Speaking Up...For Museums

Okay, I have to get something off my chest that's really been bothering me over the last few days. It has to do with politics, so forgive me for this little soap box moment...

George Washington wore dentures, but he never cut down his father's cherry tree.
Frank Lloyd Wright was an architectural genius, but he was also an egomaniac and a control freak.
Thomas Jefferson had children with one of his slaves - a woman named Sally Hemmings.
Rachel Carson started the environmental movement before most people even knew the word "environment".
Abraham Lincoln was a gifted speaker, but he had doubts that his Gettysburg Address was up to par.

How do we know these facts to be true? Well, Washington's dentures, Wright's personal correspondence, Jefferson's account books, Carson's writings and Lincoln's rough draft all still exist - in museums. And these are just a few examples off the top of my head. Isn't that amazing? Museums actually house the things that make our history true. The proof that it all happened. And ANYONE can walk right in and see these things - you don't have to be rich or privileged or attractive or anything else. And here's another pretty incredible fact: a survey done about a decade ago showed that the vast majority of Americans trust the information they get in museums above newspapers, books and even school teachers. Hmmm. Sounds like we kinda value these things called museums, huh?

Museums are amazing places. With almost no money and very little staff, they are charged with protecting the most important artifacts from the most important moments in our history. They do good work. Now, obviously, I'm partial to history museums, because I work in one, but let's not forget art museums, science centers, aquariums and all the other cultural institutions out there that teach us all the stuff that gets glossed over in our "no child left behind" educational system. Yeah, it all seems pretty worthwhile, right?

Wrong. According to a Senator Coburn (R-OK), "museums, aquariums, zoos and other cultural institutions" deserve to be lumped into the same category as casinos and highway beautification projects, and that none of the above should be allowed to have a single penny of the economic stimulus funds currently being debated in Congress. Senator Coburn feels so strongly that museums should not get any economic assistance from the government, he authored an amendment to the economic stimulus package that bans museums from even applying for the money (oh yeah, and also, no cultural institution that might somehow get its hands on stimulus funds should be allowed to use the money to buy big screen TVs or anti-gravity chairs. I'm not kidding.)

I honestly didn't think there was anyway that the Coburn Amendment would make it into the final stimulus package - it was just too whacky. Besides, would any self-respecting senator actually stand up and say, "Screw museums!"? Apparently, the vast majority of senators did in fact decide to stand up and say just that. The Coburn Amendment was approved, and is now officially part of the package.

I don't know what Senator Coburn's problem is. Frankly, I don't really care what his problem is. What I do care about is the fact that museums employ hundreds of thousands of people allover this country, and they supply some much-needed diversion from what is quickly becoming a pretty tough world. They house the things that make us who we are. And they already do it without much help. We're not asking for a $700 billion bail-out. We're just asking to be allowed to compete for what funding there is, just like everyone else.

If anyone out there (other than my museum professional friends who are already as mad as I am about this) feels that museums are a wee bit different than casinos, and that museums probably won't spend their money on anti-gravity chairs, visit the American Association of Museums web-site to find out what you can do to help.

Rant over.