History Matters Article11
V1GVV.J.
In answer to a question Monday,
Bolton, who now serves as the State
Department's senior nonprolifera-
tion officer, denied the United States
had ever disputed U.N. reports that
Saddarn Hussein did not have a
uranium -enrichment program. That
is just not true. In March 2003, just
before the invasion, for example,
Vice President Dick Cheney said
Saddam "had a massive effort un-
derway that involved four or five
different technologies for enriching
uranium to produce fissile material."
He went on to say that Muhammad
E1Baradei, head of the International
Atomic Energy Agency, was "wrong"
in saying otherwise.
That led to questions of Bolton
about why he is personally so ag-
gressive in seeking E1Baradei's
ouster. "Term limits," he said, a
preposterous assertion. The Bush
administration seeks to get rid of El-
Baradei for the same reason it wants
to get rid of U.N. Secretary -General
11RIL SPUC .11 Wal M UUU.J VVll11
stated U.S. policy, was not prop-
erly cleared by the State Depart-
ment and was strongly opposed by
Jack Pritchard, chief U.S. envoy for
North Korea.' It took all Pritchard
could do to keep the six -parry talks
on track. Bolton then worked to
push Pritchard out of the State De-
partment. He succeeded; less than
a month later, Pritchard resigned.
To say that Bolton isn't a team player
understates the problem by a factor
of 10, yet he has. been nominated to
be the U.S. voice on the team of all
teams, the United -Nations.
Then, of course, Bolton has a long
history of denigrating the United
Nations. He now says he wants to
"reform" it, but for years he has said
it is irrelevant, and worse. Unless
Bolton has had a Paul -like conver-
sion on the road to Damascus, he's
not to be trusted within 100 miles of
U.N. headquarters. The Senate com-
mittee should ensure he doesn't get
even that close.
History matters
Stop cutting Historical Society
For a look, taste, smell and feel
of Minnesota farm life in the 1860s,
no place surpasses the Oliver H.
Kelley Farm near Elk River. Its oxen -
powered plow, heirloom vegetable
garden, wood -burning cookstove
and farm chore demonstrations give
visitors memorable immersion in
agricultural history.
School tours bring upwards of
15,000 students a year to the farm
where the National Grange move-
ment started. Among those kids
have been the three Rohlf children
of Elk River. All three became serious
history buffs as a result.
So when a state financial crisis in
2003 landed Kelley Farm on the Min-
nesota Historical Society's list of sites
to be closed, Elk River city employee
Stephen Rohlf swung into action. He
helped organize the 130-member
Friends of the Kelley Farm and set out
to raise the $140,000 per year needed
to keep the farm open to the public
— albeit with reduced hours and
staff, and higher admission prices.
The goal was met for 2004 and
2005, thanks to two large one-time
gifts, a Save the Farm event, and
a lot of work. But Rohlf says the
fundraising for 2006 isn't going as
well. "It's a struggle to get the repeat
donor," he said. "They think that if
this is for the good of the public, the
public should pay."
That proposition — that Min-
nesota's historical treasures belong
to the public, should be available
for the public and are the financial
responsibility of the public — is be-
ing tested this year at the Legislature.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty's proposed 2006-
07 budget takes a 2.5 percent bite
out of the Historical Society's state
appropriation. That's not just a nick.
It's added insult to the injury the His-
torical Society sustained in 2002 and
2003 — an 18 percent cut in state
funding and the layoff of 25 percent
of its full-time staff.
Perhaps the governor's, proposal
was built on the belief that private
fundraising is dependable enough
to keep Kelley Farm and five other
threatened sites open indefinitely.
If it was, legislators need to hear
Rohlf's testimony: "People are will-
ing to step up in the short term. But
expecting them to sustain that [level
of giving] isn't reasonable."
All year long, many of the His-
torical Society's 18,000 dues -paying
members have been wearing rectan-
gular lapel buttons reading, "History
Matters." It does indeed, to the edu-
cation of this state's citizens, its tour-
ism economy, its cultural diversity,
and its sense of identity and pride.
This. year, the Legislature needs to
make funding decisions commensu-
rate with history's value to this state.
That means — at a minimum — no
more cuts.