Thanks, Gene, for your comments.  You get what I'm trying to say.  While not
always an absolute deterrent to denial, materials help.

Jay wrote:
The question(s) which has caused so much debate in this forum is:

Should the protection of these institutions have taken priority over
securing the city of Baghdad?  Should troops have been stationed at
museums, libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions -
potentially in harm's way - so as to protect them, before the city was
secured?

To Jay, these questions that you feel I was not addressing (which are not,
BTW, expressed in an objective or comprehensive manner), I addressed in a
more general, non-location/event specific manner, as I view these current
events and issues to be timeless and to have implications on a broader
scale, as certainly this won't be our last war. I appreciate what Derek Monz
wrote about the 1920's and 30's British fighting and protecting as much as
they could.

Contributing comments to various letters about the importance of our museums
from others on the list is not off thread as I feel these issues have impact
on us all during these hard times.  These discussions have been very
thought-provoking and have affected me to think more deeply about the museum
profession and the relevance of such, as well as the role of our government
in protecting institutions such as ours.

To Deb:  I do understand the point your prof was making, but I simply feel
that museums have a higher role in modern society than entertainment and
"showing off" stuff -- e.g. our own institution shows collections to
educate, to inform, to create a sense of wonder. By the way, how do you know
about these various cultures of which you speak, whose oral traditions and
art have survived for thousands of years?  How do you know of ones that no
longer exist, whether they existed at all? How do we even KNOW about Athens'
arts, culture, beauty, or Sparta?  Evidence? Are you certain that they
really existed?  How?  What about entire societies that disappeared before
the advent of paper and writing?  Even before "sudden" advent of museums,
(though I'd venture to call the Library of Alexandria one), cultures showed,
shared, and exchanged objects, art, music and kept them for many
generations.  Different than the museum definition but how different
theoretically than what many of us do?

Venturing into the murky territory of "what is a museum", I ask, considering
the abundant beauty of Amish work in our area . . . why address formal vs.
folk art? This "what is art" Q will never in 1000 lifetimes be resolved.  I
think of a town such as Lanesboro with a thriving Amish community and strong
presence. . . there are numerous shops of their work and tours and so on.
They are sharing their ways of life with the non-Amish, and their traditions
live on.  What about museums being more than rooms and cases of collections?
Living museums, museums/exhibits without walls?  I will say having or not
having a museum in the ways that most are defining it in this list, is
irrelevant to the consideration that the items that any culture makes, with
great care and artisanship, protecting these items in their homes, etc.,
passing the items and skills down through the generations, making some
available to the general public so that they continue to live as they do,
is, to me, in essence the same as having a "museum without walls" -- the
objects are no less important to their own culture, and that is what it's
all about.

Sometimes I think the word "museum" too connotative of history and dead
things, but the subject/definition could arguably become much broader and
inclusive of people's lives and their work and play today.  Even, I dare
say, Gene's ugly ties collection!  Not to mention his shirts which I see
(and sometimes even hear on a sonic level) nearly every day.  I don't dare
go there ;)

I refuse to speak for various societies in regard to how they really feel
about having museums, as I do not know, unless I hear/read about it in
various forms of media from them.  But again, I'll repeat (sorry, guys!)
that the one import of museums is for various societies to learn about each
other, as well as more about their own culture if they wish, to inform our
present and future, via the past.  I believe that we can do well to learn
more about various cultures of the world, as we are not all as aware or
well-educated as some about history, geography, politics, cultures, etc.,
and that museums can serve to help broaden our knowledge.  This knowledge
can help us to make wiser decisions in policy and budget distribution,
including health care, education and the arts, in the world, to be better
prepared for events such as the Iraqi looting.

To be clear, the lives of which I speak that would consider life without
museums and the arts to be bleak and less-informed is my own and countless
friends and aquaintances of various cultures and occupations around the
world.  Unfortunately, some if not all the societies of which you speak that
survive and thrive without museums, oft seem to be culturally, spiritually,
artistically, and/or educationally richer in some ways than our own.  I
think so because of words spoken and written by them, films made by and of
them, such as the 3 wonderful Iranian and Iraqi films I saw this week. . .
Oft in these societies the arts/crafts/familial loyalty/oral and musical
traditions in general are better supported and thus survive longer -- what
about our own?  How many of us do have these things in our lives?   A
majority?  For some of us more culturally bereft folks (note: I speak only
for myself here, the people I've heard and read specifically) who do wish to
learn more about ourselves and others, museums and the arts in general are
important to fight to preserve to help us go on living an emotionally
fulfilled life.

Museums can be important to share/preserve/inform to those of us who do not
have deep knowledge/connection to our several thousand years existence, who
no longer have an oral tradition that goes back generations, who don't have
personal access to objects of our culture older than 200 years.

People who live their whole lives in the U.S. and never set foot in a museum
I cannot speak for, because I don't know anyone (generally schools have
field trips at some point). Do you know people who haven't ever?  Numerous
times during  my life, I've seen various societies including the Amish
visiting museums, so I would not assume that just because they may not have
them, doesn't mean none of them value museums at some point.  Countless
societies of the world have been building their own museums or otherwise
sharing their work, so there must be some relevance.

I do apologize for the length of this, and will sign off.  Cindy

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