Dave;

I couldn't agree with you more. I put the arrant rubbish I have seen on
the string down to the museum silly season, which has just begun.

I have never seen the point missed quite as badly, as by some of the
people who have commented.

Good on yer, mate.

Harry Needham
Special Advisor - Program Development
Canadian War Museum
330 Sussex Drive,
  Ottawa, Canada
K1A 0M8
Voice: (819) 776-8612  Fax (819) 776-8623
Email: [log in to unmask]

> ----------
> From:         Dave[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     Museum discussion list
> Sent:         Wednesday, May 06, 1998 8:34 PM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Military Uniform Symposium and political correctness
>
> Since no one seems to want to rain on this parade of political
> correctness on the Military Uniform Symposium, I guess it is my turn
> (once again). The focus on military musuems is NOT the glorification
> of
> war, but the preservation of a part of history. I know that
> scholarship
> may be sorely lacking in the museum community, but logic would seem to
> relative enough to see the same connection of purpose of one museum to
> another museum.
>
> As with any history museum, it is something that HAS HAPPENED and is a
> record of that; and a set of lessons from which we are supposed to
> learn--and not repeat. If we become scantimonious, and political
> correct
> (read censor) about such things, we are doomed to repeat them over and
> over.
>
> IF, on the other hand, we are content to apply political correctness,
> then I have an agenda of museums that I think should be closed and the
> information presented should be suppressed.
>
> Hopefully, my less than blunt point is made. (BTW, I am not singling
> out
> Ross Weeks or Herr Rebernik in particular, but the whole pervasive
> permissiveness that allows political correctness to set reactionary
> agendas.) (I would also guess that the silence accorded this incident,
> is not so much a matter of unconcern, but of patient groans about 'oh,
> no yet another'....)
>
> Dave Wells
> Quinault National Museum Project
> 821 Kaiser RD NW 6A
> Olympia WA 98502-2621 USA
>
> 360-866-4431
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Ross Weeks wrote:
> >
> > Not to repeat Mr. Rebernik's recitation, but all through my life I
> have
> > wondered why military museums glorify war by not calling attention
> to the
> > atrocity of all of the paraphernalia involved.  Resplendent uniforms
> are
> > certainly works of art, and those who wore them deserve to be proud.
> But if
> > we ignore the "why" of it all, then we're simply celebrating war.
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
>