Republicans pick fight over renaming post offices
7th March 2016 · 0 Comments
In this era of contentious partisan politics and anti-Obama (anti-Black) sentiment, it is becoming increasingly difficult to get Democrats and Republicans to work together to get anything done on Capitol Hill without pettiness and political squabbling taking center stage.
That point was driven home last week when nine House Republicans voted against naming a Winston-Salem, North Carolina post office after poet, author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou, the Arkansas native who penned and read a poem for former President Bill Clinton during his inauguration.
The final tally for the vote on March 1, to rename the post office the “Maya Angelou Memorial Post Office” was 371-9-1, with one member voting present. The Angelou vote came after a 381-0 vote to rename a Camp Pendleton, Calif. post office the “Camp Pendleton Medal of Honor Post Office.”
The GOP House members who voted against the Angelou name change were Mo Brooks (Alabama), Ken Buck (Colorado), Glen Grothman (Wisconsin), Jeff Duncan (South Carolina), Andy Harris (Maryland), Thomas Massey (Kentucky), Michael Burgess (Texas), Steven Palazzo (Mississippi) and Alex Mooney (West Virginia).
“Congress has more important things to be doing rather than spending time naming post offices,” Rep. Burgess said in a statement. “Yesterday, I was asked to vote to name a post office for a pro-Castro and pro-communist individual and i could not support that.”
A spokesman for Rep. Harris said he voted against the bill because Maya Angelou was a “communist sympathizer.”
“His parents escaped communism and he feels that he cannot vote to name a post office in the United States in honor of someone who supported the communist Castro revolution in Cuba,” the spokesman explained. “Who’s next to get a post office? Jane Fonda?”
Rep. Steve Israel, D-NY, criticized the lawmakers who voted against the Angelou bill, calling the renaming of post offices “one of the most benign and bipartisan we perform in the House.
“Naming post offices is one of the most benign and bipartisan duties we perform in the House of Representatives,” Israel said in a statement, “and there is rarely any opposition. That’s why I was shocked today when nine Republicans voted against naming a post office after Maya Angelou, indisputably one of our country’s greatest poets, authors and civil rights activists.”
Angelou, who wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and passed away in 2014, taught English at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2011.
Amid the pettiness of last week’s voting in the House of Representatives, Congressman Cedric Richmond, D-La., was able to successfully pass two bills designating Louisiana post offices after a civil rights legend and a NOPD officer killed in the line of duty. The two post offices will be renamed in honor of Judge Lionel Collins Sr. and NOPD Officer Daryle Holloway.
“I applaud the House’s passage of my bills honoring civil rights hero Judge Lionel Collins and Officer Daryle Holloway,” said Rep. Richmond. “Judge Collins was a pioneering civil rights advocate who dedicated his life to making Louisiana a more just and equal state. He was not only the first African American elected to public office in Jefferson Parish. He was a talented and passionate lawyer who led numerous cases overturning ‘whites only’ jobs and unequal pay for African-Americans.
“Officer Daryle Holloway, who was killed in the line of duty, was beloved in New Orleans and a model for community policing. Daryle was a father of three, a 22 year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department, and a tireless servant of the New Orleans community. He was most proud of his work with children in the Cops for Kids summer camps, which help develop relationships between police, youth, and their families.
“It is my hope that these post offices will serve as a reminder of the courage and sacrifice of these two brave men who dedicated their lives to improving their communities.”
The House passed H.R. 2458, a bill to designate the post office located at 5351 Lapalco Boulevard in Marrero, Louisiana, as the “Lionel R. Collins, Sr. Post Office Building,” and H.R. 3082, a bill to designate the post office located at 5919 Chef Menteur Highway in New Orleans, Louisiana, as the “Daryle Holloway Post Office Building,” on March 1, 2016.
This article originally published in the March 7, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
