OPINION:
The Smithsonian was founded by James Smithson, the illegitimate son of an English duke (“The Smithsonian’s museum of woke,” Web, July 23). Smithson, a scientist, lived in the Caribbean and then in England as an adult. He left his fortune to the United States because “[i]n America a man is known by his own name, not the name of his father.”
This is part of what makes America great. In America, the world sees a nation that corrects things when they go wrong. It’s what we did in our Civil War, World War II, the 15th Amendments and a cure for polio, just to name a few.
Shame on the Smithsonian for now emphasizing America’s errors instead of glorifying how we corrected them. Many have even died to right our wrongs and the wrongs elsewhere in the world too.
I am a white woman who is well off so I can say this. White, well-to-do liberal females are not qualified to tell America’s history because they never contributed to it. They never made it happen. They have only benefited from it and even today, still don’t appreciate it.
Shame, shame on the Smithsonian for putting them in charge.
CYNTHIA NEU MCCLUSKEY
McLean, Virginia
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