On 4/5/2013 3:33 PM, Louis Hone wrote:
> *Fellas,
> **Can we table this for the moment? I realize that you're having fun, but**
> after all this is the ARSC list.

Well, it's not just a "fun" discussion (I put the term in quotes 
becqause discussion of something as horribly destructive as a nuclear 
weapon isn't really fun at all).

I brought up the question of the safety of the collections at the LoC 
sometime around 2006, at a conference of the American Folklore Society, 
pointing out that Washington, DC is a bullseye for every terrorist on 
earth, from Al Qaeda to homegrown anti-government fanatics like Timothy 
McVeigh. The person at the meeting brushed off my concerns as 
xenophobic, but I think they're worth paying some attention to. A great 
deal of our cultural heritage is on the shelves of the LoC, the 
Smithsonian and other archives in and around DC; I want there to be some 
kind of backup. I can see an "Aryan Nation" type attacking the AFS, for 
example, on the grounds that it has too much African-American material.

Peace,
Paul