Learn from History-Don’t Erase It!

Although America is the greatest nation in the history of mankind-our history is one of violence and cruelty to many.  But we have evolved and improved as a country.  Some want to erase history by tearing down statues and taking down monuments for political correctness' sake.  I think this is dangerous, and I DO NOT support this....History is what it was, not what we wish it had been...

In 2021, the  $427 Million replacement bridge now under construction over Pensacola Bay will be completed.  Current FDOT policy and practice dictates replacement structure(s) carry the same designations as the original structure(s) replaced-absent any new legislative action.

In this instance and by an act of the Florida legislature in 1961-the bridge connecting Pensacola with Gulf Breeze is officially recognized as the “Philip D. Beall Sr. Memorial Bridge”—although most locals call it the “3-Mile Bridge.”  (Sen. Philip D. Beall was a State Senator from Pensacola from 1935 until 1943.)

But some folks now insist we give this replacement structure a new name—stripping the Beall family name and re-naming it the Daniel R. “Chappie” James bridge.  (Chappie James was a decorated combat aviator, the first black man to become a 4-star general in the U.S. Military.)

I believe a better tribute for a great man like Chappie would be for us to rename Pensacola’s airport in his honor—after all, Chappie was an aviator!  If Louisville Kentucky can rename their city’s airport for their favorite son, Mohammad Ali, then why can’t Pensacola do this same thing for Chappie James?

Beall’s descendants have suggested a fair compromise amidst all this rancorous debate—a dual designation of the bridge, honoring both men. 

Unfortunately- this magnanimous, common-sense gesture was rebuked.

Our legislative delegation, meanwhile, has signaled its willingness to introduce legislation to change the bridge’s official designation-- if this is the will of the four interested communities.

Pensacola and Santa Rosa County have already taken formal votes on this.

Escambia County and the city of Gulf Breeze, however, have wisely moved forward with a committee approach for considering this issue--allowing individual citizens a voice in this decision.   (citizens may send their thoughts to:  namethebridge@myescambia.com )

I’m hopeful this committee will listen to all sides of this matter with open minds.

Because sadly--some folks that are supportive of changing the bridge’s name have now resorted to denigrating a family’s legacy by calling Sen. Beall a “racist”- an insidious claim that has no basis in fact!

This negative turn in the discussion has been devastating to Beall’s descendants. 

Senator Beall’s daughter sat in my office going through memorabilia recently—and emotionally asked me this: “Why do they want to erase my family’s history-our family wasn’t racist?”

Nevertheless-- individuals pushing to tear Beall’s name from the bridge continue assaulting his legacy, pointing to legislation the senator sponsored in 1935 that made Democratic primaries statewide "white only."

But these primaries were ubiquitous in the 1930s south; the Supreme Court decision in Grovey v. Townsend ruled that such primaries were lawful and didn’t deprive citizens of their 14th or 15th Amendment rights.  It was about party politics of that time, not race.

Meanwhile-- every racist injustice committed by Andrew Jackson, FDR, Robert Byrd, and other historic figures that have monuments locally and nationwide---apparently, these are a non-issue.  (Jackson owned slaves, FDR force-segregated black troops and illegally interred American Citizens of Japanese descent. Byrd was in the Ku Klux Klan—yet all these guys’ monuments stand proudly?)

It’s rank hypocrisy that’s borderline delusional.

Allowing ANY angry mob to become the de facto “monument police,” re-writing our history to suit their agenda and ideology, condemning selected historical figures while ignoring historical realities, acting as judge, jury and executioner to erase history—this is wrong!  

I don’t-- and we shouldn’t—countenance the sanitizing of history by condoning the forceful destruction of statues, the removal of monuments, and/or the stealing of families' memorial designations----on the orders of ANY angry mob. 

Email to the Bridge Naming Committee

The Escambia County/City of Gulf Breeze joint committee on the naming of the replacement bridge over Escambia Bay is currently taking input from citizens.  I sent the below email yesterday.

Citizens are encouraged to send their thoughts to this committee that will be making a "name" recommendation to the Escambia Board of County Commissioners and to the Gulf Breeze City Council later this summer.

