On 24 Feb 95, Roger Garland in Australia wrote the post that follows this reply:
 
Roger:
 
There are some 535 to 50,535 people in Washington, D.C. who sometimes come
across as sounding somewhat "hegemonic" (geez is that a word?).  However,
there are some 250,000,000 of us outside the Beltway that may be a bit
"geocentric" at times but generally we mean no harm. Heck, if we wanted to,
some of us could have a field day with people on the East Coast of the USA
who think the only difference between them and us folks on the West Coast is
that our Sun rises over dry land.  I'll bet you have similar stories to tell
about New Zealanders.
 
The point I would really like to make is this.  Museum-l is not a political
discussion group talking about museums.  It's a museum discussion group
forced at times to talk about or make reference to things political. The
fact that most of us receive funding from the public sector makes political
discussion a necessary, and usually unpleasant fact of life.
 
Being museum professionals and not politicians in most cases, perhaps we
don't do a good a job of expressing ourselves in general terms for a global
audience. On the other hand, the specificity of our thoughts, worts and all,
is probably more helpful to the professionals on the list.
 
What follows is from Roger:
 
>     There have been some colourful exchanges about the
>     apparent self-absorption of our US colleagues on this
>     list.
>
>     It may not be conscious but it does grate when so much
>     material assumes a US focus, concern and assumption
>     that it is important for the rest of the world.
>
>     Dear colleagues in the US, it would be nice if a little
>     more thought could be made about how you couch terms,
>     ideas and material.
 
 
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Rich Jones                              Governing Board For:
Development Director                    Carter House Natural Science Museum
Shasta Natural Science Association      Redding Arboretum By The River
[log in to unmask]              SNSA Environmental Resources Center