"ASU: Cultural museum will not reopen."
The lasting legacy of the current administration.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Epic Fail
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Appalachian State University,
Ken Peacock
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3 comments:
Did the museum have any firearms common to rural Appalachia? How about the various hound dog breeds common to these mountains. I thought the museum to be a foray into what history professors WANTED rural Appalachia to be, not what it was. My family has been here since before the Revolutionary War and rural Appalachia was what it was - no need to change things around to suit politics or political correctness.
The new museum they are planning on opening in Blowing Rock will fall victim to the same thing as the Appalachian State University Museum did. I inquired as to the possibility of a display on the weapons and hound dogs used through the years by residents of Blowing Rock (there were some regionally famous houndsmen in the Blowing Rock area - Johnny Pitts, Dog Tom Coffey, Lum Boyce, Milt Bradshaw, Vaughn Hartley, Daniel Boone, Tom Jackson {current columnist for Full Cry Magazine}) and others. In addition, there were many breeds, now relegated to a few backwaters of our state that were developed in our mountains. The Plott hound is our state dog. Promoted by the Plott and Cable families of the Smoky Mountains, these dogs were used in and around Blowing Rock and the Blue Ridge Mountains for hundreds of years to hunt bear, painters, coon and other varmits. They are rarely seen in this day and age, and to have a section of the museum dedicated to this kind of thing is important.
I was met with a cold rebuff for even asking. Choosing which history to display seems to be revisionist in nature and detracts from the real essence of what a museum is about. What we see may not agree with us, but that is why museums are so important in the first place. I don't agree with exterminating millions of people based on race, but I believe the Holocaust Museum certainly has a place.
I think this is tragic and an insult to the long tradition of Appalachian culture in these mountains. When we first came here nearly fifty years ago and got to know many of the wonderful families on "the back side of the Beech," we were appalled by the distain and almost embarrassment that many of the "polite" townspeople seemed to display toward the mountain people. They seemed to go out of their way to avoid being considered "hillbillies."
We thought that had changed and that the Appalachian Cultural Museum was one indication that people around here had begun to accept the rich heritage of these mountains. I guess we were wrong. Peacock and his ilk just don't seem to care about one of the things that's really special about Watauga County and the surrounding area. Cratis Williams must be turning over in his grave.
Hey, Orville, want to start a protest - with music and stories, of course?
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