You can read all about this issue via my multiple posts on this whole issue here

Input can be submitted via this email address:  NameTheBridge@MyEscambia.com

Escambia County Going with the Committee Approach to Naming the Repacement Bridge---Wisely

The Escambia BCC voted 3-2 today to move the naming of the replacement 3-Mile Bridge to a citizen's committee... a good decision for all!

Today the Escambia BCC voted by a 3-2 margin to go with a committee approach to the idea of renaming the 3-Mile Bridge over Pensacola Bay that currently carries the official designation of the "Philip D. Beall Sr. Memorial Bridge."

A local citizen's group had come in with a request that we adopt their plan to rename the structure for a local war hero-- with no additional consideration-- and to the detriment of the Beall family--as to do this would strip the Beall name from the bridge.

Nobody is saying, outright, NO WAY!

Folks are just asking that we consider alternatives.

Can we compromise and do a dual designation that honors both families?  How about we find a way to honor General Chappie James without stripping an honor away from the Beall family?

How about we name the airport at Pensacola for Chappie and keep the bridge named for Beall?

Taking a step back and listenting to stakeholders for a decision of this magnitude is smart, and I commend the board for not kowtowing to the loudest voices in the room and holding fast today with a vote to impanel a committee of concerned citizens to help us with this decision.

This was the wise, measured, and rational way to proceed on this issue!

A Family's Good Name is an Issue Bigger Than ANY Bridge Part II: Who Are "The Monument Police"

Some are saying having a bridge carry the name Philip D. Beall Sr.(pictured above) is simply unacceptable. So who will be the area's monument police that will use today's standards to tear down monuments and rip down memorial designations from men that lived 50, 100, 150, 200, or 300 years ago?  Will we demand all local memorials, roadway designations, statues and monuments to President Andrew Jackson  also be abolished?   

Who will be our area's "monument police?"

As we work through the initiative that some citizens have been pushing to take the Philip D Beall designation from the bridge that bears his name in Pensacola--some have even stooped to the lowest of levels and started to attack the man's character (and by implication, his family's good name) as an added reason to take the designation from him and his family.

They are asking the legislature to submit a bill to remove the Beall name from the bridge and add a different name.

This is very unfortunate.

Philip D. Beall Sr. was a State Senator that did many great things for our area.  His son, Philip D. Beall, Jr., also served in the Florida Senate for 16 years after he returned from service in WW II.  He also did many great things for our area as well.  He had a brother that served in WWII in the Pacific Theater.  This brother, Kirke Monroe Beall, went on to serve as a local Circuit Court Judge. He did many great things for our area as well.

From the 1930s through the 1960s and beyond--this family gave a lot to our area.

But according to some that want to see a new name on the replacement bridge that currently honors the Beall family's Patriarch--the name MUST change because in the opinion of this small minority of folks--"Beall was a racist."  To me this is disgusting and insulting and ignores historical realities that cannot be downplayed.

The impetus for this negative characterization being heaped upon Senator Beall apparently stems from legislation that was sponsored in the Florida Legislature in 1935 and adopted unanimously and signed into law by the Governor that sought to control and solidify Democratic control over areas of the state by disallowing Republican voters (primarily Black voters at this time in our history) from voting in primary elections.

This was wrong, no doubt. Under today's standards it would not be tolerated and anyone that tried such tactics would rightly be imprisoned.  But a thorough examination of the context illustrates that this was a party-politics issue--not a blatantly, exclusively racist issue.  But let me be clear:  our historic treatment of minorities in the South was abhorrent.  It was abysmal. I wasn't alive until 1968 and if I was alive then--I would not have supported it! This said--it was the way things were at that particular time.  Our history is ugly.

But nope, we apparently cannot look at it that way.  Nope, it was racism! and so now, suddenly, after all these years, the Beall's are no longer "worthy" of the memorial designation on the bridge. Nope, some self-anointed "monument police" have spoken.  They have decreed that this is no longer tenable.  The name must be changed NOW because this man was, according to these accusers, a bigot!

But wait just a minute.   Who is it among all men that is without any fault?  Who?  Answer: none of us.  Only God is without fault.

