Friends, Once again, the NJ history community is in a state of crisis. As you may know, the Governor is calling for the elimination of the NJ Historical Commission and several other Arts and Historic Preservation Agencies. The email below from a former Exec. Dir. of the NJ Hist. Commission fairly summarizes the main issues. I hope you'll find it of interest and will be willing to write or call your NJ representatives. If you'd like a sample letter and/or the names and addresses of people to write, let me know. Thanks. Robert D. Griffin Bergen Historic Books, Inc. phone/fax 201-816-0585 email: bhb@cybernex.net website: www.bergenhistoricbooks.com ============================================================= ----- Original Message ----- From: Bernard Bush To: NJ_HISTORY@EMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 7:06 PM Subject: The Crisis Dear Colleagues: In our electronic correspondence I think that some excellent points have been made so far: (1) The total funds saved by eliminating all the appropriations for the Arts Council, the Historical Commission and the Cultural Trust represent less than one tenth of one percent of the state budget, and the destruction of these agencies cannot possibly contribute significantly to closing a multi-billion dollar budget gap. (2) The Governor and the Legislature must be persuaded that public knowledge of history--and the collections, research and educational programs that make that knowledge possible--is a public interest essential to society and government, and not something that can be abandoned when fiscally inconvenient. (3) The decision not merely to reduce grant funds but to withdraw all appropriations for staff and non-grant activities would wipe out all staff with their expertise, making it extremely difficult to revive these agencies should funds become available, from one source or another, in the future. No doubt we will hear more useful arguments, and they will help the Advocates for New Jersey History to formulate a unified position paper that we can all employ in appealing to public opinion and the legislature. There are two ideas, however, that I believe represent potential traps to be avoided. First, we should not allow ourselves to be placed in the position of finding our own funding sources outside the legislative process, no matter how insistently others might try to force us to do that. Raising revenues for the general treasury is the business of those who govern. It is our business to make the best possible case to them that public history is in the the public interest and therefore a proper purpose of government appropriations. Secondly, we should never point a finger at other state agencies or programs that could be cut so that our interests might be better treated. No matter how much we are told that it is our responsibility to do exactly that, it would be neither responsible nor helpful to our cause. We would gain no friends and many enemies, we would convey an impression of narrow self-serving opportunism, and in the end we would not win that way. One final point: We should concentrate our attention on the practical effects of this budget decision, and not spend too much energy trying to guess the motives of its authors. Does their action cause them as much pain as it does us? Do they actually want us to succeed in our fight to reverse their own decision? Are we being used as a stalking horse for new taxes? Whatever the case, let's remember that it is OUR agencies and programs that have been singled out for this interesting treatment--total annihilation, rather than merely reductions in grant funds. In consequence it is WE who face the prospect of our own execution. As the great Dr. Johnson wrote, it composes the mind wonderfully. Bernard Bush bernardbush@comcast.net ______________________________

Joan, I was surprised that NJ is having the same problem as Florida, VA, and Washington. I really fear that is spreading around to other states. Do you mind if I share part of your post with a couple of other lists? We have been fighting so hard here to save our Florida State Library. Here is a link that has been set up if anyone is interested. http://www.rootsweb.com/~flsgs/statelib.html Most of the congressmen are concerned, and some did not know until we started calling them. Let me know if I may share part of yours with other lists. Seems like all states need to be attentive to this. Once things are lost, it is hard to get them back again. We have one of the best online archives ever, if anyone wants to pay a visit. There are thousands of photos online and also the Civil War pension records. http://www.dos.state.fl.us/dlis/barm/fsa.html They have already cut back the online records access hours, and they soon may be gone. Thanks for sharing that. I am going to visit the website now, and see how I can help. Sydney Cardner (the Sydney is female) Florida ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joan M. Lowry" <jmlowry@earthlink.net> To: <NJUNION-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2003 11:54 PM Subject: [NJUnion] The (Historical )Budget Crisis > Friends, > Once again, the NJ history community is in a state of crisis. As you may > know, the Governor is calling for the elimination of the NJ Historical > Commission and several other Arts and Historic Preservation Agencies. The > email > below from a former Exec. Dir. of the NJ Hist. Commission > fairly summarizes the main issues. I hope you'll find it of interest and > will be > willing to write or call your NJ representatives. If you'd like a sample > letter and/or the names and addresses of people to write, let me know. > Thanks. > Robert D. Griffin > Bergen Historic Books, Inc. > phone/fax 201-816-0585 > email: bhb@cybernex.net > website: www.bergenhistoricbooks.com > the public interest and therefore a proper purpose of government >