Your readers might like to know that there is a good piece on this general subject now in the April, 2008 of Smithsonian magazine. The theft of documents from the National Archives that was uncovered by the Thomas brothers serves as a focal point for the article.

Best wishes again for the soon-to-be-released book.
My copy is on pre-order.

Valerie has an excellent point about Enron. It all has to do with ethics and it would appear that Dan Lorello’s actions, to say the least, were utterly unethical. It is inconceivable to think that a man in a highly respected position in state government could actually think he would get away with what he did. He worked for the government for 29 years, built up a good pension and only had one year to retirement – now it’s for nothing because he has ruined his life.

My other point was the fact that history is not valued. Do you ACTUALLY believe that I therefore find no problem with what happened as you obviously stated? Again, you cannot have read my post the point of which was more than obvious. More value given to history, less probability for people like this fellow to feel that he’s merely ‘skimming off” some unappreciated and unvalued dusty piece of information forever doomed to stay in some drawer until a ‘history buff’ choses to look at it.

Finally, the man who had permission to look for metal objects etc. HAD PERMISSION to look and to take what he found. That he didn’t record where he found them is probably unfortunate, but let’s face it, just about every inch of Virginia was some sort of skirmish line at some point or other. It is one thing to appreciate history, it is another (as The General pointed out about the plans to build commercial enterprises on outskirts of the Gettysburg battlefield) to worship it to the point at which no one should do ANYTHING lest some historic artifact to moved (or discovered).

I had hoped to bring to light the sad state of our culture in which history is considered a pastime for dilettantes or ‘buffs’. Apparently either the point was not taken or, having been taken, was considered irrelevant.

Working at Bentonville NC years ago, we encountered a gentleman, ex-military, coming across a field with his metal detector (with landowner permission), very excited that he had found “clusters of Spencer casings.” He had about three hundred in a bucket. But because he did not record the location of his finds, he had essentially obliterated the Union army’s skirmish line which could have helped rewrite the history of the battle. Picket holes, a certain unit, each man firing a certain number of rounds … lost to historians … dropped into a BUCKET. This is what happens when history becomes a commodity.

However, there are two points here. First there are people who commit violent crimes which destroy life or who defraud the public to the tune of millions of dollars (often destroying the retirement investments of thousands of people) who are seldom punished to the extent that their crimes justly demand. This man certainly betrayed the public trust, but not nearly as badly nor to the destructive extent to which say the executives at Enron did.

Secondly, I believe that this act by a man who probably would never have considered doing such a thing under ordinary circumstances illustrates of what little value history is held in the nation. One poster referred to the word ‘buff’ as a modifier to the word ‘history’ as insulting, but it, too illustrates that people who are interested in history are considered either outside the mainstream or esoteric ‘dabblers’ in a study that really has no value except to those who have an interest in it.

One has to doubt that the gentleman involved would have purloined newly minted coins if he worked in the mint or newly printed greenbacks if he worked in the Treasury Department. Why? Because no one in the culture underestimates the value of money. On the other hand, I have seen priceless historical objects offered for sale by their actual owners going to collectors to be forever lost to public view. One friend and fellow Mosby fanatic told me that the window in Lakeland house which contained the bullet hole from the projectile that wounded Mosby in December, 1864, had been removed from the house and sold on eBay for over $3,000! Now, I am not against people owning ‘bits of history’ – private property is, after all, the central theme of the founding of this nation – but to my mind, that particular ‘bit’ should have been put in some museum not only because it is irreplaceable, but because it is fragile and probably will not survive its current ownership. Once it’s gone, of course, it’s gone forever.

I do not excuse the man involved but I also believe that dealing as he does with historical artifacts, he probably more than many knows with in what little value these objects are held by the public and their ‘servants’, the politicians. What library with an historical collection doesn’t know how difficult it is to get funding to preserve that collection or to make it available to the public? And how much ‘public interest’ is there with the exception of the occasional researcher in doing so? Ergo, what does it matter, one might think, if a piece or two ‘goes missing’? Who would know? More importantly, who would care??

This act brings to light far more than one man’s unfortunate fall from grace and lapse of ethics. It brings to light the fact that our culture has to get its priorities straight. Instead of Lindsay Lohan and Michael Strayhan being objects of public interest and concern, Americans have to rededicate themselves to a study of history in order to find more important issues, better ‘heroes’ and higher ideals. As well, a study of history will bring to light our past mistakes from which we SHOULD as a people learn lest, as Santayana cogently pointed out, we be doomed to repeat them.

Therefore, if this sort of thing is to be ‘discouraged’ in the future, besides bringing home to the criminal the seriousness of his crime, it would be well to treat with greater care those things which many today view as being without appreciable value.

No, I haven’t.

Eric