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Success
Need Not Apply By
Mike Brake, a writer in Oklahoma |
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How else can one explain the Smithsonian's willingness to allow Washington businesswoman Catherine Reynolds to withdraw a promised $38 million donation that would have financed a Hall of Achievement honoring successful Americans? "Apparently," Ms. Reynolds wrote to the Smithsonian with remarkable restraint, "the basic philosophy for the exhibit — 'the power of the individual to make a difference' — is the antithesis of that espoused by many within the Smithsonian bureaucracy, which is 'only movements and institutions make a difference, not individuals.'" The Hall of Achievement would have included salutes to Nobel laureates, winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor, and people like Coretta Scott King and (in what was surely a sufficient gesture to placate Smithsonian liberals) Sam Donaldson. Of course, the Hall would have included some businessmen too, such as Steve Case — and one supposes that that, along with the idea of honoring actual war heroes, is what so ruffled the curators' politically correct feathers. One is reminded of the crew who once sought to mount the Enola Gay at the Air and Space Museum in a belly-crawling exhibit suggesting that the United States had not been very nice in World War II, and chastising us for dropping that nasty old bomb on the widely misunderstood people of Japan. That episode prompted one of the great moments in television — when George Will asked a museum official why they couldn't even display artifacts without attacking America. Success being unwelcome at the Smithsonian, I thought I'd check their website to see what's playing at this center of American history and culture, in place of the now-canceled Hall of Achievement. This month, you can catch a lecture on James Forten — who, it turns out, was a free black resident of New England born in 1776. Some modern Ethiopian painting is on tap, as is a lecture by John Gray on the latest in his interminable "Mars-Venus" series, in this case, Mars and Venus in the Workplace. To its credit, the Smithsonian has mounted an exhibit on American submarine operations during the Cold War, and another on Norman Rockwell. But here we find an extensive collection of Arabic newspapers, and over there … is Julia Child's fish scaler! James Forten is surely an appropriate subject for an institution of this size and scope. So are Mrs. Child's used kitchen implements. So, even, may be Mr. Gray's soapy advice to the lovelorn. As the Smithsonian poobahs would doubtless remind us, America is diverse, and an institution reflecting that diversity should present displays for all comers. Unless, of course, they're looking to honor anything as hackneyed as success, initiative, and hard work. I suspect Ms. Reynolds could find dozens of takers for her $38 million and her Hall of Achievement in museums west of the Potomac. With any luck, that's exactly what she'll do. |
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he
Smithsonian Institution, which was founded 156 years ago with a
bequest from a successful man, has apparently decided that it's
against successful men. Or women. 
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