CORRESPONDENCE
Correspondence GOD AND THE GIPPER Tucker Carlson writes that no one knows what, exactly, President Reagan believes about God ("God is My Campaign Manager," June 21). President Reagan believed, and...
...Therefore, we anticipate that all our visitors will find some exhibitions more satisfying than others...
...After the attempt on his life in 1981, the president said that "whatever time is left for me belongs to Him...
...In his remarks to the National Religious Broadcasters in 1983, Reagan said the defiant faith of millions trapped behind the Iron Curtain proved that 60 years of Soviet attempts to wipe out Christianity were a fiasco...
...SPENCER R. CREW DIRECTOR NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY WASHINGTON, DC A HAIRY SITUATION David Skinner's article was fun to read—and yes, I'll be looking for chest hair on every disrobed male lead—but I don't buy it ("Notes on the Hairless Man," June 21...
...And, predicting that believers would triumph over communism, he said that one man, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, was more powerful than all the Soviet military might...
...But Brooks does not have to wait until the year 2001 and the opening of the Welcome Center to see important artifacts and learn about critical ideas and issues in American history...
...JERRY HIMMELSTEIN AMHERST, MA AUTOMATIC APPEAL Christopher Caldwell is quite correct when he says "the Age of Espresso won't last forever" and Starbucks may go the same route as the Horn & Hardart "automat" restaurants ("Java Jive," June 21...
...Presently on the floors of the museum, but overlooked by Brooks, are Jefferson's lap desk, George Washington's uniform, the ENIAC computer, Abraham Lincoln's life mask, the John Bull locomotive, and numerous other objects illustrating important events in the history of this country...
...He concluded with the passage that he said "we all go by," John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life...
...President Reagan believed, and stated, that America was set apart by a divine plan that placed this great continent between the oceans to be found by people from every corner of the earth, united by their love of God and freedom...
...The president also professed a deep kinship with Israel, believing we enjoy a special relationship, thanks not only to our strategic partnership and common democratic ties, but because Americans and Israelis are "all children of Abraham, children of the same God...
...If Brooks and his family had paused for a few moments at one of our two visitors' information desks, he would have realized that most of our visitors do come to the Museum of American History to see specific American icons—the artifacts that represent the ideas which they have studied and read about since they were children...
...There is some truth in this for 1955, but for 1900 or even 1930...
...The decline of British economic leadership was due to a weak educational infrastructure in technology and business administration...
...And since H & H disappeared there is nowhere to go for the world's best baked beans, macaroni and cheese, or pumpkin pie...
...As stewards of America's history for all its peoples, we are pleased to hear diverse viewpoints...
...The United States and Russia, any farsighted observer would have decided, represented much greater threats...
...The automat was a place to sit and relax while you drank your coffee, with no supercilious personnel hurrying you on your way to make room for the next millionaire-in-waiting willing to spend $3 or more for a cup of coffee...
...How often has true romance been pictured as something apart from marriage...
...It has little to do with gayness and still less with chest hair...
...It is an institution that appropriately reflects the diverse population of the United States of America and the experiences of the ordinary and extraordinary peoples who compose the patchwork quilt which characterizes our nation...
...NORMAN F. CANTOR SAG HARBOR, NY CURATORS OF CONTROVERSY In response to David Brooks's article, I believe there is a different way to view the National Museum of American History ("The National Museum of Multiculturalism," June 7...
...In later years when you didn't have much money, you could get a square meal at a very reasonable price...
...It is unfortunate that Brooks visited the museum while the new Star-Spangled Banner Conservation Laboratory and Exhibit was under construction...
...This most treasured icon, which is undergoing major preservation and conservation, will be seen by millions of national and international visitors during the next three years...
...It also launches the museum's first capital campaign, which will provide the resources for the first comprehensive renovation of the museum since it opened in 1964 as the Museum of History and Technology...
