James Baldwin famously wrote, “I love America more than any other country in the world, and for exactly this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” To anyone who has traveled widely, the pre-eminence of America is obvious and profound. The idea of the USA is unique and has been the principal engine of this pre-eminence. That said, the USA has done a lot of bad things. Criticizing those bad things is the best—maybe the only—way to prevent them in the future.
Daniel McCarthy seems to believe that criticism is unpatriotic. In his latest column, he decries the focus on the bad things in our public museums and historical sites. If his complaint were that the explanatory texts were over the top, I could agree, but, taken as a whole, his column is a condemnation of criticism. Apparently only “leftists” and people who use Marxist idiom want to show the bad things.
In my childhood, I knew nothing of the bad things. It was a time of glorious growth for the working class. We were on top of the world. We had the Soviet Union to distract our attention from the seamy side. Black people were on the periphery of society. They were barely seen even in professional sports. But bad stuff was happening even then. McCarthyism (different McCarthy, same attitude), foreign interference, Jim Crow, one could go on. Just as we created affirmative action to try to redress the oppression of Black people, people like Anthea Hartig, the director of the National Museum of American History, whom Mr. McCarthy excoriates, are using a kind of affirmative action to balance our awareness of our history. One could say their efforts were designed to make America great again.
Bill Gillmore
Columbus
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