Hi Everyone:

    With only 49 years and 51 weeks left before another Jamestown
Anniversary is upon us, it might be interesting to survey our Virginia
History interest group members about what they learned about the
first colony that was New, Startling, and/or Hard to Accept, ETC., 
amidst all of the hoopla during the 400th birthday season.  

As a published veteran of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial, I was struck 
by how much anniversary trash obscured the few new "treasures" to 
emerge from a renewed "public interest" in those men and their famous
expedition.  There were a few new insights, but most of the true experts 
were perplexed about the birth of fresh fallacies and the failure to reach
consensus on key issues never before in doubt.  PR and the quest for
tourist dollars muddied the waters about "where the expedition began,"
with the Mind of Jefferson at Monticello, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, 
Louisville, Camp Dubois, St. Louis, the Mouth of the Missouri River, 
and St. Charles all vying for attention--and thoroughly confusing even
the most dedicated teachers trying to make sense of it all.  

Did the Jamestown Quadricentennial produce similar confusions and 
contradictions for anyone?  What purported "legacies" are most 
historically supportable (leave out the politician-speak) and valid for
Americans in the 21st century?

Have Fun.

Best Wishes from St. Louis, where the new Lewis and Clark
statue on the Mississippi waterfront was almost totally engulfed 
by the rising river (a sign, perhaps?).  

Fred Fausz  


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