title:  House Republicans Just Spit On The Grave Of An American Hero (VIDEO)
text: A group of House Republicans are so determined to make every issue a partisan battle to the death that they just spit on the grave of an African American hero to do it.One of the least controversial jobs a legislator can do is sign off on the memorializing of public buildings. In this case, to designate a Winston-Salem post office the  Maya Angelou Memorial Post Office.  But even this small act of recognition of an African American of enormous cultural contribution was a step too far for 9 Republicans. As ABC News reports:Republican Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama, Ken Buck of Colorado, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, Glen Grothman of Wisconsin, Andy Harris of Maryland, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Michael Burgess of Texas, Steven Palazzo of Mississippi and Alex Mooney of West Virginia voted against the bill.A spokesperson for Rep. Andy Harris said the Maryland Republican voted against renaming the post office because 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 spokesperson said in a statement.  Who s next to get a post office? Jane Fonda? The gang of pro-Confederacy Republicans apparently sought revenge with their votes. They argued an equivalent between fighting against Angelou s Post Office, and opposition to memorializing public buildings in the name of Confederacy figures.What s sad about this, is that you really would have to be a bigot of the highest order to entertain the idea that Maya Angelou and the Dixie plantation owner who would have kept her as livestock, stand as equals in our history.Angelou s credentials as an American of great talent, wisdom and cultural contribution are without question. She never killed anybody, she never enslaved anybody. Her legacy was in words. Those words are still moving people after her body left the earth. She was the kind of hero that the American story really needs.As New York Democrat Steve Israel put it in a written statement: Naming post offices is one of the most benign and bipartisan duties we perform in the House of Representatives, and there is rarely any opposition, That s why I was shocked today as nine Republicans voted against naming a post office after Maya Angelou, indisputably one of our country s greatest poets, authors and civil rights activists. Unfortunately for the Republicans, the vote passed 371-9 (plus one Republican voting  Present ). So Maya Angelou will be honored, regardless of attempts to undermine the celebration of an American hero, simply because she happened to be African American. Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Wikimedia Commons