Cf. Boulder, Colorado! From the Sci-Fi novelist blog. http://www.jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail180.html Some people just need to be burned -- in effigy, of course. The officers of the Boulder chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union are among those people. Maybe they would be less upset about such an act if the effigies were wrapped in an American flag at the time of the burning...
Here in Boulder, Colorado - a.k.a. "The People's Republic of Boulder," or "the Berkeley of the Rocky Mountains," -- there was a controversy when the Boulder Public Library refused to display a large American flag in the aftermath of September 11 and the war in Afghanistan, because a flag might offend some people.
However, at the same time, the library was displaying an exhibit called "Hung Out to Dry," which consisted of ceramic penises hanging from a cord running across the library. "Hung Out to Dry" was part of a larger exhibit called "Art Triumphs Over Domestic Violence." Apparently, the penises are supposed to symbolized domestic violence [1].
On Saturday, November 10, somebody stole the penises and replaced them with an American flag [2].
After Bob Rowan - who became known as "El Dildo Bandito" - called a radio talk show and admitted to stealing the "art," Boulder Police recovered the items the next day. The police did not arrest Rowan, because they were not able to contact the "victim" - artist Susan Walker - to see if she wanted to press charges [3].
Of course, the Boulder police would have looked really bad if they had made an arrest of "El Dildo Bandito" within 48 hours, while still unable to make an arrest in the murder of 6 year old Jon Benet Ramsey after five years, but that's another topic.
Now, it's not hard to imagine that if the situation had gone the other way - say someone stole an American flag from the library and replaced it with a ceramic penis to make some idiotic statement about domestic violence - the ACLU would be defending such a courageous act of artistic expression on first amendment grounds, and probably demand federal funding for it.
However, not only will the ACLU refuse to defend Bob Rowan, they are urging that he be prosecuted. Judd Golden, vice chair of the Boulder County Chapter of the ACLU [4], referred to Rowan's brave act of civil disobedience as "censorship," even though Rowan was not an agent of the government.
Barry Satlow, chairman of the Boulder ACLU, is demanding that the district attorney prosecute Rowan. Satlow stated that leaving the decision to prosecute up to the victim is comparable to the days before arrests for domestic violence were mandatory. "If she doesn't complain, it's OK, it's not a crime? Bull. This is a crime and should be treated as a crime" [5].
Funny - the ACLU consistently claims that they're for a "woman's right to choose." Now they want to deny Ms. Walker - the artist - the choice of whether or not to press charges against Bob Rowan, and deny Mary Keenan - the district attorney - the choice of whether or not to prosecute him.
Of course, for years the ACLU has not defended the right of women to, say, weigh the risks vs. benefits of owning and carrying a firearm for self-protection, and act upon that choice. And they actively oppose a woman's right to choose how to use the funds collected and allocated for the education of her children, because she might *gasp* send her kids to a private school. To them (and most of the political Left), a woman's "choice" is narrowly defined in a warped Orwellian way, and has become an exclusive synonym for the termination of fetuses.
Somebody - and I wish I could remember who so I could credit him - said that the United States needs an American civil liberties union, and it's too bad that we don't have one.
1. Catherine Donaldson-Evans. "Colorado Library Exhibit Pushes Boundaries of What Defines Art." Fox News. November 08, 2001.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,38368,00.html
2. "Ceramic Penises taken, replaced with Old Glory." Boulder Daily Camera. November 11, 2001.
http://www.bouldernews.com/news/boulder/ 11lpeni.html
3. "'Bandito' admits to stealing library art.' Boulder Daily Camera. November 12, 2001.
http://www.bouldernews.com/news/boulder/12llib.html
4. Boulder County Chapter of the ACLU web page:
http://www.aclu-co.org/chapters/bld_aclu/boulder.htm
5. "Libarary art won't be reinstated." Denver Rocky Mountain News. November 13, 2001.
http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/ 0,1299,DRMN_15_876414,00.html
Robert Racansky
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