The Problem of Race and Museums.....

Tina Fineberg/Associated Press

OK, I hope the title and picture got your attention!  I am a fairly conservative Republican, let me admit that right up front.  But, if you think that Michelle Obama is the problem, I am afraid that you are going to be very disappointed with this post.  

The words of our First Lady at the Studio Museum in Harlem have stirred a hornets nest among conservative bloggers and news sites in the past few days.  Mrs. Obama stated the following: 

“You see, there are so many kids in this country who look at places like museums and concert halls and other cultural centers and they think to themselves, well, that’s not a place for me, for someone who looks like me, for someone who comes from my neighborhood. In fact, I guarantee you that right now, there are kids living less than a mile from here who would never in a million years dream that they would be welcome in this museum.

“And growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I was one of those kids myself. So I know that feeling of not belonging in a place like this. And today, as first lady, I know how that feeling limits the horizons of far too many of our young people." 

The headlines and blog posts state that Mrs. Obama thinks that because of these words, she believes that museums are only for "white people". What she said is not that museums are only for white people, she said that."many kids"(notice she did not use any race here!!!) "in this country who look at museums and concert halls and other cultural centers and they they think to themselves, well, that's not a place for me, for someone who looks like me..." She is absolutely right!!!

Yes I said it, she is right! Kids, due to race, economic background, social standing and a myriad of reasons feel just that way and, frankly, so do many of their parents. Those who think otherwise need to get their heads out of their politics and look at the real problems. Blaming black culture is a simplistic and wrong-headed approach that only further proves that fact that racism is alive and well in our country today.  This is not about race,  it is about much more.

 She said kids...and let me assure you that they are not coming in the numbers they once did. When I was in school, we took many field trips to museums. The white, mostly rural children I knew got their first exposure to museums at school. Their parents were generally NOT museum goers. Since my parents did love museums, and since I went with my friends in school, I felt perfectly comfortable in a museum setting but I knew many parents who lived near me as a child who were shocked that my parents took me to the Art Museum in St. Louis. One told me, "I would never take my kids there, they don't need their heads filled with that stuff." She was white and middle class, but no museums for her family.  Those field trips are drying up.  Without them we will continue to see more alienation and less comfort with the museum experience. 

 

Many, regardless of race, see museums and concert halls as places of the rich, the cultured and the snooty.  They also see many museums as boring, stodgy, stuffy places of no interest.  to them.  Well, many are! Some museums totally fail to engage any audience, let alone a broad one. If I look at a museum and I do not see any external signs that there is anything in there for "me", why should I go in?  Is the Museum marketing to a broad audience?  If not how can they expect a broad audience to come?  The fact is, the old "build it and they will come" theory of museum building and attendance is simply outdated and useless in our modern world.  This is not a problem with black,or any other culture, it is a problem to be laid at the feet of the museum industry.  

And what about admission costs?  I know well that museums need money to survive, but in some cases the cost of our institutions has been forced to rise due to losses of tac support, reduced income from endowments a few years back and increased costs of maintenance and upkeep of older buildings and staffing costs.  For many, admission is a real obstacle especially for families.  Despite the knowledge and love of learning that can be instilled by museums, if you can't afford to go, you are forced to be outside looking in.  Not a welcoming image.  

We as an industry need to do more to market and appeal to an ever broader audience.  We need to make sure that we are inviting to all by offering a wide variety of programming. We need to show the public how and why we are relevant and important to society as a whole.  We need to find ways to make our spaces more affordable and finally we need to see that the problem is not solely external to us, but is also with our walls and our minds.  

What's next for Me........

As many of you already know, I am leaving the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and moving on to a new job at Mount St. Mary's Seminary.  I am going to leave my position of Executive Director behind along with 15 years of fantastic experiences and move into the position of Assistant Director of Human Formation.  I leave the Museum with the greatest fondness and hopes that I will be able to continue to help the Museum in the future in some way.  But it is time for a change, and God has blessed me with a great opportunity. 

In my new job I will be assisting in the preparation of men for the Catholic priesthood.  As a Catholic Deacon, I am keenly aware how important the priesthood is to our ability to evangelize and spread Christ's message to the world. It is a great honor to have chosen to assist in this important work.  I have had many come to me and ask how I can leave history behind, and how a Museum director could change career paths so drastically.  I want to take a moment and answer both of these questions. 

