Fact: “The Ford-F Series is our best-selling truck for 46 consecutive years.” Henry Ford’s politics, however, looked at as negatively as those now of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s, impact that record? Probably not. In 1938 Ford admired Adolf Hitler and Germany, and “in 1938 accepted the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the Nazi regime’s highest medal for a foreigner.” Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s equivalent behavior came after decades of working for America’s labor class, traveling to Russia, receiving an award for her devotion to her choice of economic philosophy, communism. But we buy communist-China-made products galore (as well as Ford trucks).
Ford’s historical marker gets no complaints “where stood the home in which Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, the farmhouse … owned by Ford’s parents, William and Mary Ford.” Markers honor people who outstandingly contributed. We see no historical markers for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh or convicted serial killer Aileen Carol Wuornos. Now, we honor Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Concord-born. She early on began working for labor rights, women’s rights including the right to vote, access to birth control, and was a founding member of our American Civil Liberties Union. No way remove her marker because knee-jerk reactions happen with trigger words.
Lynn Rudmin Chong
Sanbornton