CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence JUNK: IN THE NATION'S ATTIC I read with interest David Brooks's article on the National Museum of American History, where I serve as a docent ("The National Museum of...
...However, he obviously missed one of the museum's best exhibits, the 1776 corner and the Revolutionary War era gun boat Philadelphia...
...The article described Barry Lynn, the head of Americans United, as a Methodist pastor...
...The crisis will not begin to subside until those essential elements are assigned the priority they deserve...
...By contrast, Sen...
...Unfortunately, Patton was on the other side of North Africa (Morocco/Algeria) while the British 8th Army defeated Rommel's much-depleted Afrika Korps at El Alamein (Egypt) in November 1942...
...Lott's comments...
...Their agenda is clear—to medicalize social problems and impose an open-ended mandate on the private sector...
...And we who believe His word also know that our problems aren't caused by failures of organizations or politics...
...MARK TOOLEY WASHINGTON, DC GORING THE CONSTITUTION Christopher Caldwell's article on the "universal service charge" was most disturbing—especially the line which read, "For the last year and a half, the Federal Communications Commission has levied a phone tax . . ." ("The Gore Tax," May 31...
...The museum has a rather grab bag approach to American history...
...Lynn is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, which is—at least organizationally—a descendant of the New England Puritans' congrega-tionalist churches...
...While a tip of the hat to local minorities may be appropriate for regional and city museums, the national museum of history should celebrate and promote America's exceptionalism in a unifying way, rather than promoting divisiveness through diversity...
...They should not forfeit their citizenship rights in this temporal kingdom, but they should be under no illusion that politics or politicians are going to reach the heart of man...
...senator, and the president of the second largest democracy in the world...
...To refresh memories, that little paragraph gives Congress the sole power to "lay and collect Taxes...
...and America in 1791, the South in 1860 was a slave-holding society which, paradoxically, revered freedom and justice...
...We repeatedly offered the same opportunity to James Dobson, who declined...
...Even the bookstore is now largely devoted to works documenting the brutal or even genocidal treatment of many Americans at the hands of a small group of non-poor, non-handicapped, non-politically radical males of northern European descent...
...In addition, both he and Pat Robertson are allowed to make their cases unchallenged by us in an interview section...
...W.M...
...However, he was also a respected U.S...
...Still, the prison population is at record levels...
...BROOKE NIHART MCLEAN, VA CHRISTIAN ENGAGEMENT while I am always grateful for any notice in The Weekly Standard, Peter Wehner's review of Ed Dobson's and my new book, Blinded By Might, contains a number of erroneous assertions ("Saving Ourselves," May 24...
...This is instructive: A society's view on one issue does not necessarily provide a useful context for appraising its total value...
...Certainly by 1990s standards he should be considered a racist, as should presidents Washington and Lincoln...
...Their pinning the blame for the Columbine High School murders on school religious displays represents a new low...
...Is there no one in all of Washington even vaguely familiar with the first paragraph of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution...
...From noon to 3:00 p.m., six days a week, there are docents who present a straightforward account of this small but significant battle...
...Sunk at the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776, the boat was raised in 1935 and has been in the museum since it opened...
...But the ideologues of the left are deeply entrenched: first in the foundations, then the universities, and now our museums...
...CAL THGMAS ALEXANDRIA, VA JEFFERSON DAVIS, GOP As Alvin Felzenberg notes in his review of Henry Mayer's book on William Lloyd Garrison ("Race and Republicans," June 7), Jefferson Davis was indeed a "slaveholder, Democrat, and president of a Confederacy born in rebellion...
...In fact, we sent the manuscript to Jerry Falwell and invited any correction of factual errors...
...Beginning with the subheadline, "The Christian Urge to Flee from Politics," we repeatedly say we are suggesting nothing of the kind—only that the ordained should recuse themselves from partisan politics...
...A Republican senator's past praise of a Confederate does not undermine the party's admirable record on human rights, both foreign and domestic...
...In Michigan, individual initiative through crisis pregnancy centers, abstinence education, and television and radio spots informing women about choices other than abortion have had a far greater impact...
...JAMES ELLIOTT DADE CITY, FL Upon reading David Brooks's enlightening article on the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, I suffered a feeling of dejd vu all over again...
...Montgomery, not Pat-ton, was the victor at that battle...
...An improving economy, as well as improved police presence, have combined to reduce New York City crime...
...GROGAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY RICHMOND, VA THE MENTAL TIP A note of clarification regarding Matthew Rees's article on the efforts of Tipper Gore and senators Domenici and Wellstone to expand insurance parity for mental illnesses ("Tipper Can Do and Al Gore Too," May 31...
...I believe Rev...
...However, the odds are that an agricultural statistician has much more experience in education than an education professor has in agriculture, statistics, or any number of other disciplines that the education specialist would not hesitate to instruct...
...The "Nation's Attic" is now the most politically correct experience one can endure outside of a mandatory course in cultural sensitivity...
...Public education is in trouble largely because it provides neither an environment conducive to learning nor teachers who have something to teach...
...We agreed to every one of his suggested changes...
...Education is meaningless without content...
...Rees is correct that "parity" as envisioned by Tipper Gore and other liberals would include a broad range of "mental disorders" such as "Occupational Defiant Disorder" and other mental health problems that are far beyond the scope of biologically based brain disorders such as schizophrenia and manic-depression...
...A woman can still obtain a legal abortion through all nine months of pregnancy in Michigan and everywhere else...
...TIM TILSGN FAIRFAX, VA Having just returned from a long-anticipated family excursion to Washington, D.C., to visit the Mall museums and monuments, I was struck by the astuteness of David Brooks's piece on the National Museum of American History...
...ANDREW SPERLING CHEVY CHASE, MD OUT OF AFRICA In Tod Lindberg's article on the potential George W. Bush versus Al Gore campaign, he notes that Gore will crib from Poppy Bush's campaign against Michael Dukakis and compares this to how Patton read Rommel's book before defeating him at El Alamein ("It's the Dukakis Campaign, Stupid," June 14...
...Second, Wehner laments our perceived lack of charity for those with whom we were once associated...
...The "America Last" and always wrong bug evidenced by the ignoble and notorious Enola Gay exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum has spread its germs to the American History Museum...
...His point regarding multiculturalism is well taken...
...That is a power God reserves for Himself...
...Correspondence JUNK: IN THE NATION'S ATTIC I read with interest David Brooks's article on the National Museum of American History, where I serve as a docent ("The National Museum of Multiculturalism," June 7...
...JASON BOATRIGHT AUSTIN, TX BLAME GAME Thanks for the update in THE SCRAPBOOK on Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and their ongoing campaign to exfoliate any trace of public religious expression from American society ("Americans United for Blame Shifting," June 7...
...After the Enola Gay travesty the Smithsonian should have learned a lesson...
...As a museum junky since childhood and a retired museum head, I can speak with some feeling...
...Lindberg should take care not to take his history from the movie Fatten...
...CHRIS GRIFFITH MAYWOOD, NJ...
...How a spiritual heir of John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards ended up heading Americans United would justify an article unto itself...
...The good professor probably doesn't get nearly as nervous about agricultural statisticians in his field as I do when educational "experts" begin to tinker with medical education...
...FRANK CROWSON MT.AIRY, MD FAILING TEACHERS Jonathan Fox illuminates the mentality of the education establishment with a quote from an education professor who gets nervous "when an agricultural statistician works in education" ("Grading Teachers," May 17...
...Domenici's more responsible alternative, S-796, would constrain the scope of a federal parity requirement to a defined list of biologically based mental illnesses...
...This does not excuse Davis's views on race, but it provides context for his deeds—and for Sen...
...Policy has been a factor, but it is not the whole story...
...Wehner suggests that public policy has reduced crime in New York City and abortions in Michigan...
...Afterwards, visitors (especially our younger ones) are invited to handle a variety of reproduction Revolutionary War-era artifacts ranging from linstock to bar shot...
...Fortunately, we Methodists cannot accept the credit...
...The institution is long overdue for a housecleaning...
...Did it ever occur to anyone that it is illegal—unconstitutional—for petty bureaucrats to engage in extortion of this kind...
...The idolizing or demonizing of elected officials from pulpits diminishes the gospel and confuses the unchurched...
...they come from a failure to properly diagnose the human condition (sin) and prescribe the correct solution, which is not reform, but redemption...
...Like Athens in 400 b.c...
...secretary of war, a brilliant U.S...
...Our point, mostly missed by Wehner, is that Christians, especially, are called to a higher kingdom and a King on whose shoulders the government will ultimately rest...
...This is the same approach that has been endorsed by numerous GOP governors, including George W. Bush, Frank Keating, Jim Gilmore, Steve Merrill, and Christine Todd Whitman...
Vol. 4 • June 1999 • No. 38