First, I am not leaving the world of history at all.  Since my new job requires that I work an academic year, I will actually have a greater opportunity to do some research and consulting that I am currently unable to do with a 12 month schedule.  I hope to take all I have learned in working with Museums for over 30 years and help small and medium sized museums in the mid-Atlantic area.  I hope to offer an affordable consulting service and pass all I have learned along to others.  I also hope to spend some time each summer to move my ballistic studies forward and I even have a few banjos I want to make.  In all, history will always be a part of my life.  

As for making such a drastic change in career, I must say, I do not see that great of a change.  You see, as am Executive Director, one of the things I do is spend much of my time acting as a public face for the Museum.  I am out and about speaking, soliciting donations, talking to the media and spreading the word abou Civil War medical history.  I also administer the Museum.  I handle staffing issues, hire and fire, manage a budget, deal with maintenance, technology, volunteers and everything else needed to keep the Museum going.  Now I am going to help train Priests.  What do they do?  They preach, solicit donations, talk to the media, spread the Word of God,  administer their parishes, handle staffing, technology, budgets, volunteers, maintenance, and everything else that they need to keep the parish going.  Much of what we do is the same.  We both survive on donations, goodwill and commitment to our organization's mission.  I am going to be able to take my experience and pass it to them.  

I cannot express how wonderful it is to be able to use my experience to help build a stronger priesthood AND still get to follow my love of history. For those of you in the history world, you will certainly still see me around on TV, in articles and in museums.  For those of you who know me from my work in the Church, you will see me more at events like retreats and vocations events.  

And what of this blog?  It will keep going.  As I see things that stir my interest in history and the museum industry, I will comment here.  

Thank you all for following my musings!  

Public Health and Politics...Getting Scarier!

I am not sure I want to shake hands with this man!  Senator Thom Tillis (R. NC) recently went on record saying that restaurant workers should NOT be forced to wash their hands.  To be fair, the senator is not against washing hands, he believes that government forcing the washing of hands is an overstepping of government authority.  This is a dangerous trend in public health and as a nation we need to stand up and fight this kind of ignorant politicizing.  Whether we are talking about vaccination, hand washing or other public health issues, this type of thinking cannot stand unchallenged.

If you follow Senator Tillis' thinking, all public health requirements are an overreaching of government control.  If I do not need to wash my hands, then why should a restaurant owner be required to wash the dishes?  For that matter who really has the right to tell anyone how cold a refrigerator should be for keeping food safe?  For that matter how dare the government inspect food plants, slaughterhouses and drug manufacturing facilities!  Let us let the free market sort out who lives and who dies.  According to politicians like Tillis, that is the American way!

Now before this blog is accused of partisan politics, let me say that I am a registered Republican. As a member of the loyal opposition, I see the party I love falling farther from its roots and becoming a caricature of itself in these matters.  Let's look at just two Republican administrations and their efforts at public health.

In 1906,  Theodore Roosevelt championed two important acts.  Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.  These acts sought to protect the American public against adulterated foods and dangerous drugs as well as to provide for proper labeling of food and drugs that entered into interstate commerce.  Unsanitary conditions, dangerous ingredients and mislabeling we common and the public health suffered for it.

Dwight D Eisenhower fought for stronger public health services in the US.  His proposals on insurance, public heath training and the building of healthcare infrastructure can be read here .  His words on healthcare concerns sound like they could have been written this very morning:
"As a nation, we are doing less than now lies within our power to reduce the impact of disease. Many of our fellow Americans cannot afford to pay the costs of medical care when it is needed, and they are not protected by adequate health insurance. Too frequently the local hospitals, clinics, or nursing homes required for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease either do not exist or are badly out of date. Finally, there are critical shortages of the trained personnel required to study, prevent, treat and control disease." 

( Special Message to the Congress Recommending a Health Program. January 31, 1955)  Today we face shortages of nurses, rural facilities that do not meet the needs of their communities, shortages of general practitioners and ever increasing costs.  Eisenhower was right on the mark. 

The fact is that we have public health issues all around us.  The last E. coli. outbreak was just last summer .  Salmonella outbreaks occurred nine times in 2014 according to the CDC.  These outbreaks occur despite our current efforts.  Can you imagine how much worse it would have been if we did not have the levels of regulation we currently have?  How many would be sickened if we rolled back such simple things as hand washing at restaurants?  

