I agree that blaming the museum folks who worked hard to keep
exhibits open is not a reasonable thing to do; still you can be sure
that they would not have been successful if the exhibit in question
had not been of art that reinforces the values of the dominant
culture and those it makes rich enough to shell out for it--and it
seems to me that museum professionals like everyone else ought to
want to be aware that their acts are never neutral. Yes the
Smithsonian staff were being larger-hearted than Congress by being
willing to pluck out their own hearts (use other exhibit funds, call
in extra markers, etc.) to feed their constituents; but the reason
Congress is finally doing something is that people are beginning to
be hurt by the shutdown and are letting their representatives know
it. And what if they've now used up their credit and funding and
will not be able to fund exhibits that rich people won't support?

I was a university teacher of foreign languages back in the early
seventies and watched my language department lose positions and see
language requirements abolished because it was unwilling to stoop to
the "unprofessional" political act of doing a deal with history and
English--so history and English voted to see someone else
jettisoned. I have been working in a state government historical
agency for sixteen years, where we always try our darnedest to give
service when cut to the bone--and it just makes the politicians sure
that we can obviously take another cut. The personal (and the
professional) IS political--haven't we learned that yet?

Pat Galloway
MS Dept. of Archives and History