Mr. Haberstich, I salute you.  Well said, indeed:  "To me, that's the museum
paradox--that the very act of display, having
removed an object from its original physical context, entails so much risk."

I am in the middle of a year-long graduate level study of the very
foundations of Museology and the debate about this flag sums it up well.
There are many questions we should all be rethinking.   Who decides what we
collect?  In the past, collectors/museums had the benefit of time: wait a
generation to see what becomes important in the public conscience and only
collect those items.  Now, with the idea of collection of contemporary
objects, the choices are not so clear.  By our very act of collection, we
are deciding for ours and future generations what WILL be important.  Can we
really be so presumptuous as to believe we can predict the future?  Can we
afford to be wrong and loose forever something so "valuable"?  IF we collect
it, should we display it?  When?  How?  Should we collect something that we
think can never be displayed?  There are another 2 semesters worth of
questions I could ask, but I'll leave that up to my Prof.  I am just very
refreshed to see that someone else saw the dept of the question and its
profoundness to the museum profession.  Have a nice day!
Lori Allen,
Grad Student, UMSL

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