Public health issues need to be addressed and informed by our public health professionals, not by politicians.  That is why the role of the Public Health Service and the Surgeon General are so important.  Playing politics with public health is nothing short of playing Russian Roulette with the lives of our citizens.  

My Personal Thanks to the Nursing Profession

I am sorry for my long absence from the blogosphere.  I have been on drugs.  No seriously.  After bilateral knee replacements, I was  in need of serious relief.  Now that I no longer need the drugs, I am free to write again. You do not want to read what I think on Oxycodone!

I must admit that 2014 was not a good year for me in many ways.  I started the year waking up in a hotel in Philadelphia with a serious internal hemorrhage that landed me in intensive care.  By the time I figured out what was wrong and called 911, I had lost six and a half pints of blood!  And to make matters worse, I lost all that blood and no one offered me juice, cookies or a donut!  Next time I want to lose blood I will stick to the Red Cross...they have cookies.

I spent much of January and February getting back to work and regaining my strength.  I thought my health troubles were over, but my knees had other plans.  They have been in pain since I broke them in a cave in 1979.  Since then I have had nine arthroscopic procedures to try and get a few more years out of them.  This year they just plain gave out and on December 2, 2014 I had both knees completely replaced.

As I thought about this month's posting, I was struck by one thought that would not go away.  I opened 2014 surrounded by nurses and I closed out the year the same way.  Now, I have known many nurses in my life.  I went to school with some, I have trained others.  But I am ashamed to say that I think of them too rarely.  My two stays in the hospital this year opened my eyes to their truly thankless work and dedication.

Think of the high level of training these men and women have.  They were in charge of delivering my medications and then acting as advocates to the doctors when things where not going as planned  They were the first ones to evaluate me each morning and the last to check on me at night.  But there was so much more beyond the training.  They were my nanny, my mother, my care-taker, my valet, my cheerleader, my comforter, my pharmacist, my coach, my medic and my wait staff all in one.  And those are only the duties I saw with my own eyes.  I did not see the paperwork, the record keeping, the family counseling and all of the other things that they did out of my sight.

The amazing thing was that each and every nurse I had was truly a comfort to me.  I am sure that if I walked back in any of those wards, they would not recognize me.  But, when I was in their care they all made me feel like family.  They did everything I asked, and so much more than I could have hoped for.  They were angels in my midst.

Before 2015 gets old I just want to say: Thank You!  To all who treated me, and to all who have chosen this difficult path of ultimate service God Bless you all!

I hope that in 2015 you will take the time to think about these angels and thank them for what they do.  Our world would be a much sadder and terrible place without them.

Honoring Our Veterans...Every Day

Each November we set aside the 11th day to remember all who have served in our Armed Forces.  This is the day the First World War ended.  I sit in an office surrounded by images of that war every day.  This may seem odd for a Civil War museum director, but WWI posters have been a part of my life since I was born. One poster in particular may well have led me to my present position: The Greatest Mother in the World

 From my earliest recollection, the image of war has always been tempered with an image of healing.  Please, do not mistake my meaning; war is terrible and costly and should be avoided at all cost.  There is no glamor in it.  But, there is also a legacy of care, compassion and life affirming activity that has a direct impact on all of us each and every day. 

Take the images of the two ambulances above.  In 1862 Major Jonathan Letterman organized an ambulance service that has stood the test of time.  Taking a slightly different direction than the famous Napoleonic Surgeon Larray, Letterman tied his ambulance system directly to the field hospitals and a chain of aid stations fully supported by medical logistics all under a a defined chain of command at both the hospital and ambulance level.  For his contributions to military medicine Letterman is internationally known as the "Father of Battlefield Medicine".  His system not only proved effective in the American Civil War, but it was used by the Prussian and later German armies with great success under the name "The American Plan".  It is still the basis for much of our military medical evacuation and emergency medical care today.  

And that bring me back to honoring our veterans today.  We see organizations like the Wounded Warrior Project doing great work on behalf of our veterans; not just in November but everyday! This and so many other great organizations are trying to help and I encourage everyone to support those efforts.  There are now efforts to recognize and honor those who develop and provide the unparallelled medical care our warriors receive.  Through the Letterman Institute training programs are offered to our medical heroes from the Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard, Public Health Service and VA.  In addition to training programs, there is an annual Letterman Award given to organizations and individuals who are changing healthcare for our warriors and for our citizens.  If you follow the link to the award, scroll down to the past award recipients.  Take a moment to read their incredible contributions.  Take a few minutes to honor them.  They are heroes no less than any other who serve and their legacy will be felt by our children and their children's children.   

