Compared to events in Iran, the health care mess, or the financial challenges our nation faces, the actions of a wackjob legislature and stooge governor in Arizona don’t amount to much. But for those of us who teach, research, or just care about the Southwest’s history and heritage, another large shoe has dropped. And it says a lot about the direction our state is headed - right off a cliff.
Last year the controversy was a new archives building that supporters lobbied for year after year, because Arizona’s most important documents were wasting away in leaky basements. They finally finished the building, but now the state has appropriated almost no funds to operate it. Then we learned the Phoenix Museum of History will close this summer - the institution that since 1927 has told the dramatic story of the nation’s fifth largest city. Seems the city council can find millions of dollars for mall parking garages and other corporate giveaways, but not $50,000 to keep the museum open.
All of this is taking place, of course, as we prepare for the state’s 100th birthday, when we're supposed to celebrate ... get ready for it ... our history!
The larger and sadder backdrop to these stories is that last week Governor Jan Brewer announced her budget will phase out, over the next five years, the Arizona Historical Society, which operates museums in Tucson, Tempe, Flagstaff and Yuma. The Society was created in 1864, long before there was a state called Arizona, long before there was a governor. Also affected by the draconian cuts is a sister agency that runs a fantastic museum in Prescott, as well as dozens of smaller institutions throughout the state that receive very small amounts of legislative support. When I say “very small” I mean that eliminating all of the state funding will recoup about 15 percent of 1 percent of the state’s shortfall. Yeah, that’ll balance things out.
But, some ask, why should we save museums when schools and social programs are being cut? I know our universities’ plight all too well, and I’m not suggesting cultural facilities shouldn’t carry their share of the burden or engage in more fundraising (they are); but the cuts are exorbitant and they hurt the overall budget more than they help. Why? Well, the largest industry here is arguably tourism, and look at any Arizona hospitality publication or website and what do you see? I guarantee there will be a picture of our unique cultural and natural landscapes – a Native American face, Hispanic art and architecture, a cowboy theme, the Grand Canyon and purple vistas … you get the picture. We don’t have theme parks, our theme park is our heritage. Several years ago the tourism office conducted studies which showed that people who visit Arizona to explore its history and culture stay a lot longer and spend a heck of a lot more than folks who come to lounge by the pool. The other thing these tourists do is spread their money around the state, traveling beyond the Scottsdale or Sedona resorts.
The very features that define us as Arizonans, that differentiate our state for tourism and attract quality economic development, are being dismantled by leadership that’s all too willing to give tax breaks for another call center, sprawling development, or Wal-Mart pod, but won’t invest in the cultural institutions and state parks that attract visitors and contribute to the residents’ quality of life. The museums and parks have done economic studies that show they add much more to the state’s coffers than they take – that they help to subsidize schools, libraries, roads, police, social programs, and other mandated services. Prescott, for example, thrives on tourism, it’s the community’s main economic driver, and the museum there is one of the region’s principal attractions – drawing tens of thousands of people every year to the small town. The museum’s ROI for its state appropriation (the “return on investment” economists like to use) is about 8:1.
It really makes you wonder what history Arizona will celebrate in 2012 when our Centennial rolls around. You may remember from history class that Arizona and New Mexico are relative newbies to the whole USA thing, having only entered the union on Valentine’s Day 1912. So while the rest of you have celebrated Centennials or even Bicentennials many years ago, we’re just gearing up for ours. I wonder what history we’ll celebrate, and where we will do it. With the state museums a shell of their former selves by 2012, and most other heritage institutions surviving on nickels and dimes, I see little more than politicians giving bombastic speeches on Feb. 14, 2012 about “our glorious history” (of course whitewashing our treatment of the original inhabitants), a parade or two, probably a lot of Centennial furniture store and used car sales, and bunting, lots of bunting. (We did hear last week that the governor has approved the Centennial logo. Yippee, we have a logo!)
Our political leaders tell us that we should be responsible citizens, that we should participate in this experiment called democracy, that we should take pride in our country, state, and town. Okay, but that rings pretty hollow when our governor and legislature do not take enough pride in their own state’s history and heritage to preserve it for future generations; or when they don't care enough about the history of the state they represent to make it available to the thousands of students who visit the sites every year - who get out of their textbooks and experience the Arizona story.
Not just museums: the larger story
Governor Janet Napolitano was no flaming liberal, to be sure. But she was smart and could keep our lunatic legislature in check. When she left to become head of DHS, Arizona had no lieutenant governor from her party to take over. Instead our constitution calls for the Secretary of State to become governor, which we’ve recently experienced two other times: when Governor Evan Mecham was impeached and Governor Fife Symington was indicted. Ah, Arizona politics! So we’re stuck with the Republican Brewer. And while most of the nation’s legislatures leaned a little left last election, riding Obama’s coattails, our legislature tilted even farther to the right, at the same time voters passed some pretty nasty legislation, like Proposition 102, an amendment to the state constitution that bars recognition of same-sex marriages (you’ll find Mr. McCain listed as one of the “Marriage Protection Amendment” supporters).
Certain elements of Arizona's legislature, especially the crazies (some would say neo-Nazis) like Russell Pearce, have long salivated over the idea of dismantling funding for universities, cultural programs, environmental agencies, the social service sector, or regulatory bureaus that restrict Ayn Rand's wet dream of laissez-faire economic policy - those programs that Pearce and fellow goons consider the “welfare state.” And now there are few restraints on their crazy ambitions to de-fund what they don't like, militarize the border even more, and open up state lands to mining, grazing, and lumbering. Thank goodness for Pastor and Grijalva in DC, but down at the Capitol we are in deep doo-doo. Whenever I think of my home state I often wish that Wallace Stegner’s line about the West could come true, because if it did this would be a pretty great place:
“What we need in the West is a society to match the scenery.”
The way things stand now, however, with the corporate growth industry, religious zealots, and nativists controlling the legislature, feeding the frenzy for mindless growth at the expense of a tolerant and quality lifestyle, the passage that rings more true is from Ed Abbey:
"We see that it's only the old numbers game again, the monomania of small and very simple minds in the grip of an obsession. They cannot see that growth for the sake of growth in a cancerous madness..."
Even Barry Goldwater, who loved Arizona history and contributed in many ways to the state's museum community, would be spitting bullets about now. And he'd definitely be calling Governor Jan Brewer: 1-800-253-0883. Her proposal is part of a larger agenda, of course, to undercut public education, culture, NPR, or anything that encourages citizens to think (because, as we know, thought has a liberal bias).
Sure, given the economic doldrums nationwide the assault on historical institutions is happening elsewhere, but this is the first instance I can recall where a state has completely walked away from and abandoned its past. And no, I don't write as a museum employee, someone concerned about a job, because I'm not - just a person who cares about this place. Happy birthday, Arizona.