So who will be the area's monument police that will use today's standards to tear down monuments and rip down memorial designations from men that lived 50, 100, 150, or 200 years ago?  Will we

demand all local memorials, roadway designations, statues and monuments to President Andrew Jackson be abolished?  After all, even though he was a beloved figure in history, a former governor of the Florida territory and our nation's 7th President---he and his son owned hundreds of slaves in his lifetime at his properties in Tennessee and Mississippi-- and he ordered the forcible removal of the Cherokee Indians from the southeast to Oklahoma--and thousands of Native Americans died as a result.  What will the monument police say about "Old Hickory?"  Will these monument police immediately forego the use of the U.S. $20 Dollar Bill that features Andrew Jackson?

Andrew Jackson owned slaves and mistreated Native Americans in his lifetime.  Will the
same self-anointed "monument police" that are demanding Senator Beall's
memorial be taken away demand all of the local memorials to President Jackson
come down as well?

Or---

Will he be exempted from the demands for monument and memorial removals by the same monument police that want Philip D. Beall's name removed from the Bridge that carries his name?

If so, why?  And if not, why not?

I want to understand the distinctions.  Is it based upon position of power achieved? Notoriety?  Or is it based upon the severity of the injustices purportedly committed upon minorities?  I want to know and I only ask because if we are giving Jackson a pass, but not Beall, this is illogical and hypocritical.  Jackson did far, far, worse to Indians and Blacks than did most anyone--he did way worse by orders of magnitude than did Florida State Senate President Philip D. Beall Sr.

Will the monument police have different standards based upon different historical periods, and-if so- who among the monument police will set such standards?  I'm very interested in this.

Next let's talk about Don Tristan De Luna, Sen. Robert Byrd, Presidents Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.  I want to hear what the monument police have to say about all the monuments, hundreds of them around the nation,  to all of these historic men who each had their own unique historical issues with race and unequal treatment of races--and/or worse.

I would like a cogent, reasoned response from the monument police on this question: --do we have to tear down all remnants of any memorial or monument to any prominent historical figures if there is any speck of racial issues with such a figure's history--regardless of the implications of the particular period in history in which such historic figures lived?  Is that what the monument police want?

This is an incredibly steep and slippery slope and it is a very dangerous thing to do, tearing down monuments, statues, memorials, and family legacies.

For my part, I won't partake.

I know all too well that we are all flawed, none of us is perfect, history is exactly what it was (not what we want to redefine it to be) and if we start down this path it does not end well.

A Family's Good Name is An Issue Bigger than ANY Bridge, Part I: Who are the Beall's?

The official designation of Pensacola's 3-mile bridge is the Philip D Beall Sr. Memorial Bridge.  This designation will carry over to the replacement bridge scheduled for completion in 2021, absent any legislative action to prevent this

A PUSH TO REMOVE A MEMORIAL

Philip D. Beall Jr. served honorably
 as a bombardier in the US Army Air
Corps in WWII and as a
Florida Senator for 16 years upon
his return home from the war

There is a silent tug of war brewing in Pensacola that is now bubbling over into the court of public opinion that threatens the legacy and memorial one family has cherished for decades.  This family, The Beall family, worries their name and their family and all the sacrifices they've made will soon be wiped out and erased.  

Worse than this, the family fears their ancestors will be targeted and attacked unfairly. 

They are heartbroken at the thought.

As I have had the pleasure of hearing more about this family over the past several months by speaking with them and learning more about them and what they have done for the community, I have once again rediscovered my love for and fascination of history. 

But history is a tricky thing.  Who retells a tale and under what context a story is told can frame an actual event in multiple ways…  Sadly, I believe some historical manipulation is happening as it pertains to one local family which is slowly transitioning into the politics of personal destruction.  I am hopeful, however, that a look at the sum-total of this one family’s contributions to our community will not be erased because of historical incidents being taken out of context and viewed through the lens of America circa 2019.

WHO ARE THE BEALL FAMILY MEMBERS AND WHY IS THE 3-MILE BRIDGE NAMED IN THEIR HONOR?

