Living With History (Idaho)

Coeur d'Alene Press ^ | February 5, 2021 | Madison Hardy

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Freshman lawmaker Rep. Doug Okuniewicz (Hayden, Idaho) has launched his first hot topic piece of legislation — preserving Idaho's historic monuments.

...Okuniewicz, R-Hayden, amended the [draft] legislation to clarify that municipalities or groups would need the support of lawmakers only if they were planning on permanently removing or decommissioning a piece. Moving or doing restoration procedures on a memorial or monument would not require legislative action.

"I appreciate the work that the representative has done in working with the committee to address our concerns. I do feel that it is important that we preserve our history and not set an unrealistic standard that anything imperfect must be erased," said Rep. Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot. "Our history is there to learn from, and we learn the most often from our faults and failings."

The change was in response to many lawmakers and groups that contended HB 65 overstepped local government control.

The bill had been in the back of Okuniewicz's mind for some time, he said, and had been working on it before the session. What put him over the hill, he said, was a recent story about a San Francisco school district that made national headlines for voting to rename 42 schools associated with the names of people linked to slavery or colonization, including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I just wrote to Rep. Okuniewicz saying "THANK YOU!" I LOVE that he is making BLM and ACLU angry. We live just down the road from him and he is one of our State Reps!

The article continued a bit after the excerpt. Here it is...

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"I understand the arguments that folks are saying, sensitivity and issues like that, but folks need to understand life isn't perfect. We don't live in a Disney film. People are people, and we don't see in hindsight. No one supports slavery now because we know it is a terrible thing."

Recently, news organizations and human interest groups have criticized the bill for its overbearing power on local decision making and what they perceive as its insensitivity following the Black Lives Matter movement. Lauren Bramwell, a policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union, spoke in opposition of HB 65. "While states throughout the country empower localities to remove statues or rename public spaces that glorify and memorialize white supremacy, this legislation removes that power," Bramwell said. "This bill unnecessarily constructs tremendous barriers for petitioners and local governments who wish to move or rename a public monument." Bramwell cited several confederate-related or offensive areas in Idaho, like Robert E. Lee Creek, the Robert E. Lee Campground, and Chinese Peak in Bannock County. Members of the committee questioned Bramwell to support the BLM movement and the unpermitted removal of monuments during protests.

To Okuniewicz, the bill is a way of "providing a buffer against the so-called cancel-culture" that he believes is plaguing society today. In the most basic sense, Okuniewicz described the bill as another "check in our constitutional system of checks and balances."

"We can't ignore everything the country was built on. There is a middle ground in there," Okuniewicz said. "It's important. People are not perfect, and folks need to stop thinking they are. Or when they find out they're not, they can't banish them from history or public view. That doesn't seem right to me."

Rep. Doug Okuniewicz's, R-Hayden, House Bill 65 and RS 283999 aim to protect historical monuments like Coeur d'Alene's Chief Morris Antelope statue by prohibiting local powers from removing any historical monument or memorial without legislative approval.