The Editor,
Re. "It's time: Coquitlam needs its own museum" (Opinion, The Tri-City News, Oct. 12)
The word "museum" carries a musty echo. I conjures images of tarnished relics in glass cases, historical tidbits on small, hard-to-read plaques, an eerie silence presiding over all.
Some museums are like that. But not, however, the one I work out of: Mackin House Museum in Coquitlam. There, I coordinate the Coquitlam Oral History Project, a federally funded opportunity that gives young people a chance to interview Coquitlam elders about a past that is the foundation of their present.
The project is typical of what goes on "around the house." Daily, the place hums with community connected activities of all sorts: celebrations (such as the recent 103rd anniversary of the house); crafting bees that keep remarkable pioneer skills alive; tours; a book club - the list could fill several columns here. And it all takes place in the authentically recreated interior of a 1909 house.
Without lively places like Mackin House, future generations will be deprived of choice. Because, if a community ignores its heritage or simply bulldozes it into the ground, it is saying to young people: "Tough luck kid. This present we have created is all there is. So enjoy the perpetual now. It's all you've got."
A museum for Coquitlam? A thought worth "musing" over.
Doug Rolling, Coquitlam
