Seeing a letter from a teacher who writes about working at a "historical
sight"  surprises me.  Then seeing Columbus "sailing to America" -- is also
a shock. Did Columbus "demoralize" the Indians he met or was that later
explorers?

I had a teacher visit the other day, a vegetarian, who said that
Thanksgiving is only about eating turkey dinners and she is against doing
that - therefore the family does not celebrate Thanksgiving!  Maybe my
family shouldn't celebrate Easter because I don't know how or why a rabbit
would color eggs.

Do we or should we skip over parts of history that are not pleasant?  Not at
my "historic site." We talk about the Spanish Inquisition, the persecution
of the Jews in Spain (and the persecution of the Protestants in France), and
even the death of a five year old by drowning in the creek by the house.
(www.gomez.org) All of this is part of the history of the site. Was any of
this fair to the people involved? No way. Nice? No. Really happened? Yes!

All of us grew up prior to 9/11 when the tone of our world - at least here
in the United States - was different than it is perceived today. Don't you
remember travelling in Europe and commenting on the armed police on the
streets or at the airports and saying "we don't have that problem home"? We
can't change history - we can't change people.  We can, however, report
history at our sites accurately and write accurately. Maybe this accuracy
will take our students to a new level of appreciation of this country and
protect and prepare them from the cruel world that caused persecution. This
honesty will be appreciated by all - most anyway - who visit.

Bill Maurer

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.
Harry S. Truman

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).