Indianapolis vs Wayne County
The Palladium-Item, Richmond, Indiana’s local newspaper, owned by the Gannett Corporation, is a paper I always read, but seldom appreciate. Today, the paper finally has it right, though, in the fight between the Indiana Attorney General, and Richmond’s Earlham College over the control of Conner Prairie, the living history museum in Fishers, Indiana. I have written about this dispute in the past. The Attorney General has a plan for fixing what he sees as Earlham’s mismanagement of the asset, and called a public meeting to discuss his plan. Earlham has its own plan, and has asked the AG to sit down and discuss it, instead of hosting what amounts to a press conference in his political campaign (he’s up for reelection).
After the P-I sent along a reporter to this “public meeting,” they published an editorial today that I think is dead on:
The idea in the central part of the state seems to be that a bunch of small-town rubes couldn’t possibly run the museum and run it well. This must be done by important people, more educated people from a more metropolitan area, they argue.
“It’s just not possible for the museum to be successful without strong, local leadership.” — Carter.
If it’s not possible, how has Conner Prairie become one of the state’s biggest tourist attractions? How has it drawn more than 300,000 visitors annually? If it’s not possible, how has Earlham grown the initial Lilly gifts into an endowment worth more than $150 million?
One would think that the attorney general, the state’s chief law enforcement officer, would look at the facts before smearing Earlham’s name in connection to Conner Prairie. But this is a man who told the gathered crowd in Fishers that he became involved because he was concerned about low morale among Conner Prairie employees — an area over which he has no legal or statutory oversight.
Perhaps he doesn’t want facts to stand in the way of his campaign for reelection.