Senator Philip D Beall Sr. and his wife Hildur

The Pensacola three-mile bridge that connects Gulf Breeze, Florida with Pensacola, Florida,  has a state designation—it is officially known as the “Philip Dane Beall, Sr. Memorial Bridge.”  Philip D Beall Sr. was a Pensacola native and a Florida state Senator who served as Senate President in 1943 when he died in office.  His sons, Philip D Beall Jr and Kirke Beall both served honorably in WWII.  Philip D. Beall Jr. was shot down over Germany in WWII and spent two years in a German POW camp.  His father died in 1943 not knowing his son’s fate, and the younger Beall was imprisoned and unaware, until his release, that his father had died.  In 1962 the Florida legislature named the bridge between Gulf Breeze and Pensacola for Philip D Beall—in honor of the man’s legacy.  Interestingly—most locals do not know this and instead affectionately refer to the bridge as the “Three Mile Bridge.”  This structure is currently being replaced with a $500 Million-dollar span that will be open to traffic, fully, in 2021.  According to FDOT-once the replacement bridge is completed and absent any legislative action, the replacement bridge will carry the same official designation “Philip D Beall Sr. Memorial Bridge.”

Sen. Beall's sons served in WWII hon-
orably as Beall Sr. served as President
of the Florida Senate.  Pictured above
is Senator Beall's son Kirke Beall, a
US Navy WWII veteran of the Pacific
Theater.

A group of local citizens is trying to have the Beall designation removed so that the new bridge, the replacement bridge, can be renamed the “General Daniel R. ‘Chappie’ James” memorial bridge.  Gen. James was a decorated combat veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars, a native Pensacolian, and the nation’s first Black 4-Star General.  His legacy is honorable, and he and his family currently have 13 memorials nationwide—including a state building named for him right here in Pensacola.  The folks that want to name the bridge for James have organized and they have petitioned the four local legislative bodies (Santa Rosa County Commission, Escambia County Commission, Gulf Breeze City Council, and Pensacola City Council.)  Santa Rosa County and Pensacola have both already voted in favor of making this change in designation.  The legislative delegation will run a bill in Tallahassee to make this change if the four governing bodies vote proactively to do this. 

A FAMILY WAITS IN LIMBO

The Beall family, meanwhile, waits in limbo.  They don’t want to see their family’s one and only memorial get torn away.  

They do not want their family’s name to be stained.  

This family would like nothing more than to keep the designation or at a minimum to have both men honored by sharing this designation jointly. 

My simple question is this:  Why is the idea of a compromise, a joint designation, such an unacceptable proposition?

After all, a family’s name and a family’s legacy is an issue bigger than any Bridge.

Viewpoint Submitted last Week Brings an Attack in the Sunday Paper

This email (above) to PNJ was sent Thursday morning from the dais while I was at the BCC meeting.  Instead of considering my op-ed for publication, PNJ wrote a hatchet piece attacking me three days later in the Sunday edition.....

I wrote a very balanced viewpoint and sent it to PNJ on Thursday morning from our BCC meeting. I did this in reaction to a speaker at our meeting's public forum that made several statements that were inaccurate.   The viewpoint I sent in was a condensed version of this blog post from Monday morning of last week.  (This particular blog entry has been crushed with views this week--and has received numerous positive comments.)

But Instead of publishing it or considering it for publication--PNJ instead wrote a hit piece attacking me this morning which is ridiculous and disappointing.  Most folks who take a step back and look at this whole bridge-naming issue can clearly see that a compromise is in order here.  And this is exactly what I have proposed in my viewpoint.  Too bad PNJ didn't print it.

But then I started looking into the PNJ's previous writings on the plan to name the bridge after General James--and lo and behold apparently they have already made a decision on this via an editorial that was printed over the Christmas holiday last year.  I was out of the state and did not see it when it was first printed.  Okay, so PNJ believes that this is a great plan--no problem.

But what is wrong with taking a step back, asking some important questions, and figuring this whole thing out via a rational process--or even a citizen's committee?  What is wrong with my idea of honoring both men?  I guess this must simply be "TOO Controversial"---not my idea of having a dual designation on the bridge--but rather having the audacity to disagree with a position with which the PNJ have already taken.

Wow.

Questions that Must be Answered Regarding Renaming the Replacement Pensacola Bay Bridge......

