It's your newly renovated Gateway Arch, chock full of exhibits highlighting Native American land "stealing," cultural genocide, the extension of slavery, ill will towards Mexico, environmental ruin, and "the emergence of a myth of American exceptionalism."
Of course, the national park has been renamed, removing the memorialization of Thomas Jefferson, the US President who closed the Louisiana Purchase, a deal which was the fountainhead of US westward expansion. Jefferson, along with the explorers who mapped it and pioneers who bravely settled in it, was the primary individual the monument was intended to honor.
Does everything have to be drenched in negativity these days? Shouldn't they have put the other, more subjective material on a website and pointed visitors there for more information. "If you'd like to learn more about the impact of US expansion into the western frontier on the land and people who originally occupied, please visit our website at www.uglyamericaearly1800s.com."
I've been to more than a few war museums, and rarely do you see the ugly side because it can detract from what the museum or monument is truly memorializing. The national WWI monument & museum, for example, doesn't have a video at its entrance highlighting a negative choice a group of US soldiers has to make in order to survive and protect America's freedom, or any victim impact stories. I can see the other side of the argument too, but, in my opinion, that's not what national parks and monuments are supposed to be about.
Of course, the national park has been renamed, removing the memorialization of Thomas Jefferson, the US President who closed the Louisiana Purchase, a deal which was the fountainhead of US westward expansion. Jefferson, along with the explorers who mapped it and pioneers who bravely settled in it, was the primary individual the monument was intended to honor.
Does everything have to be drenched in negativity these days? Shouldn't they have put the other, more subjective material on a website and pointed visitors there for more information. "If you'd like to learn more about the impact of US expansion into the western frontier on the land and people who originally occupied, please visit our website at www.uglyamericaearly1800s.com."
I've been to more than a few war museums, and rarely do you see the ugly side because it can detract from what the museum or monument is truly memorializing. The national WWI monument & museum, for example, doesn't have a video at its entrance highlighting a negative choice a group of US soldiers has to make in order to survive and protect America's freedom, or any victim impact stories. I can see the other side of the argument too, but, in my opinion, that's not what national parks and monuments are supposed to be about.
