One of the last conservative strongholds in once-GOP-dominated California is the city of Huntington Beach. Though just a conservative citadel in a vast ocean of blue, Huntington Beach has decided to cancel the various month-long celebrations for different identity groups and replace them with celebrations of the common history of the municipality.
Such is what the Huntington Beach City Council decided in a recent vote, with the majority of the conservative town’s elected leaders directing staffers to create a history program and attendant monthly themes and celebrations that celebrate the city’s history. Such events could include the big oil discovery in the area and the city’s founding, and will, starting in 2024, replace things like Pride Month, Women’s History Month, and Black History Month.
Not everyone was overly pleased with the vote and intent behind it. For example, the Orange County Register quotes one individual, Kathie Schey, as saying, “God knows I’m all about celebrating history, right? This is just peculiar, for want of a better word. Both the approach of the plan and the items that are listed here.”
But, on the other hand, councilmember Casey McKeon said that the city has a rich history that he imagines “the majority of our residents are unaware of,” and that lack of understanding of the city’s history led to the council wanting to create a program “designed to honor the rich, historic heritage of not only Huntington Beach, but the United States and California as well.”
Emphasizing the unity that the program could bring, McKeon said, “That’s the rich, historic heritage that we all share.” That focus on unity was present as well in the proposal submission for the new program, in which McKeon, Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark, and other councilmembers said that it “would be intended to be free of any identity politics and political agendas.”
However, councilmember Dan Kalmick noted that some of the themes currently floating around make little sense for the city. Giving one example, he said, “Some of this is not relevant to Huntington Beach. Revolutionary War? We weren’t even part of the British territory at the time … I don’t know why there is a rush to implement some of this.”
This isn’t the first time that Huntington Beach has rejected the path set by much of the rest of California. In 2018, for example, the city revolted over California’s sanctuary state law, arguing that, as a charter city, a state law limiting the ability of law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities was unconstitutional in its case.
Then-President Donald Trump, posting on Twitter about the revolt of some conservative California cities against the state’s woke immigration laws and sanctuary stance, said, “There is a Revolution going on in California. Soooo many Sanctuary areas want OUT of this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept. Jerry Brown is trying to back out of the National Guard at the Border, but the people of the State are not happy. Want Security & Safety NOW!”
Featured image credit: By Photograph by D Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10971529