Leave my Mummy Alone
Contributed by Marilyn Bennett
Anchorage/ Mat-Su Valley - I just read that the British Museum and other British centers are told to cease using the term mummy and instead say "mummified remains". This is apparently to dignify the embalmed people of Ancient Egypt. I was not aware that the embalmed people had ever complained and until they do I want the "speech police" to leave my mummy alone.'
I grew up in St. Paul Minnesota in the late 40's and 50's and was fascinated by the Egyptian mummy at the Science Museum. Back when I was 7 or 8 my brother and I went to the Science Museum every Saturday. It was right behind the Capital building in St Paul, which was about a mile from our house. The Science Museum was in a very old building and we went there to watch cartoons and National Geographic films. It was a very interesting place to go. The building was torn down in the 60’s as part of the Capital approach improvement project. I have always thought it was a shame as the building was an old Gothic style with gargoyles on the outside to keep evil spirits away. The new Science Museum is very state of the art and all the exhibits are sanitized. The mummy has disappeared into the basement. The kids now climb over hexagons and push buttons to light up various plastic items on exhibit.
In my childhood the mummy, was in a glass case, was partially unwrapped and very creepy looking. It was just sitting in the middle of a room and we could go right up to it and look down into her face. It was assumed the mummy was female and we all thought she must have been a princess.
There is an interesting history to this old mummy. After the King Tut tomb was discovered in 1922, museums all over the world wanted mummies. Chicago and New York both had mummies and Egypt had no formal laws against mummy smuggling at that time. So in 1925 a wealthy supporter of our museum went off to Egypt, purchased a mummy and brought it back to St Paul in a suitcase. It was a mystery as to whom the mummy might have been.
When they built the new museum they hid the mummy in the basement for years. Finally, in 2010 they took it to the Children’s Hospital for a CT scan. Found out it was a man, probably a priest. The evidence pointed to a shaved head, callused feet and hands that showed no signs of manual labor. So now they are assembling a 3-D model of the mummy and making an enhanced exhibit, so the new generation of children will have a properly sanitized, non-scary exhibit that will be called "mummified remains". How special is that?
They tore the interesting old building down, turned the mummy from a princess to a priest, sanitized and renamed it "mummified remains". Glad I am here in Alaska where we still retain the time honored name of "Colony Days" for our summer celebration.
What will the "word police" go after next?
The CDC (Center for Disease Control) has changed the following Homeless: Persons experiencing unstable housing Poor: People with self-reported income in the lowest income bracket. Gay: LGBTQ (or LGBTQIA or LGBTQ+ or LGBTQIA2. Now that is a mouthful!
Then the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) Is making the following changes: He/she should be replaced with them. Un-manned to unscrewed. Repairman to technician. Airman to aviator, and of course cockpit to flight deck.
Then we have the schools. In Minneapolis they are changing the name of Patrick Henry School Patrick Henry signed our original constitution and famously said "Give me liberty or give me death!" Then he went on to fight for our freedom in the Revolutionary War. Minneapolis has not settled on a new name as yet. But the cost to change the name of a secondary school in MN is around $300,000.00. Seems like a waste of money for a supercilious virtue signaling name change.
Then we have birthing people instead of mothers, equity instead of equality and diversity instead of affirmative. action The only way to stop this type of renaming is to push back where-ever we see it.. Woke activism seems to be determined to change our language in the name of inclusivity. I personally feel we should not rush into eliminating public memorialization of our past heroes because they were not perfect people.
We self-righteously laud ourselves for our woke, inclusive sensibilities. This renaming and virtue signaling is costly and separates people rather than bringing them together. I much preferred the old term "Melting Pot". I would be willing to live and let live, but I cherish the memory of my Mummy Princess so please:
Leave MY MUMMY Alone!