In 1862, Major Jonathan Letterman touch our lives today by putting in place a medical evacuation system and emergency medicine system that touches every community in our nation today.  Yet few even know his name.  Today hundreds of his successors work to save lives, improve patient outcomes and provide the best possible lives for our wounded warriors, and that work will eventually improve all of our lives.  Isn't it worth the time to honor them as well?   

Consider nominating  a military medical professional for the 2015 Letterman Award.  Click and download the form, send it in  and we will take it from there.  

The Next Big Epidemic - Anti-Vaccination ?

I have already taken on the Ebola scare and in doing so I seem to have stirred up a bit of trouble for myself.  It seems that there is a significant number of people who are still "anti-vaccine".  Although I had heard of this movement in light of news stories on autism issues, I was not aware just how broad the movement truly was.  It is a movement with a long and storied past. The 1802 cartoon above entitled "Cow Pock - or - the Wonderful Effect of the New Inoculation!" is an early example of public fear of vaccination.  Cow heads protrude from the recipients noses, arms, legs and rear ends.
But for me this movement is not just a historical curiosity, it hits much closer to home.

As a museum director dealing with 19th century medicine, prevention of diseases like Smallpox is a major issue for me.  During the Civil War there was robust response to outbreaks of Smallpox and vaccination was a major part of that response.  But this is not the only reason for my interest in preventative vaccination and inoculation.  My father had Polio as a child.  For my entire life, I never saw my father raise his right arm; that part of him never came back.  Later in life my father suffered from post-polio syndrome  Although both of his parents lived well into their eighties, my fathers lungs failed at age 72.  I watched polio slowly take my father back; weakening his muscles, taking his breath, slowing his pace.  He lived with Polio every day and I lived with my father's limitations and grandmothers words ringing in my ears: "always get your shots".

Growing up in the 1960's I can still remember getting my shots: Tetanus, Rubella, Smallpox, etc.  I also remember swallowing the oral Polio vaccine.  My grandmother once quizzed my mother asking if I was getting all my shots.  She related, with deep pain, a story she often told.  In 1955 when the Polio vaccine was made public,  my grandmother went to every door in her neighborhood begging the parents to get their children vaccinated.  One mother, whose daughter was a close friend of my father, refused.  My grandmother begged and pleaded, but no response.  Within one year her daughter was dead from a disease that is now nearing eradication.

Rebellion against vaccines is  nothing new.  The cartoon above shows peoples fears of Cowpox inoculation to prevent Smallpox.  In 1796 Edward Jenner developed this method with great success.  This first scientific attempt to control infectious disease would give credibility to the procedure and begin a world-wide effort to control other diseases as well.   Benjamin Jesty later vaccinated  his children successfully against Smallpox during an outbreak where they were regularly exposed to the disease.  They remained disease free. This first vaccination changed our world.

Now I am not one to set aside all fears of this life saving procedure.  There are certainly dangers in vaccination and history has shown this.  During the Civil War, vaccination using pulverised scabs of those either vaccinated or healing from mild cases of Smallpox, resulted in complications such as passing on Syphilis!! Such "spurious" vaccination was a known problem and much effort was was put forth after the war to make sure that such problems did not occur again.  And it worked.  Safer methods were developed and , like Polio, Smallpox is no longer the scourge it once was.

It is this point that brings me back to the beginning.  As I read the Facebook pages and websites of anti-vaccination proponents, I was surprised at many of their arguments. I posted a response on one article and was told that the reason Polio went away had nothing to do with vaccine, it had to do with improved water sanitation.  My problem with this argument is that water sanitation did not improve that dramatically between the 1952 record setting Polio outbreak and the 1955 vaccination effort.  Between 1955 and 1957 there is an 85-90% drop in polio cases.  The only substantial difference in frame was the introduction of vaccines, not a massive effort to build new water treatment plants.  The same can be said of many other diseases such as Smallpox.  Their disappearance coincides with effective vaccination efforts.

