A Small Victory? [Nixon Library Now Run By Nixon Haters]

The New Nixon Blog ^ | July 3, 2010 | Anne Walker

[Taft in '52]

A Small Victory?

By Anne Walker

As regular readers of my blog know, I have been very upset that the docents at the Nixon Library and Museum were “fired” from conducting student tours. After seventeen years of leading the school tours, they were replaced by people, many of them interns, working with the National Archives. This has resulted in blatant disrespect for the President we represent and incidents of revisionist history. The reason, we were told, is that the docents were too political and positive. Now, why I ask you, would someone want to donate hours and hours to volunteer in a place they did not care about, or talk about a person they did not respect? I personally find it disrespectful to represent a former President of the United States with your shirt-tail hanging out and wearing jeans. I also think his representatives should refer to him as President Nixon and not “Nixon.” Even a Mr. now and then would be a little better.

One day when I was volunteering in the Museum Store, I saw a teacher storming toward the door, saying, “We will not be back.” I ran after her to see what had a happened. She told me I did not want to know. I assured her I did want to know exactly what had upset her. She told me that the young people conducting the tour for her class had been very disrespectful toward President Nixon and his administration. “What happened to the wonderful docents who used to lead the tours,” she wanted to know?

Ron has talked to the folks at the National Archives about this. They even sent out their person in charge of education at all Presidential Archives to look into the situation. We expect to hear back soon on the result of that visit. How many teachers vowing never to come back will it take for the feds to wake up and make some changes? When Marg Garvey, President of the Richard Nixon Docent Guild asked to get her members re-involved with student tours, she was informed that this years interns would be writing the script for the tours and perhaps some of the docents could use them at some later date. (I think you can read that answer as “S-T-A-L-L”) Now there are a few docents who have been approved to lead school tours if a vacancy needs filling on short notice. To be approved, they had to agree to an orientation. Many of the books they were required to study were “anti-Nixon.” You can imagine how many of the docents felt about that, but a few felt it was better to be inside the tent so they could know what was going on. I told you we have some very strong and dedicated volunteers.

Preaching to the Choir is something I realize I am doing on this blog. All of us “Nixon Loyalists” want to highlight the positive aspects of President Nixon’s legacy. It is not an easy goal to achieve, because just when we think we are making progress, along comes another article filled with cheap shots and distorted statements. We always hope to find a little good along with the bad and the ugly.

The July issue of Los Angeles Magazine has an article, “The War Over Nixon.” The subtitle is “The ghost of our most divisive modern president haunts efforts to make his library tell the truth.” In talking about the up-coming 20th Anniversary of the original Library, “Befitting the strained detente, the celebrations will be held in separate parts of the same building. Naftali and the National Archives will be looking forward to serving visitors and researchers, and the foundation will be looking backward to honor its namesake.” The article also says, “Think of the facility as a duplex shared by two highly suspicious neighbors, each using the same foyer and elevator but then going their separate ways.”

Perhaps this article has provided a foot in the door to change. Recently, Dr. Naftali told Marg Garvey that “spontaneous tours” are a great idea and they will start them in the fall. The name comes about because the docents will just “spontaneously” gather up some visitors and offer to lead them on a tour. Maybe it is a small victory, maybe it will lead to more cooperation down the road. I hope so. Whatever it is, the visitor benefits, and that’s the main thing.

I want to remind you how “GramAnne.com” came to come knocking on your e-mail in-box. When Ron agreed to “flunk retirement” and assume the Presidency of the Richard Nixon Foundation, soon after John Dean was invited to speak at the Library on the anniversary of the Watergate break in, our daughters made me promise that I would document the experience on my blog. At that time, GramAnne.com already existed. It was born as a fun way for me to talk about our long-awaited amazing grandsons, Hugh and Jake. Writing about the Richard Nixon Foundation and all the struggles we faced made it take on another mission. I have come to think of the “gram” part as a telegram, or aerogram, to keep people informed. It isn’t a Grandma thing anymore, although it will morph back into that at some point, I hope.

