By One Citizen-Charleston, WV
"A history museum is as good as the history that goes into it"
source: Dr. Ken Sullivan, Executive Director of the West Virginia Humanities Council, speaking about the $17 million dollar renovation of WV's main official state museum located at the Capitol.
Most folks wouldn't think that he's admitting that the chunks of WV's history which are dark and full of desperation were purposely left out of in order to make the museum "good". But after considering what's not in the museum, and upon close inspection of what's actually there, it begins to appear as if Dr. Sullivan meant that if our history isn't good enough to make an attractive display, then it should be revised.
WV History: Why Accuracy MATTERS
I remember well when they first opened the museum exhibit at the state capitol back in 1976. The official name then was the West Virginia Science and Culture Center. That's right, Science and Culture. Apparently they steered clear of using the "H word" because somebody realized that the sparse history presented there couldn't even come close to passing muster as a "history" museum.
It was also back in 1976 that I first heard the term "Arch Moore's Culture Palace". A young store clerk for a very popular downtown Charleston small business used the term when asking if I'd seen it. Last year he was fired after having faithfully worked there for over thirty years. It is a sad testimony to our state's regressive labor laws that although very the company was successful for over sixty years, that small business never put him, nor any other of its many clerks on as "full time" employees. EVER.
If, back then, "Arch Moore's Culture Palace" had properly detailed the history of the stranglehold that coal operators and land companies have had on WV's political system, then maybe, just maybe, state lawmakers would have been embarrassed enough to have eventually required all businesses to take better care of their faithful employees. Instead, regressive state laws are designed to let small to medium sized stores skirt labor laws by under-employing our citizens.
Stop and think for a moment about what progressive labor laws in West Virginia would mean. Everyone from well-established small businesses, to successful "small store" national franchises, from car dealerships, to Starbucks, to McDonald's, to Books-A-Million, employers all across the state would suddenly be giving their experienced workers full-time employment. That naturally would mean more ready cash for WV families and individuals to spend, so every business would thrive.
Instead, West Virginia has never risen above the bottom rungs of the U.S. economic ladder, despite having one of the lowest business startup and operational costs of any state, at least according to the WV Chamber of Commerce!
As it stands now, with the exception of coal mines and government employees (which have recently been laid off in droves), most WV businesses virtually always under-employ their workers just to dodge the unfair burden of 'employee benefits' laws fashioned to favor coal operators.
If you don't think that last statement is true, then ask yourself how WV's 89 year old worker's compensation fund could have suddenly faced insolvency, despite the fact that WV is the fourth most resource-rich state in the country!
The net result has been that once employees of small-to-medium-sized stores get some experience and/ or education, they're all but forced leave the state in droves. Small-to-medium businesses never really thrive, which permanently stunts the general economy of West Virginia.
Treating workers like second-class citizens is the dirty little secret which keeps West Virginia on the bottom rung of the nation's economic ladder. Which fits the coal extraction industry's political plan perfectly.
UMWA President Cecil E. Roberts recently felt compelled to write a letter to WV Director of Museums Adam Hodges, admonishing, "if the story told in the museums do not depict the full story or worse, slants the facts to fit a preconceived view of what that history is and what it represents, then the purpose of the museum changes from one of providing information to one of spreading propaganda."
The state's museum director never responded.
Dr. Ken Sullivan was on the short list of experts who, according to Director Hodges, were allegedly consulted regarding not only what historical facts went on display, but how each was to be featured.
Considering that two of the remaining four on that list (besides Dr. Sullivan) are on record as having flatly denied that they had anything to do with the museum's contents, I now wonder if Sullivan is even willing take full responsibility for his own statement.
Read it again.
"A history museum is as good as the history that goes into it"
Is he actually saying dark past = bad museum?
Now to be fair, taken in context Sullivan most certainly meant to say that the museum should be great no matter what our state's history was, because in the same breath he went on to opine
"The West Virginia State Museum is based on the very best scholarship that's available in this generation. Top historians were involved from start to finish and their thoughtful work underlies every part of our spectacular museum"
Note that I used the word "opine" because his claims appear disconnected from the facts. Upon request, a list of Sullivan's "Top Historians" was provided to Wess Harris, who has also been recognized as a historian of note.
Unfortunately, Mr. Harris didn't make the director's list. Perhaps it's because he's one of WV's top labor historians.
That list of experts as provided by the museum director's office who were allegedly consulted were:
1. Dr. Ken Sullivan,
2. Dr. John Williams,
3. Dr. Ron Lewis,
4. Dr. Ron Eller, and
5. Dr. Jerry Thomas
The results of Mr. Harris' polling of the members on that list compels me to challenge Dr. Sullivan's statement. Using the exact vernacular of one expert on the Director's list, his assertion that all on the list were consulted is "BULLSHIT".
Another expert on the list confirmed it by flatly stating that he was never even contacted by the WV Division of Culture and History, although he lives very close to the museum and was available during the planning phase of the renovation.
Dr. John Williams, yet another on the list of WV's top historians, is on record as having strongly objected to the "Disneyfication" of the museum. He said that his strong objections to the way that $17 million renovation was being spent actually made him a hero to many WV Culture and History staff members.
He also said that although the museum director may be technically correct when stating that he was consulted, the way they renovated in spite of his objections shows that his advice carried little weight.
So reportedly the lion's share of the state's top historians have either distanced themselves from the way our history is presented, or else were never consulted.
Speaking of lists, I'm beginning to wonder if the WV Director of Museums had anything to do with the dead land owners who recently requested that Blair Mountain be eradicated. Let's not confuse WV museums director Adam Hodges with the state Commissioner for the WV Division of Culture and History though. Because it was Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith who controversially balked at taking Blair Mountain off the list of National Registry for historic preservation, despite having been shown evidence that dead owners had been improperly listed.
Although the action of destroying a powerful symbol of the history of the labor movement on Blair Mountain is similar in result to undermining that same movement at the museum, these two aren't the same individuals, even though bogus lists were utilized in both cases. Two or more coalocrats conspiring to change history might actually be a crime. But it certainly wouldn't be the first time that it happened.
Although Commissioner Reid-Smith doesn't officially hold the same position as the WV Director of Museums, there is much reason to believe that Randall Reid-Smith had lots of input regarding what's on display in the state's #1 historical museum. Plus, the photo below reveals several additional cozy relationships.
UNDOCTORED SCANNED PHOTO OF Randall Reid-Smith's personal Sports Utility Vehicle Check out the close cropped zoom of the Friends of Coal sticker and Commissioner Randall Reid Smith's distinctive vanity plate at this link and also the zoomed shot of the sign marking not the COMMISSIONER'S parking spot but MUSEUM DIRECTOR'S slot at what should perhaps be renamed the Arch A. Moore, Jr. WV Center for the Revision of History at this link.
Does anyone really wonder why Randall Reid-Smith is balking at putting Blair Mountain back onto the National Registry of historical places to be preserved?
Actually, no one should be that surprised by the fever to take Blair Mountain out, since it's certainly not the first WV historical landmark removed from the registry and demolished..
Below the jump, I'll demonstrate how, a century ago, robber-barons used the awesome power of the state to shaft the working people by manipulating political leaders on behalf of mine operators. Then I'll produce evidence that modern-day coalocrats are doing the same in an effort to revise our history just to bury their bloody and greed-driven record.
COALOCRAT:
1. Any partisan politician or political appointee that will to do anything and everything within their power to benefit coal operators.
2. Coal-powered bureaucrat.
*For the record, I find the word "hillbilly" extremely offensive. I use it here only to deride the way that elitist coalocrats historically treat the working-class in this state.
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