In September 2024, I traveled to Washington, D.C., for work. On my last day in the city, I crammed as many museums in as possible. Maybe deep down I had a premonition…

I went to my favorites, the Museum of American History and the National Gallery, but also took my first trip through the Museum of African American History where I was humbled to the point of lament. The Emmett Till exhibit, in particular, elicited an overwhelming emotional response…that such murderous cruelty could be directed at a child, and that such grace and bravery could be shown by a mother.

At the Museum of American History I strolled through the exhibit with Dorothy’s ruby slippers and Edith and Archie Bunker’s chairs…favorites from my youth. Added to this collection was a costume from The Handmaid’s Tale. I was struck by how art, literature, and pop culture can change our perceptions and deepen our understanding of humanity just by applying context and diverse experiences to storytelling. Good witches and bad witches in the Wizard of Oz are understood differently in the context of Wicked. Racism, ignorance and fear become less abstract in the context of All in the Family. The commodification and subjugation of women’s bodies, minds, and spirits ate made accessible by Margaret Atwood in the context of Gilead.

Context is everything and our access to art, literature, history and science, even in their imperfections is critical to our understanding of the human experience. It’s how we come to know better so that we can do better.

Yesterday’s executive order aimed at national museums and parks is nothing more than a reflection of fragility and fear. And ego-driven fear that we cannot withstand uncomfortable truths about who we have been and who we are. But we have to know those things to become better versions our ourselves and a better society.

As I walked through the exhibition on voting rights and the Museum of American History, I found myself at the display about journalism and the free press. The curators in their wisdom, included this because they knew how crucial the fourth estate is in preserving democracy. In fact, a docent leading a private tour group specifically mentioned how the printing press in this exhibit once resided in another about technology and the Industrial Revolution. The artifacts of our history mean different things to different people when context and lived experience are added to the mix.

Thankfully, I didn’t erase the absurd number of photos that I took that day or those I took at the National Archives earlier that week. I look at them with sadness today but also with some hope. We definitely have the tools & knowledge to recover from an administration that seems hell-bent in embracing cruelty, fear, and ignorance, but do we have the courage?

Here are some photos to help you answer that for yourself.