A little healing in Little Rock

Los Angeles Times: Presidential libraries, which are really museums built with private money, have for that reason functioned more as tributes than as archives, ever since the first one opened in memory of Rutherford B. Hayes in Fremont, Ohio, in 1914.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Center that opened to the public Friday is a piece of buoyant symbolism. Cantilevered over the edge of the Arkansas River, the gleaming, silver steel structure is expansive, sunny and, like the 42nd president himself, wonkish, with 80 million pages of public documents, 2 million photos, 21 million e-mail messages and 79,000 gifts.
The architecture is, of course, an allusion to Clinton's favorite, if a trifle corny, metaphor for the goal of his presidency, building a "bridge to the 21st century."
Clinton's own life has certainly made a remarkable arc, from a broken home to the White House. That arc also is reflected in the library's location, which, as the Rev. Jesse Jackson noted, is just four miles from Little Rock Central High School, where former Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus sent troops in 1957 to block nine black students from attending classes.
Arkansas has come a long way.
Healing the nation
Besides offering heady symbolism, dedications of presidential libraries bring a chance for those on opposing ends of the political spectrum to set aside partisan differences -- a bit of healing the nation could use after the fractious presidential campaign. Former President George H.W. Bush called the man who defeated him in 1992 one of the most gifted politicians in modern history. And his son, the current president, described Clinton as "an innovator, a serious student of policy and a man of great compassion."
Whatever the shortcomings of the Clinton administration, the Clinton library at least has an alcove documenting the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals.