Hello ALL:

Did you see the photo of the "YAMES TOWNE" lead cargo
("luggage") TAG from a circa 1611 shipping crate?

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070201/480/ny/11102011

NASA is going to take this into space, along with Jamestown
commemorative coins aboard the space shuttle ATLANTIS in
March 2007 to honor earlier explorers/colonists.

NOW a QUIZ:  What is wrong with the following posting on
the Colonial Williamsburg "REVOLUTIONARY TIMES" Web 
Newsletter for February 2007?  Under the Jamestown 400th 
anniversary logo and headed "Did You Know?" this was one 
of the "Little Known Facts about Jamestown":

"The British king revoked the Virginia Company Charter
in 1622, and Virginia became a British colony." 

See the problem?

Such things will make it into my "Hoary Myths and Horrid
Mistakes" presentation at the Virginia Forum on Friday the
13th (April).  Why is it SO HARD for historians, the general
public, and EVEN C.W. to get the facts right?  As we see 
in all of the posturing nonsense about "firsts," History has 
become just another COMMODITY in our materialistic 
culture, and anniversaries promote new wars between the
states because TOURIST REVENUE--not the dissemination
of accurate knowledge--is the real goal. Mistakes and Myths,
Old and New, now proliferate like computer viruses, and they
are just as insidious, because one factual error on a History
Channel program will take dedicated researchers DECADES
to correct (if ever), given the power of electronic media.  I think
that honest, reliable, and informative History is already dead,
in and out of academe, as we have managed to trivialize and
forget our past.  So, we may as well promote bumper-sticker
snapshots of History and seek to make a buck on Woodstock-
like commermorations at our once-venerated sites.  SEE THE
INACCURATE CRAP IN THE US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT 
Special Issue on "THE FIRST AMERICANS" (with John Smith on 
the cover!!):  "WOW, hon, did you realize that America turns 400
this Spring?  Why don't we take the kids to the first permanent
English settlement--you know, the one where the colonists taught
Pocahontas and her raccoon to speak 'our' language?"  

Best, 

Fred Fausz
St. Louis
  

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