California Democrats Pass Resolution to Rename John Wayne Airport

“The Democratic Party of Orange County condemns John Wayne’s racist and bigoted statements, and calls for John Waynes’ name and likeness to be removed from the Orange County airport, and calls on the OC Board of Supervisors to restore its original name: Orange County Airport,” the resolution, passed Friday, says.

The resolution, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, calls on the Orange County Board of Supervisors to reverse the 1979 decision to rename it after Duke, and cites remarks he made in a 1971 interview with Playboy.

“I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people,” he said in that interview nearly 50 years ago.

“I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves,” he said at another point in the interview.

There have been a number of pushes to rename the airport as a result of those comments after they resurfaced. Wayne’s defenders have said it is unfair to judge him based off remarks made nearly 50 years ago, and when he is no longer alive to defend or even retract them.

The latest push comes amid a movement across the country to tear down monuments and rename buildings and institutions that are named after people deemed to have held racist views or committed racist acts.

If we are truly to be judged by comments made during small snippets of our lifetimes, we would all surly be "cancelled."

John Wayne's son Ethan thinks his father's words were taken out of context.

CNN has more:

In an interview last year, the actor's son, Ethan Wayne, said his dad's words in the Playboy Q&A were being taken out of context and that his father "took everyone at face value."

"It would be an injustice to judge someone based on an interview that's being used out of context," he said. "They're trying to contradict how he lived his life, and how he lived his life was who he was. So any discussion of removing his name from the airport should include the full picture of the life of John Wayne and not be based on a single outlier interview from half a century ago."

While there is little doubt that the 50-year-old interview was in bad taste, coming to the conclusion that everything related to John Wayne should be removed due to these comments paints a scary picture.

Imagine a culture where we have no ...culture. That's exactly what will happen if we keep painting with such a broad brush.

Just ask the plethora of Democrat "entertainers" who are currently facing backlash for wearing blackface.

I wonder what society will think of them in 50 years. 

Maybe instead of pretending they never existed, we should learn from their mistakes.

That seems like something even John Wayne would agree with.