We are two plus years away from completing construction on Pensacola Bay's replacement bridge linking Pensacola and Gulf Breeze via HWY 98--but some folks want to rename the bridge starting now.  And there are a lot of unknowns and unanswered questions about this initiative......

At yesterday's meeting of the Escambia Board of County Commissioners, a very animated, motivated speaker came before the board during public forum.  He is and was advocating that Escambia County get behind an initiative to rename the replacement bridge that is being constructed over Pensacola Bay.  He wants it named the "General Daniel R. 'Chappie' James Memorial Bridge."

Currently, the official name for the bridge is the Phillip Dane Beall., Sr., Memorial Bridge.

Contrary to what the speaker intimated at yesterday's BCC meeting, though,  the replacement bridge that is being constructed will carry the same designation as the bridge it replaces. 

I have confirmed this fact after requesting staff weigh in on this and after personally speaking with several individuals in Tallahassee with firsthand subject matter expertise in this arena.  According to one highly-placed source  "when a bridge is replaced, it’s designation remains the same; remember, those designations are done by Legislative act"
(of course a subsequent legislature can change the name with new legislation if they so choose.)

But absent any pro-active legislative moves to do this, the designation stays the same for the replacement bridge--which in this case would mean that the new bridge will remain the "Phillip Dane Beall, Sr., Memorial Bridge"  That's #1.

#2 is just common sense:    If it is so important to honor Chappie James (who is a very deserving historical figure--no question about it) by putting his name on this replacement bridge--why not honor the request of the descendants of Senator Beall and work amicably toward a joint designation like "Beall/James" Memorial Bridge?  I discussed the reasoning for this course of action in this previous blog entry.  Why push to rip the previous name off this bridge? 

#3---And what about this:  I have heard that there may be a movement to rename the bridge to honor Senator Don Gaetz (The Senate President that helped secure the funding for this bridge and also the person who pushed to insure this bridge did not become a toll bridge--as is becoming all-too common around the state as funding sources for these infrastructure projects are extinguished)  Why is this not being considered?--seems reasonable to me given all that Senator Gaetz has done for the panhandle over his many years of dedicated service.  And think about it this way:  The last two individuals that had the distinction and honor of having the bridge named for them were the two people that secured the funding for the bridge(s) that would carry their respective names.  So there is precedent for this....

#4 is a dose of common sense:  Who ever names a bridge two plus years before it is even completed?  Why is this being pushed and rushed forward--while we are still 2+ years away from completing the bridge?  Where is the fire??  This is borderline disrespectful to the legislative delegation.  This is their call, and nobody elses, in the final analysis.  So why are people attempting to preempt the legislative delegation here?

#5 is a series of questions for which I'd like to get  rational responses:  Where is the plan?  Has FDOT blessed the idea of putting a static Jet Display and statue where this group wants to place these things?  Won't this conflict with traffic flow?  Who will pay for the design and traffic engineering for making traffic safely flow from HWY 98 to this display and back on HWY 98?  How much will this cost if FDOT and the Federal Government even allow it---and who will pay this cost that could be millions of dollars if the current plans have to be modified?  How much, and who pays?  I want to see this data. Does this data even exist?

Big ideas like this initiative are fine--heck they even get exciting sometimes.   But big ideas require thoughtful consideration and time to be studied by the public and by the experts and elected officials that will ultimately decide such issues. 

Big ideas must be vetted, researched, and most importantly--they must be assembled in an orderly, intelligent, well-planned manner.  I don't know why the City Council took the vote they did, that is their right to do so. I think it may have been premature.  That is just my opinion.

But I'll guarantee this:  If this same question is brought before the Board of County Commissioners on the 7th of February as one of my counterparts proclaimed---There will be a  robust conversation and I will want answers to my questions above (and a list of about a dozen more I will bring to the meeting) before I would ever consider moving this forward to a vote.

Because this initiative does not seem like it is ready for prime time yet so far as I can tell........too many unknowns, to many unanswered questions.

Honoring a Man's Service Should Not Become Fodder for a Controversy

The current Pensacola Bay Bridge is named in honor of former Senate President Phillip D. Beall--this photo from the 1960s documents the bridge's ribbon cutting ceremony where Florida Governor LeRoy Collins presided.....