...And, he said, "the forces of tyranny seek to undo the work of generations of our people, and to put out the light that we've been tending for these past 6,000 years...
...Our extensive range of exhibits and public programs allows each visitor, whether he comes once or repeatedly, to leave with new knowledge and a broader perspective of our country's history...
...British industry, as shown by the story of the miners after World War I and the general strike of 1926, was capable of breaking strikes and humiliating unions if it wanted to...
...How often has domestic life been treated as either (at best) a subject of comedy or (at worst) a threat to masculinity...
...The lesson to be drawn from August 1914 is that a liberal-left government in London, not willing to seem weak, allowed itself to enter a European continental imbroglio in which Britain's national interest was not involved...
...Sound familiar...
...To a kid, putting that coin in and getting a piece of pie or glass of milk was a truly happy experience...
...However, his lack of understanding as to why someone would want to get his lunch by sticking a quarter into a machine is typical of today's jump-to-the-next-fad group...
...Horn & Hardart is fondly remembered by many and will remain so for a long time, and I doubt that Starbucks will ever evoke that kind of memory...
...Rather than being narrow-minded as Brooks suggests, we strive to be open-minded...
...Oxbridge was much more responsible for British economic decline than the Trade Union Congress...
...But Germany in 1914 did not represent a danger to Britain...
...JULIA M. ABRAMSON RAHWAY, NJ...
...What David Skinner describes is not new...
...The automat was a special place, and remains so in the minds of the millions of New Yorkers who patronized it...
...Nonsense...
...Our curators and staff understand that different people seek different experiences at the National Museum of American History...
...Frum thinks the best explanation for loss of leadership by the British economy is "the unique strength of British trade unions, which had already by 1900 loaded onto British industry the most restrictive business practices in the developed world...
...Our visitors come to see the Star-Spangled Banner, Lewis and Clark's compass, the gunboat Philadelphia, the remembrances of the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, and even Dorothy's ruby slippers and Archie Bunker's chair—all of these and many other treasured objects are viewed and enjoyed by millions of visitors every year...
...The British upper-class preference for lifestyle cultivation over capital growth lies behind the educational deficiency...
...When hasn't American culture pictured men, however hairy their chests or wrinkled their faces, as overgrown adolescents who find their greatest satisfactions in adventures with other men (often quite apart from everyday civilized life...
...Drawing a lesson for the United States today, Frum goes on to claim in his final paragraph that "a country, no matter how rich, ceases to be great when it loses the heart to protect itself in a world of dangerous states...
...Humphrey Bogart doesn't marry Ingrid Bergman, after all...
...When Brooks returns in the year 2001, he can begin his visit in our new Welcome Center where, thanks to modern technology, he will be able to plan a personalized tour to address his specific interests and review the chronological history of our great nation on a timeline that integrates ideas, people, and historic events...
...It was a Saturday ritual to go there with your family...
...On their way to visit these treasures, our visitors stop and see some of the very exhibits to which Brooks referred, and learn about aspects of American history that might have been covered in their history books only briefly, but which have contributed to American history as surely as the heroes whose names and ideas are familiar to us all...
...Upon leaving the Welcome Center, he will visit the new American Legacies exhibition, which will address what it means to be an American, including many of the ideas, events, and heroes to which he refers in his article...
...He evoked howls when, referring to the Bible, he said, "I have often believed that within the covers of this one book are all the answers to all of the problems we face—if we would just read it, and heed it...
...BENTLY ELLIOT WHITE HOUSE SPEECHWRITING OEEICE, 1981-86 NEW CANAAN, CT AT WAR WITH HISTORY David Frum's interesting review of the World War I books by John Keegan and Niall Ferguson is spoiled by doubtful statements in the last two paragraphs ("The Historians' War," June 21...
...The exhibit and lab address a major historical event and object that have inspired and renewed the democratic spirit in generations of citizens...
...he walks into the fog with Claude Rains...
Vol. 4 • July 1999 • No. 40
