Like Bridgett, I’m not sure I know enough about Sarah Palin yet to have a considered opinion. But some of the details in this post, forwarded to me by a friend, give me pause. Regrettably, there are a few museum directors, librarians, and public historians out there who probably ought to ousted for cause. But it seems unlikely to me that one town had all three of them, not to mention other public officials, all so out of line they came to the mayor’s immediate attention.
It’s a small thing (in the national context at least, though certainly not for the people involved — I don’t imagine Alaska offers a lot of opportunities finding a comparable job in the same vicinity). And my knowledge of it is basically all hearsay. But it leaves a bad taste in my mouth all the same.
August 30, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Thanks for dropping by! It doesn’t surprise me that she has a “me and mine against you and yours” attitude (that’s Alaska politics in a nutshell), nor that she sees public history as a waste of public funds. Regrettably, it’s all too easy to conclude that a certain stripe of politician has not been satisfied with messing up public education and so extends the purview of attack to libraries, museums, and public history sites to make damn sure that citizens are hindered from educating themselves outside of school as well.
It’s enough to make a historian cynical.
August 30, 2008 at 4:16 pm
You handled that much better than I did.
August 30, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Thanks. But I’d never have seen it if not for your short-lived post.