As we celebrate today's Martin Luther King holiday and celebrate all that this leader did for our country--it is great to see so many people recognize his influence and contributions to the civil rights movement in America.  It is great that communities around our nation have freeways, streets, buildings, schools and/or bridges named for Dr. King.

Again--this is a great thing.

The Escambia County School Board has named numerous educational facilities in honor of local leaders---to include the ECSD's former administrative building on Garden Street.

The Vernon McDaniel Building at 215 W. Garden Street was the school district's administrative headquarters until 2010.  It was named for an African-American civil rights pioneer;  McDaniel, the man,  was the principal of Booker T Washington High School and he was the first African-American elected to the Escambia County School Board.  He was also the first African-American to become Chairman of the Escambia School Board.  He fought for equal pay for black school administrators and won this change through a settlement agreement with the school district.

In late 2009, the school district purchased Gulf Power's then administrative building at 75 N. Pace Blvd.  It was known by many as the "Gulf Power" Building, or the "Pace" bldg.  When the school district renovated and moved into this new administrative facility--the board was lobbied by the descendants of Vernon McDaniel to name the new school district administrative facility the "Vernon McDaniel" building.  We did this (I was a member of the school board at that time), and there was no controversy at all.  We did this because previous leadership in the school district had clearly intended that the school district's administrative HQ be named in honor of this man--this was the intention.  And so we honored the will of the leaders that championed that designation.

Fast forward to early 2019 in Pensacola and a new bridge is being constructed from Pensacola to Gulf Breeze to replace the existing one that is nearing the end of its useful service life.  The bridge currently carries the designation of  "Phillip D. Beall Memorial Bridge."  Phillip Beall was a Florida state senator and senate President in the 1943.

According to current policy and statutory regulations, FDOT intends to maintain the existing bridge's designation and apply it to the replacement bridge once the new structure is completed in 2021--because the intent of the state's legislative action of 1962 that gave this bridge this designation was that the bridge connecting Gulf Breeze with Pensacola was to honor Senator Beall.

But now here comes the controversy.....

Some folks want to take away the state's designation of this bridge and instead rename it in honor of General Daniel R. "Chappie" James--a deceased Pensacola resident who was a Tuskegee Airman and the nation's first African-American 4-Star General.

There is no doubt that Chappie James and the James family's descendants are deserving of this honor.  No question at all.

The surviving family of Senator Beall, however, would prefer to keep the name of the new bay bridge as the Phillip D. Beall bridge is is standard practice and as comports with state law and administrative practice.

But seeing the brewing controversy--the Beall family has offered an olive branch in the form of an initiative to have the new bridge carry the designation of BOTH men--Senator Beall and General Chappie James.   Thus far, this offer has apparently fallen upon deaf ears--which is disappointing.

The movement and the group behind renaming the bay bridge in honor of Chappie James apparently have no interest in allowing the replacement bridge to share the designation jointly.  This group wants the bridge renamed for General James.  This group instead prefers to honor Sen. Beall with a memorial plaque at the foot of the new bridge--while actually renaming the new bridge to honor General James.  They intend to accomplish this via a legislative change in Tallahassee.

But is this the right way to go about this?

As I look back at what the school district did in 2010--I can't help but wonder what would have happened if we would have yanked away the McDaniel designation and replaced it with some other worthy individual's name?  What if the designation was changed and a non-African-American figure was instead honored?(there are/were many worthy teachers, administrators, fallen war-hero former students, school board members, and/or others that might very well deserve this honor...many) 

But really, what would have happened? What names would we have been called if we pulled this designation?  I don't know for sure but it would have been ugly and embarrassing....Glad it didn't happen is all I'll say--because we did the right thing with that decision.

And so nobody knows how this new bridge-naming controversy will turn out.  For my part, I would like nothing better than to have to two factions work together to achieve an amicable resolution to this issue that all sides could respect. 

Because after all--if we could bring both of these men back to life and show them the bickering and machinations taking place behind these "efforts"--I believe both men would be disappointed.  They know what most of us know.

Honoring a man's service and legacy should never become fodder for controversy.......