I am sure that some people have negative reactions to vaccines.  Just as some patients have complications from general anesthetics, joint replacements and aspirin.  If autism, which is so often blamed on vaccines, is on the rise, then why was it not on the rise from 1955 to 1970?  This is when so many of our vaccines were developed and given.  Some blame Thimerosal  ,but this ingredient is no longer in general use.  I cannot say whether there is a connection or not.  But I can say this: vaccination has helped control or eradicate some of the most dread diseases known to man.  Unfortunately, the next epidemic may come from something we already conquered but came back because we would not take the vaccine.

I do not get paid by pharmaceutical companies, I am not paid by insurance companies either.  I am not a lobbyist.   I am s simple historian who can read and understand historical events.  I am also a witness who saw my father die because a vaccine was still six years away.  And,  I am a father and grandfather.  I do not want to see us return to a world where Yellow Fever, Whooping Cough, Smallpox, Polio and Rubella come back to haunt my grandchildren.  I look forward to a world where Ebola can be eradicated as well....but only if we are willing to take the vaccine when it comes about.

Ebola Lessons from the Civil War

Like so many Americans these days, I am deeply concerned with the spread of Ebola.  I have been following the stories of efforts to control the disease in Africa as well as the stories of patient's right here in the US.  I have listened to pundits, doctors, politicians, social commentators, social activists and news anchors push each of their views.  My conclusion, we will not get a handle on Ebola until we stop the politicizing of the issue.

We should not really be surprised, in this day and age we politicize everything.  And not just politicize, we blame anyone who can take the spotlight off the real issue.  The Democrats are blaming the Republics for the Ebola spread and I am sure Republics somewhere are blaming Democrats.  Jesse Jackson Sr. is involved claiming sub-standard care for Mr. Duncan who recently died in Dallas. Some nursing advocates are blaming the hospitals and the CDC for a lack of training. Some are even blaming  the CIA and white demon worshipers for spreading Ebola . All of this confuses the issue and makes getting the epidemic under control harder.

As the director of a medical museum I am confronted daily with the history of past mistakes and successes in dealing with public health issues.  To be successful, we need to rely on the medical professionals, scientific research community and government authorities to do their jobs.  This is very hard in the current political environment and harder still in a 24 hour news cycle.

The Civil War gives us some insight into doing this the right way.  If we think that we politicize today, we are slackers compared to our ancestors from the 1860's.  Yet, they too were going through a massive public health crisis as they went through the war.  More soldiers died of Typhoid Fever  and Diarrhea than bullets.  Many thousands more were overcome by venereal diseases. These diseases not only attacked soldiers, but in the aftermath of battle they also attacked local civilian populations with disastrous consequences.  Yet, despite the outcry and ridicule of the military medical establishment by the  press and politicos, science succeeded.

During the Civil War, sanitation in the camps dramatically improved thanks to both military officials and organizations like the US Sanitary Commission seriously improving general health and cutting deaths from disease.   Army  officials began public health efforts to license prostitutes in Nashville and create medical examinations and special venereal hospitals in order to cut the spread of STD's with very good results. Dr. M. Goldsmith used blind studies to bring gangrene under control in Union hospitals with dramatic results.  Dr. Jonathan Letterman developed a system of emergency medicine and ambulance based evacuation that is the basis for emergency medicine today.  These and many other innovations came out of medical system in crisis that overcame the crisis to save countless lives and began a tradition of military medical excellence that continues to this day.

For those attacking our nation for sending military medical professionals into Africa, I must disagree.  Our military is equipped to fight this battle.  Ebola and other diseases have been on the radar of the military for years.   They have the labs, the equipment and the training to treat and slow the spread of the disease. They have over 150 years of success in fighting major diseases.  From the Civil War struggles with Typhoid, Smallpox and Dysentery, and the  Yellow Fever work done by Dr. Walter Reed to the current work by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, our military medical professionals have proven themselves again and again.    In fact, they may be the most qualified responders in the world today.

I realize that I am likely a voice crying out in the wilderness, but, we need to keep informed, ignore the hype and filter what we hear in the television and radio very carefully.  We cannot allow ourselves to be sucked into the panic that our politicos, activists and news media would wish.  They have an agenda - get ratings and votes.  We have a much more important agenda - stay alive.   In order for us to do that, we need to let science and medicine lead the way.