TWITTER TALK DONE RIGHT

Twitter talk quoted: replying to @DavidGillaspie

Museums are shit places to gain an understanding of history because colonizers build and fund them. T. Roosevelt is famous for that “Only good Indian is a dead Indian” quote, but apparently not famous enough. You are an old white man with a colonizer perspective. Some nerve.

Me: Hey P, I’m a Portland blogger and I have history with that museum. You made the sort of points in your tweet that might set another person off. All I’m asking for is permission to use your tweet on my blog, and for you to read the post I write. You’ll like it.

If I put it on Twitter you can use it. Public forum. But thank you for asking. Abe Lincoln was hard on indigenous people too. His statues are also coming down. I’m not anti-museum as a thing, but promoting colonizer viewpoints is why they’re being hit.

Twitter talk learning moment: Are museums shit places to gain an understanding of history? In my 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s I worked in museums and had similar questions. Now I’m too old to have an opinion? Come on, let’s do better.

Historical Eras

Every era I’ve studied has had horribly demonized populations, with horrible outcomes full of regret.

I had a panic attack in the US Holocaust Memorial Museum when part of the tour included climbing into a box car. I learned I had an aversion to walking into a model of a train car to some death camp. It was new to me.

The British Museum felt like a looter’s paradise with all of the artifacts collected so early. I’d heard about the case of the Elgin Marbles, and the call to return them to their country of origin. Greece?

I asked why not and got this: “If we hadn’t collected these objects when we did, they would be in a private collection the public would never see. Or destroyed like the Taliban did to ancient relics in Afghanistan.” It sounded like an excuse in these modern times.

Picture or 1000 Words

About the picture you shared: the man grew up in Reedsport, Oregon. Not the West Hills, Reedsport. It’s a big little town north of Lakeside, south of Gardiner, with the Umpqua River close by.

He’s a great museum man working to change museum culture. I think you’d like him. The lady with him is associated with the event, a fundraiser for the Humane Society.

In museums I learned the role they play in helping important work get done.

Twitter Talk Nerves

I’m glad you mentioned some nerve. I don’t do this often enough because it makes me sound like a kook, but here goes my Nervy Checklist: Former Army medic, former all-American wrestler, three nasty apartments living in Philly, two when I moved to NYC, hitch hiked across US, ran a 3:30 marathon, rode a bike from Eugene to Portland on the freeway for nine hours, worked full-time and going to night school. Stuff like that.

My biggest nerve was thinking I could marry a woman and raise kids in the world I knew. It’s work in progress. And I talk too much.

I talk to young and old alike about calming things down, and you too P:

Violence and destruction never ends until all sides find more in common than the cliche of all old white men would be colonizers if they had half the chance vs everyone in all black, body armor, and carrying weapons, ropes and chains, are equally bad.

That’s not how it works. Once everyone has had enough, which is usually too much, set a meeting with an agenda to move forward. Agree on changes and agree on monitoring.

To make its even more eventful and media friendly, schedule the first meeting at the Oregon Historical Society as an act of good faith.