Let Mount Horeb show the way
Re: “A museum of our own” (7/18/2019): Proponents [of a Madison city museum] don’t have to look far to see how to tell the story of a community. Just head to the Driftless Historium in Mount Horeb. The museum opened in 2017 and is operated by the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society.
The Historium isn’t a collection of dusty small-town stuff. It’s a meticulously curated collection that tells the story of southwestern Dane County through the landscape that shaped it and the people who have lived there. No “Great Man” telling of history; instead it’s about how ordinary lives have shaped the place.
Sometimes with museums, the biggest challenge is just getting people in the door. Step inside the door of this one — even if you aren’t from Mount Horeb or the surrounding area, you’ll still be glad you did.
— Jane Burns, via email
Absolutely! I am one of the volunteer docents with the Madison Trust for Historic Preservation. Our tour of the Mansion Hill West neighborhood includes the Jackson family home on North Carroll Street. Whenever we stop to talk about this stately old Dutch Colonial, vacant for more than a decade, I fantasize that it would make a wonderful city museum. It’s currently owned by the Mullins Corp. which uses it for storage. Perhaps they’d be willing to donate the first floor? It’s a beautiful old house with interesting history in a downtown neighborhood. It would be perfect!
— Judith Landsman, via isthmus.com
Caring for the common good
Re: “Political Immunity” (8/1/2019): [This article] brought to mind the concept of “the common good,” which seems to have been lost, or at least downgraded to fit only the smallest of like-minded communities. Kari Pagel’s comments, “Those reports (of measles outbreaks) scare me less and less because the power lies within our family to make decisions,” are so unfortunate in that they reflect a selfishness that disregards the potential consequences on others of personal decisions. If she educated herself with facts rather than myths, she would recognize the fallacy of her statement that “we feel empowered to take care of our kids.” The young man in the news who took it upon himself to get immunized as soon he was of age to make his own decisions is the one who deserves our attention, not the people who have forgotten the grace of the concept of the common good.
— Rick Rosen, via email
