In our first capital, the sins of the nation\u2019s past are being brought to light.<\/p>\n
When George Washington moved to Philadelphia in 1780, he brought 9 personal servants.\u00a0 The President\u2019s house at the corner of 6th<\/sup> and Market had numerous outbuildings, including one referred to as \u201cservants\u2019 quarters.\u201d\u00a0 Later, the grounds were home to John Adams, before the capital was relocated in 1800. \u00a0The buildings have long since disappeared and the site now rests some 15 feet below the current Liberty Bell Center. \u00a0In 2002, the good folks at the National Park Service announced plans to dig up the site, and a firestorm erupted. \u00a0The reason:\u00a0 the \u201cpersonal servants\u201d were slaves. \u00a0A group called the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition argued that, should the site be excavated, a memorial to Washington\u2019s slaves should be included. \u00a0After 5 years of bickering, they won their case.\u00a0 Digging began last week. \u00a0Mayor John Street said, \u201cwe\u2019re digging for the truth\u2026we don\u2019t know what we\u2019re going to find.\u201d\u00a0 The archaeologists will be busy for the next two months.\u00a0 Independence National Historic Park will have a memorial to the victims of slavery in 2008.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, two venerable American icons have recently returned to Philly.\u00a0 The Pennsylvania Game Commission has jubilantly reported that a pair of bald eagles has been spotted in an aerie overlooking the city\u2019s South Side. \u00a0Once nearly wiped out by DDT, bald eagles have made a miraculous recovery; there are now 7000 nesting pairs in the U.S., up from a low of less than 500 in the 1960\u2019s.\u00a0 This is the first nesting pair seen in Philadelphia in over 200 years and symbolizes the resurgence of our national emblem.\u00a0 Good news, right?\u00a0 The U.S. Navy doesn\u2019t think so. \u00a0The eagles have nested in a part of Philadelphia\u2019s Naval Yard which has been slated for redevelopment. Ironically, the birds once nearly exterminated by an herbicide are now threatened by plans for a massive new produce market. \u00a0And if the Fish and Wildlife Service takes bald eagles off the endangered species list this summer, they will probably be evicted.\u00a0 More bickering to follow.<\/p>\n Just your average week of national controversy in the City of Brotherly Love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In our first capital, the sins of the nation\u2019s past are being brought to light. When George Washington moved to Philadelphia in 1780, he brought 9 personal servants.\u00a0 The President\u2019s house at the corner of 6th and Market had numerous outbuildings, including one referred to as \u201cservants\u2019 quarters.\u201d\u00a0 Later, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[75,103,327,438,488,658,736,862,944,1123],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2","tag-archaeology","tag-bald-eagle","tag-ddt","tag-fish-and-wildlife","tag-george-washington","tag-john-adams","tag-liberty-bell","tag-navy-yard","tag-philadelphia","tag-slaves"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}