CityBeat readers are owed something a bit more perceptive — and honest — about the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center than Steve Ramos' ad hominem attack in Arts Beat ("Changing the Signs," issue of Dec. 14-20).
Since the Freedom Center opened in August 2004, more than 320,000 people have visited our museum from across the nation and literally around the world. Every day, dozens of them voluntarily fill out customer comment cards. Thousands more have responded in audience research questionnaires online and over the phone. Their overwhelming reaction: The Freedom Center experience is far better than they expected it would be — more educational, more inspiring and more emotional. Three out of every four visitors say they would recommend the Freedom Center to their friends and neighbors.
Ramos could have at least mentioned this information. It really is important if you're going to write a column about reactions to a museum. Instead, the columnist chose to quote a single voice, an anonymous friend who dismissed the Freedom Center as being filled with "beautiful, colorful signs, but little else." I'm not at all sure what that means — our unnamed observer didn't offer a fuller explanation — but no matter.
According to Ramos' journalistic standards, one critic's dismissive comments balance thousands of positive, enthusiastic endorsements of the Freedom Center experience.
And who is this critic? Someone qualified to attach the Freedom Center because, in part, he frequents Chicago's Millennium Park. But there's more: Our unnamed source is also a historian and "well regarded" lecturer on the Underground Railroad, slavery and African American genealogy.
These are precisely my areas of expertise. Members of the Freedom Center staff or I know nearly all of the historians and lecturers of any note on these subjects — including those who live or work in Chicago. No one I know in Chicago has expressed such negative or gratuitous comments as our anonymous tipster. We're not beyond criticism; colleagues and friends have criticized our exhibits and some of our programming. But it's always been constructive, helpful criticism, and we've heeded their suggestions.
One such critic is Charles Blockson, a person highly respected because of his expertise and many years of study of the Underground Railroad. He was an early critic of the idea of the Freedom Center but after visiting the building has become a strong supporter. Blockson is an expert, willing to be quoted by name. Ramos' critic remains an "unnamed friend."
It would be fairly difficult, I think, to intelligently respond to the curious observation that the Freedom Center is (note the capital letters) a Museum of Signs. But it is important to know that a broad spectrum of people from a variety of cultural institutions have visited the Freedom Center to learn from and use what we have created here, including colleagues from Chicago. They certainly don't agree with the "signs" description offered by Ramos and his "friend." In fact, they have responded enthusiastically to the educational environment created by the Freedom Center, as have more than 70,000 schoolchildren.
I can only conclude that Ramos set out to attack the Freedom Center and created an alter ego critic out of whole cloth — an anonymous surrogate for the writer's own grumpy views about the Freedom Center.
As I said, CityBeat readers deserve better than that. Therefore, this offer: I will personally provide a guided tour of the Freedom Center to Mr. Ramos as well as his friend from Chicago at their convenience. I will explain why we created the exhibits, what we hope to achieve and provide our two guests with copies of the research we have gathered from our visitors.
— Dr. Spencer R. Crew President, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
Woe Is CityBeat
It is obvious from reading the pages of your paper that you have suffered cruelly at the hands of the present evil administration (Porkopolis, issue of Dec. 21-27). I think that it would be extremely instructive for us all if you were to write an article detailing some of the abuses heaped upon you. Of particular interest would be a detailed exposition of the draconian steps they took to censor your work: the wire taps, the shadowing of your employees, the examination of the contents of your garbage cans and your bank records, the threats of imprisonment, et al.
I look forward with eager anticipation to seeing the article in print in the near future.
— Miles Archer,
Anderson Twp.
