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Re: Pretty in Pink



-----Original Message-----
Subject: Re: Jackie Kennedy's Pink Dress


In a message dated 7/27/2000 3:25:13 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
mangelo@INDSM.ORG writes:

<< Where in the
 Archivist's Oath does it require us to be guardians of (subjective) good
 taste?  Why do we gravitate toward assuming "the public" need archivists to
 license their interests and censor their viewing habits? >>


I should think that our common humanity would take precedence.  If not, no
oath yet devised will suffice.


Margaret Shannon
WASHINGTON HISTORICAL RESEARCH
ShannonRBL@aol.com

Ms Shannon, (et al.,)
I wish that was possible...but "common humanity" is a wiggly philosophical
construct.  The proof of its elusiveness is evident in this ongoing
debate/dialog among us.  "Remember the Mapplethorpe!"  Censorship under
"community standards of decency" have yet to be defined and will change with
the decades.  Please understand me, I am not advocating marketing murders or
ignoring donor restrictions, but I can't subscribe to a notion that there is
somehow an unequivocally ethical answer to these issues.  I do respect your
opinions and am mostly pointing out my own liberal viewing of the grey areas
in our professional lives.

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