KC-Independence

On April 8 we drove into Kansas City to a AAA office, had lunch at a B-B-Q place, and then enjoyed the Steamship Arabia museum. During the late 19th century dozens of river boats sank in the Missouri River between Kansas City and St Lous. Early in the 20th century the river channel was deepened and narrowed by 2/3, leavingt many of these sunken ships to be covered over by soil up to 40 feet deep and largely forgotten. One of these sunken ships, the Arabia, was excavated in late 1980's. It had sunk with a full cargo of goods for the many general stores up the river as well as the personal goods of passengers. Everything is amazingly well preserved, much looks like it is ready to use today. The collection of everything imaginable from tools, housewares, clothes, etc, etc, etc is the largest collection of pre-civil war artifacts in the world. The displays are superb, every possible item people might have needed for traveling to their new home, building the home, equipping the home and farm, and living their lives is there in quantity. I had never heard of the Arabia until being told it is a must see by a friend a couple of months before leaving home. His advice was a little anticipated gift.

On April 10 we visited the Harry Truman Presidential Museum/Library. I'm glad I had read David McDullough's "Truman" before visiting. The displays are arranged in groupings by topic, event, timeframe, etc. and are rather disconnected and difficult to follow in any logical sequence. There is an effective small room dedicated to the decision to use the atomic bomb. It devotes little to Truman's decision process, rather using quotes from others affected by the decision-positively or negatively. There is also a decision tree for one to consider some of the basic considerations for and against using the bomb in 1945. There are also a couple of other small "decision theaters" where video and slides present factors related to various choices governments must make. Viewers are then able to vote on policy decisions. It was interesting that some of the policy questions posed were updated to current events, internet privacy for example. Plenty of original documents and artifacts are well presented and displayed, although some were printed on dark material and hard to read.

The Presidential Museums have a unique ability to portray life in our country during a specific period of years. The artifacts and documents related to each president's early life are a clear snapshot of that time. More impressive are the official and personal documents, press reports, photos, etc, from the years of each presidency. When one can be riminded that the 1950's were not only a time of economic growth, they were also years when average Americans were building fallout shelters in the back yard. We may have our concers about the constitutionality of some government policies, but it helps to be reminded of such things as Roosevelts's Court Packing Scheme. If we think election politics are less than fully transparent it helps to be reminded that Truman was virtually hand picked by the Kansas City Democrat machine to be District Judge, Presiding Judge, and US Senator. District and presiding judges were the equivalent of our county commisioners. Or more accurately, the presiding judge was similar to an elected county executive, and a district judge was similar to a county council person. They had responsibility for the administration of virtually every phase of county government.