The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121-180) is quoted as saying, “Embrace your shadows; they make the light stars shine.” Put another way, he exhorts us to accept and claim the darker, less desirable aspects of who we are to better appreciate and understand our more positive aspects (i.e., our greater potential). For educational organizations such as the Smithsonian Institution, presenting our complete selves as Americans, both in light and in shadow, is the fundamental mission.
Today, that mission is under siege by the Trump administration. The executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” threatens to upend the Smithsonian’s fundamental goal, replacing it with something profoundly Orwellian. In George Orwell’s novel “1984,” he describes the “Ministry of Truth’s” use of a memory hole to discard records, photos, books and documents that contradict Party orthodoxy. The Party’s thoughts, beliefs and slogans become inescapable reality in Orwell’s Oceania because “who controls the past controls the future” and “who controls the present controls the past.”
The Smithsonian must continue to offer Americans both light and shadow to tell the complete American narrative, not just one favoring only those currently in charge. The Smithsonian Institution is not — and cannot become — Orwell’s Ministry of Truth; such alteration efforts must be resoundingly rejected and forcibly pushed back. Please let your members of Congress know.
LaVaughn R. Jones
Dover
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
