Below is my note to the ever charming Mr. Kennedy, President of the University of Maine. The email is titled The Art of Hate.
Dear Mr. Kennedy,
I am not sure how civil I can be in this email, but I will try.
I saw the video of the flag desecration at your school. You can’t measure this Navy veteran’s anger and outrage at your “artist’s” inflammatory poor taste. Now, recognizing that he/she/it has first amendment right’s too, my challenge to you is how far you would go in allowing outrageous and offensive words and images to be used in the name of the Art of Hate.
If I wanted to display lampshades made from human skin as an artistic statement, aside from any phony Department of Health issues, I presume you would be just as comfortable with that as desecration of the American flag. After all it’s just skin. Skin is just as common as cloth, since the American flag is just cloth. Besides, they are both renewable resources.
If I wanted to distribute pendants with body parts of victims of 9/11, I trust you would be comfortable with that too. They would be very tiny parts, so nobody should really get upset. That’s an artistic statement. It’s all up to how each individual wants to interpret it. So, I’m sure you would not have any problem with that either. In a way, the body parts are neutral. This artist could just as easily be screaming about the evils of America and that these pendants are symbolic of the price America must pay. Or, this artist could be saying the pendants are symbolic of the evils of terrorism and they are an intimate reminder of every person’s responsibility to fight evil wherever we find it.
If I wanted to take a picture of you and decide that my artistic license extends to giving you a new identity, would you allow that? If I decide your face is the perfect iconic image of American Evil and devote myself ardently to this new found cause, would you allow that? After all, it’s just an image, it’s just art. In art, including the Art of Hate, you don’t get to decide “who” you are, the artist does. That’s what they call artistic control. So, the artist in me says your face, your body is SO emblematic of American Evil, that I am going to make and sell life-size cut-outs, posters of all sizes, I will mass produce all sorts of renderings to make your image the cause celebre to be used in every anti-American protest around the world. Islamists, Marxists, Socialists, Pan-Africans, it doesn’t matter. Pissed off Germans, Italians, Russians, Chinese, it doesn’t matter. No anti-American demonstration will be complete without burning you in effigy. Think of the possibilities, your image will become as famous as Che Guevara’s.
Thus, Mr. Kennedy, the Art of Hate, and your permissive, intellectually sloppy defense of the desecration of the American flag. I trust you would be consistent in your defense of the freedom of expression for the Art of Hate; otherwise, Mr. Kennedy, you are just another clueless hypocrite.
Sincerely,
Here is the correct email to the President of U. of Maine, Farmington
kalikow@maine.edu
Theo Kalikow
Now if a student wants to do that with an islamic flag or the koran will the same people stick up for it like they are here
I bet no
Here is what I sent to Mr. Kalikow along with the previously posted picture of my father being buried at Arlington:
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This is the “piece of cloth” my father spent his life in the service of and was buried under. It sits on my desk beside me, and I see it every single day.
I am disgusted, shocked and dismayed that you, a supposedly responsible person, would allow and condone this activity.
You will undoubtedly say that you disagree with this exhibit by Crane, but that it is her First Amendment right to do as she pleases. With rights come responsibilities, but I don’t expect you to grasp that concept.
You should be ashamed for allowing this to go on, and to allow that veteran to have to witness that. If this is what passes for education which is expected to produce your “future teachers” like the immature self-centered adolescent standing on that flag, you should resign immediately. It is no wonder that our schools produce low quality graduates when the teachers employed by them are asked to participate (or choose to participate of their own free will) in “education” like this.
Too many people (apparently including much of your student body and faculty as well as yourself) think that manipulation, titillation or confrontation is art. Where is the consideration for decency? For you and those like you, decency and civility are obviously secondary (and distantly so) to practicing your hateful interpretation of your First Amendment rights.
I have spent time outside Walter Reed Hospital, counter-protesting the Code Pink members who chose that site to practice their “First Amendment Rights” in front of a hospital full of grievously wounded men. I have had the opportunity to speak with them, and the pain in their faces was as plain and every bit as familiar as the pain I saw in the face of the courageous veteran who showed up at your “art exhibit” and was subjected to that anger, degradation, and humiliation.
Shame on you. And you should be ashamed, as should everyone who allowed, supported, and condoned this.
Um, before you go writing to the president of the University of Maine, you may want to actually check which college this took place at. I am amazed at how many people here do not know even the basic facts about this. It took place at the University of Maine Farmington, run by a different president. Get yours facts together, please.