Museum of Natural History: When an Exhibit Offends

How history is told depends on who is telling the story. And who is telling the story changes and dependent on the culture and values of the times. I recently visited (2018) the ANMH and was appalled. I felt it was the same perspective of history I learned over 50 years ago. It is not that history needs to be rewritten, but it needs to be more inclusive. We need more storytellers.

The article on the expanded speed camera program seems to suggest they are only going to be at public schools. Don't our private, parochial, and charter schools deserve the same protection? Even if Albany doesn't think so, those schools should be included because Albany wants the increased revenue generated.

A far better title would for this article would be "Fake History at the Museum!" One wonders why facts are deemed offensive in today's America.

The Poetry Day material puts me in the mood. We just brought tickets to see "Belle of Amherst" (about the life of Emily Dickinson) at Two River in Red Bank right after tax season. The Poetry Day material sets the right mood. We just brought tickets to see "Belle of Amherst" (about the life of Emily Dickinson) at Two River in Red Bank right after tax season. For Poetry Day: I found this when cleaning up a few months back, written by a person I went to school with, Jack Balkin, who I see on google seems to have gone in t o be a noted philosopher and Yale professor. Trying to recall if it was a song, because it's certainly not about Jack himself, who was brilliant, but it looks funny for Poetry day. Neither Are You - by Jack Balkin I may be nothing much, But you’re nothing special yourself. I may be out of touch, But you’re quite a mess all yourself. So please don’t refute me Don't losers love losers. You’re just what will suit me. And beggars can’t be choosers. My body’s not that great, But your chassis’s due for a change I’m not a fashion plate, But your mother dresses you strange So please, darling, swallow pride And give me a love that is true I may be nothing great, But then again neither are you. (PS Happy Purim!)

Today is the world day of poetry, therefore my favorite poem. Musee des Beaux Arts W. H. Auden About suffering they were never wrong, The old Masters: how well they understood Its human position: how it takes place While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along; How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting For the miraculous birth, there always must be Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating On a pond at the edge of the wood: They never forgot That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse Scratches its innocent behind on a tree. In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry, But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on. Regards from Buenos Aires Pablo

It is Gertrude Tredwell, not Gertrude Treadwell. See: http://merchantshouse.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant%27s_House_Museum I often send in small corrections to the NYT. Most of the time I am ignored. Presumably as they think the corrections are too small to bother to make. But they usually correct misspellings. I sent in this correction more than two hours ago. Her name is still spelled wrong as I write this.

“a group urging institutions to acknowledge how marginalized people were represented. The museum consulted with outside experts but not the protest group.” “This Time We Know It's More Real” Tune of “This Time I Know It's For Real” (my playlist again - still picking out the confetti from the Broadway Donna Summer musical many months later!) Here’s what we’re gonna do To show you we know it’s not true. We’ll point out where this is wrong Like these skirts - they’re just too long. Didn’t ask folks who protest We found experts, ‘cause they know best! We’re pointing out the things that we now know But didn’t know about some time ago We’ll keep researching as we raise more dough. But this time we know it’s more real.

Re: the Lenape today.....What about the Lenapes in NJ? And the Ramapo and nanticoke Lenapes? Looks as though the museum has more work to do on this matter.

Regarding the dress exchange on the 1 train... only in New York. Just shows that those 'anonymous' announcements are by real people.

How wonderful it is that nothing is settled; everything is subject to review.

PROSE & POETRY Usually prose Is horribly prosy And even when lush Verges on the lousy. Poetry, however, While sometimes ho-hum, Can charm and enlighten In a gem-like poem.

Even "ghost tours" have been infected by identity politics. Neat. I guess most superstitions have synergy.

If anything, this article shows why America (and Americans) have a difficult time coming to terms with their past. Especially when it comes to the depictions of Native Americans, enslaved Africans and even the European indentured servants, who all have a part in its history. As every New York school kid will tell you the Museum of Natural History is a great place. And the idea of labels to "Decolonize This Place", only goes to prove it.

Everyone should read the article on political fundraising in Albany. Fantastic journalism and a quite concerning state of affairs in our state government.

Theodore Roosevelt's vast progressive legacy outweighs some late 19th-century cultural biases. And even there he was way ahead of his time.

"Reconsidering the scene" is a good idea. Rather then take down works of art that depict history, a plaque correcting what is historically incorrect should suffice. The famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware is an example of a scene that contains inaccuracies---but correctly memorializes the event. The "reconsidering" notation seems like a good trade-off.

"For decades, the museum has educated and entertained. But now it is acknowledging that some of its exhibits have also offended" "Offended" is a mild term for what happened to non-European natives all over the world. But overhauling museums and re-writing narratives will not erase what happened. It will only make early 21st century "activists" feel better, temporarily. There will never be any moment where everyone is happy with museums. Perhaps it's time for some of these activists to open their own museum. We are obligated to learn from the past and go forward. Obsessing over every detail of what happened centuries ago gets us nowhere.