Informed and Inspired by History
This comment from TDK reader WH on being informed by history so that we make better choices for the future:
As a person who spent several years in the world of museum management, I applaud your vision of a Presidio where the programs relate to the world and world issues. The Presidio Historical Association introduced a proposal for a “History Center at the Golden Gate” located on the Presidio that would weave themes of cultural changes, economic uniqueness of the West of Sierras region to the rest of the U.S., American role on the Pacific Rim, and environmental consequences into a story of the Golden Gate and the Presidio. It would be a history of our remarkable region of the world and the many ties the Presidio has with that history. For example, did you know how rich wildlife was when the first Europeans arrived? The first white man in a canoe paddling up the Sacramento River had to post an Indian on the bow with a stick to beat a path through rafts of water fowl, for example. Did you know that America’s first reach for empire in Asia was based at the Presidio in the Spanish American War to seize the Philippines, our first permanent presence in the Asia/Pacific region, and our first overseas “counterinsurgency’ war against residents of a land who resisted our permanent occupation?
There are lessons in Presidio history and in the retelling of that history that can inform our thinking about future decisions for our nation.
–Doug Kern
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