Well, of course. As someone who lives in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the nation’s fifth-largest state, this could not be ignored.

President Joe Biden’s National Park Service, part of the Biden-run Department of Interior, had announced its decision to remove a statue of Pennsylvania’s namesake founder, William Penn.

The Philadelphia Inquirer headlined:

William Penn statue may be permanently removed from Welcome Park, angering some

Plans call for removal of the Penn statue in favor of “an expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia.”

The paper located in Pennsylvania’s largest city reported:

New plans by the National Park Service to renovate Old City’s Welcome Park include removing the centerpiece statue of William Penn permanently and redesigning the park to highlight Native American history — a move that has angered Pennsylvania’s Republican leadership.

The plan is a major shift, considering that the park was built on the site of Penn’s home, the Slate Roof House, and is named for the ship, Welcome, that transported him from England. Penn actually landed first in 1682 near the intersection of the Delaware River and Chester Creek in Chester.

Welcome Park is part of Independence National Historical Park and was completed in 1982 on designs by Venturi & Scott Brown Associates, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Penn’s arrival.

The Park Service issued a statement that read:

The National Park Service proposes to rehabilitate Welcome Park to provide a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors….

The proposed rehabilitation of Welcome Park includes expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia and was developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma. The reimagined Welcome Park maintains certain aspects of the original design such as the street grid, the rivers and the east wall while adding a new planted buffer on three sides, and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches. The Penn statue and Slate Roof house model will be removed and not reinstalled. In a separate and future effort, new exhibit panels will be installed on the south site wall to replace the Penn timeline.

The public is invited to submit comments on this proposed design for the rehabilitation of Welcome Park for a 14-day period from January 8th – 21st, 2024 through the National Park Service’s Planning, Environment and Public Comment (PEPC) at https://parkplanning.nps.gov.

In other words?

Joe Biden, he who boasts of being born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and where the “President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Expressway” is today located, was making a point of having the bureaucrats under his direction in the U.S. Department of Interior remove a statue dedicated to honoring the man for whom Biden’s native state is named. (READ MORE: The Democrats Can’t Disgorge Biden)

What’s next? Dropping and banning the use of Penn’s name in the name of the state? Will “Pennsylvania” — which literally means “Penn’s Woods” — now be called “Sylvania,” erasing Penn’s name from the state he founded?

Not to mention erasing Penn’s name from all manner of institutions in that state? No more “Pennsylvania Turnpike”? No more “University of Pennsylvania”? No more “Penn State University”?

Notably, William Penn was an advocate for religious freedom. One of his biographers, Harry Emerson Wildes, wrote this of Penn in his book William Penn: A Biography:

Penn was both complex and contradictory…. A man who respected authority, he attacked the Established Church and challenged the divine right of kings by insisting upon the divine right of popular government….

William Penn’s ideas were far in advance of his time. His chief concern was for freedom, particularly the right — indeed the duty — of each individual to think for himself, especially to worship God as each thought best. Unfortunately he campaigned for religious tolerance in an era when conformity was accounted a virtue. He demanded equality in an era of aristocracy, justice in a period when fair-mindedness could be heresy, if not treason….

Penn stood firm for what he regarded as the fundamental and historic rights of Englishmen: the rights of life, liberty, and property; the right to government by popular consent; the right to trial by independent juries. These rights, stemming from ancient custom and guaranteed by such solemn compacts as the Magna Carta, were not to be infringed upon by any overlord, regardless of his rank or power.

And contrary to the impression being given by the Biden administration, Wildes records that Penn had “a partiality towards Indians,” which was partly attributed to his belief that Native Americans “were descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. He imagined for them an admirable background.”

Was William Penn, the devout Quaker, a perfect, flawless man? Of course not. No one is.

But he was, in fact, a serious player in American history. The colony named for him was founded in 1681 through a royal grant from the king of England. It became a state in the new United States of America in 1787. He intended for his colony to be a model of religious and political tolerance.

That would be a tolerance that is exactly what the Biden administration opposes.

Which is why, in yet another display of left-wing intolerance and desire to erase American history, the Biden administration focused on removing that Philadelphia statue of William Penn, the founder and namesake of what is now America’s fifth-largest state.

But wait!

Not long after this nuttiness was announced, there was a sudden reversal. The headline:

Park withdraws review of Welcome Park rehabilitation proposal

Out of the supposed blue, the story direct on the site from the National Park Service now read:

PHILADELPHIA — Independence National Historical Park has withdrawn the review of a draft proposal to rehabilitate Welcome Park and closed the public comment period. The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned.

The National Park Service (NPS) remains committed to rehabilitating Welcome Park as the nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Upon completion of all the necessary internal reviews, the park looks forward to engaging in a robust public process to consider options for refurbishing the park in the coming years.

In other words?

Ooops!

Whatever else this crazy moment illustrates, it is that the decidedly woke idea that history should be rewritten or eliminated outright to satisfy the crazy Left does in fact stir a serious backlash.

William Penn fans — fans of actual history — were awakened by this craziness.

They stirred.

And, so, Billy Penn lives.

The real question?

Why was his memory — his statue, in this case — even threatened in the first place? And just who was responsible?

One suspects in this day and age that this is not the last rewriting history craziness to be heard.

Long live Pennsylvania!

Joe Biden’s chances of carrying the state in 2024 live on.