Bishop E.W. Jackson, whose great-grandparents were enslaved, has some strong words about how American history is being presented at the Smithsonian.

His argument isn't that America's failures should be erased. It's that history should present what happened and allow people to wrestle with what it means—not use museums to push visitors toward a predetermined political conclusion. Jackson puts it simply...“History should be facts about what has happened in the past and leave others to draw their own conclusions.”

But the part that really caught my attention was his perspective as the great-grandson of slaves...“If you were born an American, you hit the proverbial lottery.” He argues that despite America's very real historical failures, being born here still provides extraordinary opportunity and freedom.

America obviously has ugly chapters worth confronting, slavery, segregation and plenty more. But its history also includes the institutions, ideals and people that challenged those injustices and produced extraordinary progress. A national museum shouldn't be propaganda in either direction.

How should the Smithsonian balance America's historical failures with the things that made the country worth improving in the first place?