City of Philadelphia - File #: 230044

• File #: 230044
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: ADOPTED
• File created: 1/26/2023
• In control: CITY COUNCIL
• Final action: 2/2/2023
• Title: Condemning the Union League of Philadelphia for bestowing its highest honor, the Gold Medal, upon Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Vaughn, Councilmember Johnson, Councilmember Bass, Councilmember Lozada, Councilmember Gilmore Richardson, Councilmember Gauthier, Councilmember Brooks, Councilmember Harrity, Councilmember Jones, Council President Clarke

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
2/2/2023	0	CITY COUNCIL	ADOPTED
1/26/2023	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced and Ordered Placed On Next Week's Final Passage Calendar

Title
Condemning the Union League of Philadelphia for bestowing its highest honor, the Gold Medal, upon Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Body
WHEREAS, The Union League of Philadelphia was established in 1862 as a patriotic society, for the purpose of supporting the policies of President Abraham Lincoln and the Union side in the U.S. Civil war. Its motto, "Amor Patriae Ducit," translates to "Love of Country Leads"; and

WHEREAS, The Gold Medal, first awarded to President Lincoln himself, is given to public figures who embody the Union League's core values: support for the Constitution and the free enterprise system, limited government, individual rights and responsibility, and support for our military and law enforcement, according to immediate past League President Craig Mills; and

WHEREAS, Gold Medal recipients over the years have included Presidents and Vice Presidents, Cabinet Secretaries, Supreme Court Justices, Senators and Governors - nearly all of whom could be described as conservative Republicans - whose sense of decency and respect for democratic ideals and the constitutional rights of all Americans were beyond reproach; and

WHEREAS, By contrast, Governor Ron DeSantis's tenure as Governor of Florida has been marked by cruelty, division, censorship, political gamesmanship, and the undermining of our democratic system - attributes that seem to run counter to the Union League's professed ideals and Gold Medal criteria; and

WHEREAS, Gov. DeSantis has banned books, censored teachers and professors, cajoled children for choosing to wear masks, and fired public health officials and a duly-elected Attorney General, limiting individual and parental freedoms under the guise of expanding them; and

WHEREAS, In addition, DeSantis spent hundreds of thousands of Florida's federally-provided COVID recovery dollars on privately chartered planes to fly South American asylum seekers from Texas to Massachusetts - an act widely viewed as a political stunt at best, and a...