The Grand Question: Focus

I know that I probably should have posted about this sooner, but I took Spring Break off (I went to the Everglades and explored a lot of our wonderful Interstate system on the way there and back.) which probably wasn't wise with all the stuff going on.

In any case, without looking at the availability of sources, I think that the second project option (exploring the I-496 controversy) is a much better project. The difference is this: Controversy is more interesting than nostalgia for a bygone neighborhood because (and I hate to say this) I never lived or even visited this neighborhood. I don't know anyone who lived their, so it's passing doesn't affect me, except for the MANNER of its passing.

Because the racial implications, the now-antiquated but (at the time) insatiable drive toward progress, and still fresh and exciting spread of the internal combustion automobile, these forces that tore apart the only significant black community in Lansing, THAT is what makes this whole thing interesting. I don't care where the laundromat was, or who worked there, or what it looked like so much as how much the owner was compensated, whether they were able to open another successful business, etc.

Some would argue that these topics are above the audience the museum primarily serves. I would argue that no matter how heavy or light the subject matter is, kids won't read the captions for the artifacts: They might read what the object is, but little more, no matter what the topic is. As long as the objects are interesting, the kids will have fun looking at it. However, those that do read the captions (history nerds like me, kids' parents and teachers, that proportion of adult patronage, people on nerdy dates, whatever) are going to be far more intrigued about this subject if there is some DRAMA! They almost certainly won't have lived in this neighborhood (with some exceptions, of course) and a study focused on reconstructing the neighborhood would be, in my opinion, without context. Yes, this neighborhood is interesting and charming, and it's gone now so we can make it live on in a museum. However, the museum already has vignettes of life in the past; it doesn't have a chronicle of the rending effects of motorization, or the potentially darker side of all that "progress" Michigan was producing in her auto factories.

For the sake of our sanity, we need to do the more intriguing, interesting, and applicable topic whether there is more or less evidence for it, as long as it's fairly plausible. I was very encouraged when Dr. K said that we don't have to have it done until the end of the semester, and when he reminded us that we were making a proposal, not the actual exhibit. We can't let the grand conflict be ripped out of this story!