[Taft in '52]

Now there are a few docents who have been approved to lead school tours if a vacancy needs filling on short notice. To be approved, they had to agree to an orientation. Many of the books they were required to study were “anti-Nixon.”

In other words, the National Archives functionaries who now run the Nixon Library are laying down a party line that docents now must toe in order to properly indoctrinate students. Your tax money is paying for this.

[hal ogen]

Just disgusting.

[Cacique]

It’s the way communism works. They will take over and infiltrate everything. The churches, the schools, the military etc.. They leave nothing untouched. And it’s all on purpose..

[GeronL]

I didn’t realize people still use the word “docents”.

[Taft in '52]

Up until 2007, the Nixon Library was privately run by the Nixon Foundation. President Nixon wanted no taxpayer money to be used for the facility, so it accepted no government funding whatsoever.

This policy ended in 2007. In order to get Nixon’s presidential papers, which by law belong to the National Archives, the foundation agreed to join the Presidential Library system, which includes the libraries of all presidents beginning with Hoover, and which is part of the National Archives. Sadly, this turned out to be a Faustian bargain for the foundation.

[Taft in '52]

I didn’t realize people still use the word “docents”.

Docents are volunteers who work in museums assisting the public. The Nixon Library maintains a robust docent program. Volunteers lead tours or assist visitors in the galleries. At least some of the other presidential libraries, including Reagan's, also make use of volunteer docents. However, I didn't see any when I visited Kennedy's library.

[GeronL]

The left want to control everything, literally. Everything is political to them.

[MarineBrat]

I wonder if they’ll let me volunteer at the Clinton library and massage parlor?

[historyrepeatz]

Now, why I ask you, would someone want to donate hours and hours to volunteer in a place they did not care about, or talk about a person they did not respect?

For the same reason Obama would appoint an I.C.E.-hater as head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. It's a lefty tactic.. "If you can control it, you can destroy it." It can be done with entire countries too.. U.S.A. comes to mind.

[HereInTheHeartland]

I was at the Reagan library last summer, and thought the foundation there controlled things.

[bvw]

I think that’s great. An example of why the zombie-esque sucking at the public teat long after death is a perversion.

Stop the enshrining of President’s as national gods. Like the President’s of more moral times (Presidency-wise) be an example. They returned to being regular citizens, not modern demi-gods of the colossus-state.

[Taft in '52]

I was at the Reagan library last summer, and thought the foundation there controlled things.

At the Nixon library, the Foundation controls part of the facility--not the galleries or the archives. It also puts on programs and raises funds.

The business offices in the basement remind one of Berlin during the Cold War or Jerusalem before the Six Day War. Thhe Foundation's wing is decorated with Nixon posters, but a portrait of Barack Obama greets visitors to the National Archives offices, which one must enter through an electronically locked door (the Foundation offices are open). The door has been likened to Checkpoint Charlie or the Mandelbaum Gate.

[ETL]

"Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is a former American military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation who precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of government decision-making about the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg
_____________________________________________________________

"As a response to the leaks, the Nixon administration began a campaign against further leaks and against Ellsberg personally. Aides Egil Krogh and David Young under John Ehrlichman's supervision created the 'White House Plumbers,' which would later lead to the Watergate burglaries."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Ellsberg#Fallout
_____________________________________________________________

So what is Daniel Ellsberg up to these days? Well, for one thing, he is an endorser of the Revolutionary Communist Party's "World Can't Wait" movement...

