Rename Pershing Square?
Oh Kevin de León, what are you up to now
Kevin de León (whose recent success in having Second and Main named “Cooper Donut Square” was born of a bizarre and crafty campaign of disinformation) has made a motion to Council that we rename Pershing Square to Biddy Mason Park.
So, I talk a bit about that. For example, de León claims General John J. Pershing never set foot in Los Angeles; I prove him wrong. He claims we need a Biddy Mason park, though we already have one. He claims we need another park since Biddy Mason is so overlooked and unsung, so I examine that claim critically.
Click the link
https://bunkerhilllosangeles.com/2024/06/22/renaming-pershing-square/
…and read it for yourself!
I have mixed feelings about Pershing Square. I have studied World War I and General Pershing’s command of the American expeditionary force - it was was a catastrophe.
Although people think that the US did not have a high number of casualties compared to other countries, in actuality, the US had one of the highest rate of casualties on a per capita basis. Why was that?
The reason was that Pershing was a failed cavalry commander with his mentality definitely in the 19th century. His pursuit of Pancho Villa In Mexico before World War I was another disaster. So Woodrow Wilson made one of the worst choices possible.
Later on in 1917 when American troops started dribbling into Europe, even the asinine British and French generals had learned some lessons about not continuing to slaughter their troops pointlessly in hell holes of barbed wire, heavy artillery, machine gun nests poison gas and mud.
They had been sending men in flimsy cloth uniforms against walls of shrapnel being shot at high velocity. So they began to adopt some tactics that were more economical with their men, Especially since there were not that many left. However, when these generals tried politely to explain to Pershing that he should be employing strategy and tactics appropriate to this new industrial warfare, Pershing refused to listen and arrogantly, pushed forward by sending his men over the top into a field of hopeless slaughter-
In some cases, those who died quickly were better off. Of course, the news media covered this up and Pershing was welcome back by civilians who didn’t know better with mindless praise and unqualified adulation. Numerous social mental and physical problems that ensued with the returning veterans gradually woke people up to what actually happened in the killing fields under their heroic Pershing. But by that time, it was too late.
So when I hear the name, Pershing Square, I shudder with revulsion because I know what happened. I wish the American people knew as well.
But that is a hopeless illusion on my part. 🥲