Patrick Boylan said, inter alia,:

> Clearly from what has been said on this either the US is much less
> tolerant overall (which I doubt) or - much more likely - extremist lobbies
> are both much better organised and taken far too seriously.
>
Lack of tolerance and effective extremism tend to go together, Patrick. It's
not necessarily one or t'other.

Nor is it necessarily both, I will admit. I much admired an exhibition in
the (then) brand-new state history museum in Raleigh, which recognized the
rapidly increasing cultural diversity of the state (especially the Golden
Triangle) by incorporating tiny temples/shrines,etc. of the various
religions, each of which had been consecrated by a priest or equivalent of
the faith represented. I thought this seemed quite innovative and indicative
of an unexpectedly much higher level of tolerance in a state that I had
thought of as being rather fundamentalist Christian. I later discovered that
there were a LOT of North Carolinians, including museum professionals I
otherwise respect, who were extremely negative as regards this exhibit area.
I do not, however, believe there was well-organized or effective opposition
to it by extremists.


Harry Needham
Special Advisor - Programme 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:         Boylan P[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Reply To:     Museum discussion list
> Sent:         Wednesday, September 16, 1998 10:40 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      Re: CHRISTMAS SYMBOLS (was "The Holidays")
>
> On Wed, 16 Sep 1998, Verlag Dr. C. Mueller-Straten wrote:
>
> > Come on, dear Bob, this can`t be true. Christianity has included so many
> rites
> > and symbols of former religions (including, of course, all Mediterranean
> ones as
> > well as Jewish ones), that you should contact an Historian specialised
> in
> > Religions immediately in order to make you fit for things to come. If
> you have
> > ever visited Europe, than you will understand, that Christendom can not
> beed
> > understood at all without the underlying older cultures...
>
> ========================
>
> When I was Director of Arts & Museums for the very "multi-cultural" City
> of Leicester in central England (about 45% of the 270,000 population were
> from first or second generation immigrant families from around 80
> countries of origin in all five continents) we started the "holiday"
> displays and street lights around the beginning of October (preparation
> for the Hindu festival of Diwali).  The  street and other decorations
> (e.g. in schools and the museums) continued (with a few appropriate
> modifications as to current symbols) through Halloween, Guy Fawkes Night,
> Chanuka, Scandanavian St Nicholas & Christingle festivals, the Roman and
> Protestant Churches' Christmas, New Year, the Orthodox Christmas and then
> ran breathlessly on to Ramadan and  the festival of Eid, taking in a
> couple of Sikh Guru anniversaries on the way.  (In years with a late
> Ramadan and and early Easter or Passover the not stop festivals might be
> even run on with hardly a break into April!
>
> The point is that except for literally half-a-dozen noisy racists and
> Christian fundamentalists everyone seemed delighted.
>
> Patrick Boylan
>