Editorial: Archivist's role shouldn't be political

Let’s stop making things political that don’t have to be.

There is nothing inherently political about being a librarian. It’s a job that involves caring for and fostering the use of books. It requires organization, attention to detail and the ability to help someone locate what they need, whether it is a chapter book for a first book report or the resources for a senior term paper.

Librarians aren’t there to press their own agendas or help you spread yours. They are there to help everyone find their own path — left, right or middle — without judgment or obstruction.

There should be nothing overtly political about being a teacher. Teachers aren’t there to indoctrinate the way one side will often accuse. They are likewise not there to stifle or suppress, the way the other side may insinuate.

Teachers are there to help open eyes and minds. They do not just ask questions or grade answers. Their real root purpose is to help children uncover the curiosity to ask their own questions and find the answers for themselves and ideally to keep doing that for the rest of their lives — no matter where those answers take them.

Historians are not there to tally up the history like a math problem that ends in a rubber stamp of good or evil. They are there to record what happened, collect the data and safeguard it for future generations to decide for themselves.

That is why Colleen Shogan, the North Huntingdon native and Norwin graduate nominated to be Archivist of the United States, should not be a focus of the political lens.

It should have been expected as the nomination hearing Wednesday came so soon after the FBI and Department of Justice served search warrants on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida this summer. The National Archives was at the root of the matter as the custodian of presidential documents under a 1978 law that took effect with the Reagan administration in 1981.

However, the rare intersection of the archives with the spotlight is not a reason to put the position of archivist under a political microscope.

It is an important job that should be apolitical. It should be about following the laws as written by Congress, regardless of who is in the White House or who has vacated it. It should be about preservation, not party.

Shogan promised transparency in her 30-minute questioning before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. She has not been known to be political in her work with the White House Historical Commission, where she worked under administrations from both parties.

“I still to this day do not know her politics,” said Susan Combs, who co-chaired the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission with Shogan.

That’s how it should be. We need to get back to a place where important jobs are important without politics instead of despite them or because of them.