[Milsurplus] Re: Museum intransigence / loans

[David Stinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Unserviceable but Repairable" <cosmoline at aa4rm.ba-watch.org>
Subject: [Milsurplus] Re: Museum intransigence / loans


> Lesson learned was Atlanta History museum is for the tea-sipping ladies.
> And staff is graded on exhibiting things so-targeted.

That's been my experience, too.
I suppose we can't blame them; 
the "tea-sipping ladies" pay the bills. 
They have to keep the lights on somehow 
and old milradios don't do it.  
Between the "I'm a museum!" guys 
who are really either hoarders or dealers 
and the "McMuseums,"
it's difficult to find a place worthy of your endowment.

As with other antique technology interests,
our hobby will dwindle until 
a few "carry the fire" for the many.  This is natural and inevitable.
How many quill pen makers can you name?  
How about printers of books that use 
an old "Franklin-style" screw press?  
Landline telegraph operators?
Those interests and their hobbyists are not dead;
there are a few, and they keep the knowledge
in trust for the many.
Some day soon there will be "a few" of us, carrying that fire.

The common herd will never care
and counting on them to support our work is a mistake.
But remember that *the common herd does not matter.* 
The herd will go from womb to tomb 
like so much sand running through an hour glass.
They are born.  They consume resources.
They inhale and exhale noxious clouds of pointless blather.
They produce waste.  They die.  GIGO.
The person who takes the knowledge forward, matters.  
If you don't believe that, ask any Native American
how his people feel about those who preserved 
what little they have left, and how they feel about what has been lost.

Governments and institutions can only preserve so much,
and they are forced to "follow the dollars."
If we want these artifacts and the ideas behind them 
to live past our pitiful span, 
we must not expect governments and museums to do it; 
it's up to us.

D.S.