WCPO Channel 9 Cincinnati covered the third in a series of discussion of the Bodies the Exhibition. This discussion took place last night at the Cincinnati Museum Center.
While useful, I feel like the structure of the forums prevented an effective discussion to take place. Instead of having the parties in dispute involved, the activists and the Cincinnati Museum Center, the forums relied on discussions from third parties to make arguments about the issues.
While this made for a civil discussion, beating around the bush doesn’t get to the heart of the matter. I believe that a lot of the attendees expected someone from the Cincinnati Museum Center to answer questions, but the Cincinnati Museum Center never had a desire for a true dialog. They joined the forums as a sponsor, but was more of a reluctant participant.
For example, last night there were no signs at the
Cincinnati Museum Center for the discussion, employees weren’t told
about it, and zero advertising on the Museum Center’s website. There was a printed out sign for a wedding reception, but they couldn’t print a sign for the forum?
If the Cincinnati Museum Center wanted a discussion, they could have organized a forum at any time to answer the questions of the public. But, they have not chosen to do so. All we get are statements from Premier, and vague references to documents that are never shown. Trust us, they say. We know what trust is worth when dealing with money and profit. Nothing.
The Cincinnati Museum Center has consistently said that if new information were revealed, they would review the situation. Any such review should be in a public forum and include members of the community and not their stacked “ethics” panel. My impressions from speaking to members of the “ethics” panel was that evidence against the exhibit was not shown and that the “ethics” panel was chosen for their endorsement value. No Chinese community leaders were asked to be part of this “ethics” panel.
Anytime the Cincinnati Museum Center wants to have a dialog or re-examine the issues, there are plenty of us who are willing to participate. But, I don’t believe that the Cincinnati Museum Center is willing to examine the truth critically. Their motive is money and with the flux in the Ohio Attorney General’s office, there’s little chance anything will happen before this show closes. Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Museum Center continues to profit of the bodies of possible tortured and executed prisoners.
Video coverage of the Bodies Discussion from WCPO Channel 9 News
For some reason, the video doesn’t work in Mac Safari, but it does work in Mac Firefox
From WCPO.com: Debate Goes On Over ‘Bodies: The Exhibition’ (written version)
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