John Strand makes a most valid point when he states that the distinction
between Sea World's exhibit and research on manatees and an exhibit at
your local museum is not so clear.  I would submit that if the public
stopped paying high prices for tickets to visit Sea World's manatees, that
distinction would suddenly assume much greater clarity.  The likely outcome
would be that the manatees would be replaced by something like Frogmen of
the Carribbean or whatever new thing the public "would" pay high prices
to see.  The point is that places like Sea World are businesses, and
businesses exist to make a profit. Research isn't likely to get high
priority if it does not feed into the organization's profit-making
nature; witness the decline in America of pure R&D on the corporate
level.  Because the public is confused by what is and what is not a
genuine museum, and because the museum world has not much helped
establish distinctions, we are threatened now with the dismantling
of that web of ideas about museums that was most cogently laid out
in the Belmont Report of 1968 (America's Museums: The Belmont Report.
Washington, DC: AAM, 1969.  Such a dismantling can only encourage
those on Capitol Hill in their attacks on agencies providing crucial
funding to the museum community.
Chuck Watkins [log in to unmask]
The Appalachian Cultural Museum
University Hall
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC  28608