capitol Complex after C. Delores Tucker, the civil and women's rights pioneer and Pennsylvania political icon.
Under their proposal, the building would be named the "Secretary C. Delores Tucker Office Building."
"Dr. Tucker's legacy to the citizens of Pennsylvania is one of vision, hope, courage and love for all humanity," Washington said. "The renaming of North Office Building in Harrisburg in her honor would insure that the extraordinary gifts she has given to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will serve as a living testament to her good works and endure beyond the millenniums."
The release notes that Tucker, who died in October, 2005, was the first African-American woman to serve as Secretary of State in Pennsylvania.
What it doesn't mention is that Tucker was fired by her boss, Gov. Milton Shapp, in 1977 after it was disclosed (by Bill Ecenbarger in The Inquirer) that she was spending much of her time in the job making political speeches, some of them written by state employees. She pulled in $65,000 for that speechifying, the equivalent of $223,000 in today's dollars.
My motto is De mortuis nil nisi bonum (A Latin proverb that translates: Speak no ill of the dead), so I'll just say that the authors of this legislation are either trying to ignore history or rewrite it.
HARRISBURG - State Senators LeAnna M. Washington(D-Phila.) and Shirley M. Kitchen (D-Phila.) have introduced legislation to rename the North Office Building in the Capitol Complex after C. Delores Tucker, the civil and women's rights pioneer and Pennsylvania political icon.
Under their proposal, the building would be named the "Secretary C. Delores Tucker Office Building."
"Dr. Tucker's legacy to the citizens of Pennsylvania is one of vision, hope, courage and love for all humanity," Washington said. "The renaming of North Office Building in Harrisburg in her honor would insure that the extraordinary gifts she has given to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will serve as a living testament to her good works and endure beyond the millenniums."
The release notes that Tucker, who died in October, 2005, was the first African-American woman to serve as Secretary of State in Pennsylvania.
What it doesn't mention is that Tucker was fired by her boss, Gov. Milton Shapp, in 1977 after it was disclosed (by Bill Ecenbarger in The Inquirer) that she was spending much of her time in the job making political speeches, some of them written by state employees. She pulled in $65,000 for that speechifying, the equivalent of $223,000 in today's dollars.
My motto is De mortuis nil nisi bonum (A Latin proverb that translates: Speak no ill of the dead), so I'll just say that the authors of this legislation are either trying to ignore history or rewrite it.
posted by Tom Ferrick Jr. at 12:42 AM
1 Comments:
Wow! He seems to know a lot about history. He must be doing some serious reading.
Post a Comment
<< Home