Click on the 'World Can't Wait' link just below and see: "Endorsers of the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime Include" You may recognize a few other names as well, including the democrat chair of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers Jr. Conyers' name appears right after Ward Churchill's.
http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2538&Itemid=2
_____________________________________________________________

Endorsers of the [World Can't Wait] Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime Include:

James Abourezk, Aris Anagnos, Rocky Anderson, Anti-Flag, Edward Asner, Russell Banks, Ed Begley Jr., Harry Belafonte, St. Clair Bourne, Gabriel Byrne, Margaret Cho, Ward Churchill, Paulette Cole, US Rep John Conyers Jr., John Densmore, Jesse Diaz Jr., Michael Eric Dyson, Steve Earle, Niles Eldredge, Daniel Ellsberg, Eve Ensler, Laura Flanders, Jane Fonda, Martin Garbus, Senator Mike Gravel, Andre Gregory, Sam Hamill, Suheir Hammad, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Jr., Mumia Abu-Jamal, Rickie Lee Jones, Sarah Jones, Brig. Gen. (Ret) Janis Karpinski, Jonathan Kozol, Rabbi Michael Lerner, US Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Robin Meyers, Mark Crispin Miller, Tom Morello, Viggo Mortensen, John Nichols, US Rep. Major Owens, Grace Paley, Harvey Pekar, Sean Penn, Michelle Phillips, Harold Pinter, Michael Ratner, Mark Ruffalo, US Rep. Bobby Rush, Susan Sarandon, Richard Serra, Jeff Sharlet, Rev. Al Sharpton, Cindy Sheehan, Martin Sheen, Nancy Spero, Gloria Steinem, Lynne Stewart, Serj Tankian, Sunsara Taylor, Studs Terkel, Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut, Alice Walker, Naomi Wallace, US Rep. Maxine Waters, Cornel West, Ann Wright, Howard Zinn, and thousands more who have already joined us.

http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2538&Itemid=2
_____________________________________________________________

World Can't Wait--Drive Out the Bush Regime is a Maoist-revolutionary movement organized by the Revolutionary Communist Party. (scroll down the list that appears (after clicking link) to find the World Can't Wait organization --rwor.org is the website of the Revolutionary Communist Party):
http://rwor.org/a/rwlink/links.htm
_____________________________________________________________

From David Horowitz's FrontpageMag.com /DiscoverTheNetworks.org:
Profile: World Can't Wait (WCW)

*Revolutionary communist movement that stages protests against the Bush administration

*Organizes college and high-school students

*Founded in June 2005 by Charles Clark Kissinger, a longtime leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party

http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7213
_____________________________________________________________

The RCP calls for the armed overthrow of the U.S. government...

From the website of the Revolutionary Communist Party (revcom.us or rwor.org) :

"Create Public Opinion, Seize Power: We are preparing minds and organizing forces for the time when there is a major crack in the system, whenever it comes and wherever it comes from: an opening that makes it possible to bring the future Revolutionary Army of the Proletariat (R.A.P.) into the field and wage a revolutionary armed struggle that actually has a chance of winning.

And we have said that building our party itself is the most important part of organizing forces for revolution. This is true now, and it is true looking forward to the creation of that future R.A.P. and the waging of that armed struggle.":

http://revcom.us/a/v20/1000-1009/1000/barw.htm

[Falconspeed]

I enjoy my trips to the Nixon library and appreciate his work more and more. It’s sad that losers wish to destroy his bright insights on politics.

[gusopol3]

I suspect some of the interns running the “approved tours” are going to have some rough but educational days, as the folks touring the Nixon Library will be self-selected to have an above average regard for him.

[maine-iac7]

better keep an eye on the Reagan Library, the Lincoln Library - etc -

our school children will soon learn that jimmah was a most excellent pres - while ANY republican pres was awful...

[Theodore R.]

I went to the Nixon and Reagan libraries in 1998 and found the staff at the Nixon library much more accommodating.

[rockinqsranch]

“Everything is political to them.”

Agree. Absolutely everything.

[Taft in '52]

I went to the Nixon and Reagan libraries in 1998 and found the staff at the Nixon library much more accommodating.

The docents at the Nixon Library strive to be hospitable and to give visitors accurate information. They are highly regarded among those in the field.

[Taft in '52]

I suspect some of the interns running the “approved tours” are going to have some rough but educational days, as the folks touring the Nixon Library will be self-selected to have an above average regard for him.

Unfortunately, they run the school tours, so they can fill young, impressionable minds with "politically correct" propaganda.