TELLING A BALANCED STORY

There's been a very interesting ongoing conversation going on over the future site of the Constitution Center in downtown Philadelphia. The city wants to renovate the area to present a modernized attraction for visitors to learn more about Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the creation of the Constitution. But many are asking for more time to do more archeological work; it seems that some of new edifices would be built on top of George Washington's slave quarters. How juicy and ironic!

Today, in my leadership class, the executive director from the Christ Church Preservation Trust gave us the scoop on a historical burial site's grand re-opening later this month. There you'll find, among other famous tombstones, the epitaphs of Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush. Now, B. Franklin is about as luminous as it gets for Philadelphia; but B. Rush was no less a superstar. His contributions to medicine and psychiatry are well-documented, as are his role in both local and national politics during the Revolutionary War era.

He also held some views about race that were controversial at the time, and highly offensive when viewed from a modern lens. He believed, for example, that being black was a disease to be cured, and a sign of inferiority. In fact, the many deeds he did on behalf of contemporary African-Americans, which are applauded by today's fans of Rush, sprung forth from this attitude of black inferiority and white superiority.

I asked the executive director about this and he agreed that a balanced story was what needed to be told, rather than a sanitized version. He also explained that the important thing about telling components of Rush's story, and all of his famous graveyard-mates for that matter, was to tell the good and the bad in the context of the times in which he lived. Not to excuse Rush's racism, but better to tell it in context of the prevailing attitudes whites had about blacks back in the day.

The cemetery opens again to the public later this month; I will be out of town for the grand opening, but I look forward to seeing how the story of Benjamin Rush is told. He is still a hero in my book, but I will be leery if his dark side is conveniently glossed over or rationalized.