Smithsonian Says “Stay Home”

by edward wright

The Smithsonian Institution, the nation’s largest collection of museums, says Americans should stay home. They do not need to travel to Washington, DC and should not plan to visit any of the Smithsonian’s museums.

Okay, they didn’t really say that — but that’s what they would say if they were intellectually consistent.

A recent post on the Smithsonian’s blog makes a Politically Correct argument that Americans should not travel into space:

But why must our species continue to advance? Do we really want to keep growing? I believe that the physical limitations and boundaries of our planet, if not insurmountable by our technology, might be worth respecting. I also believe we should employ our brilliance as a species in figuring out how to live sustainably on this planet, and I would argue that it’s not our business to plunder the natural resources of any other worlds unless we can at least learn to manage and preserve our own—a challenge at which we are failing.

If the Smithsonian wants to stop our species from advancing, putting an end to space travel is a start, but the Smithsonian can do more than that. It should recommend that Americans avoid visiting educational institutions like the Smithsonian. The physical limitations and boundaries of their home states, if not insurmountable by technology, might be worth respecting. Instead of “plundering” the resources of any other states, shouldn’t Americans stay home and use their brilliance to live sustainably in their own towns and villages?

And shouldn’t the Smithsonian cease to exhibit the Moon rocks — “plunder of other worlds” — that draw so many visitors, who spend money (“squander resources”) in the Smithsonian’s restaurants and gift shops? Or is it only wrong for other people to use the resources of other worlds?

Whether the Smithsonian thinks Americans “need” to travel into space is irrelevant. Americans don’t have to demonstrate a “need” to travel. It is sufficient that we want to travel. Since the founding of our Republic, the freedom to travel has been a basic American right. The internal passports and travel restrictions which are common in other nations have always been anathema to us. We chafe at the heavy hand of TSA security, and rightly so. The right to travel does not end at the stratosphere. We have as much right to travel into space as we have to visit Las Vegas, San Francisco, or the Smithsonian museums in Washington, DC.

This freedom to travel, and the educational opportunities it affords, helped make us the great nation we are today. Exploration — travel for purposes of learning and discovery — is important and must continue, both on and off Earth. Natural resources are limited only by our creativity and ability to understand and utilize them. That’s one of the reasons why we explore.

The Smithsonian, of all organizations, ought to know that. Its most popular educational attractions are the two National Air and Space Museums, in DC and at the Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. But, then, the Smithsonian Institution has made odd and nonsensical statements about air and space before. The Smithsonian insisted for decades that Samuel Langley had invented the airplane. It was not until 1944 (forty-one years after the first flight at Kitty Hawk) that the Institution officially admitted that title belonged to the Wright Brothers. We hope it won’t take four decades for the Smithsonian to recognize the value of citizen space exploration.

Edward Wright is chairman of the United States Rocket Academy and project manager of Citizens in Space. You can find more articles by Mr. Wright at the Citizens in Space web site.

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