I’m normally not a museum guy. I think I’m not patient enough to really absorb the information.
So today we visited the National Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Smithsonian Museum Of American History. Normally you might not see much commonality in those two places, but I guess my recent bike tour has narrowed my perceptions.
At the Holocaust Museum I continually saw the word “remember.” It’s the primary reason for the museum’s existence—to make sure we don’t forget the horrors that happened more than six decades ago.
I couldn’t avoid thinking we don’t need to study history to remember, because the terror of genocide and violent oppression happen right now all around the world. We’re reminded by current events that these evils are very real.
Then we entered the American History museum and saw an exhibit titled ”Slavery At Monticello.” We studied the improbable juxtaposition of more than 600 slaves held at the home of such an eloquent spokesman for liberty.
I believe Thomas Jefferson was a great man. I’ve always admired him. I believe he struggled with cultural pressured that conflicted with personal convictions, and I certainly don’t judge him.
I was especially struck by these two statements.
“We have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”
After 1785, as tensions over slavery grew, he continued to believe in the injustice of slavery but remained publically silent.
I’m reminded of another well-known quote:
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke
It’s not about judging or condemning. It’s about remembering, so it can’t happen again.
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