Overland Park better have backbone to protect arboretum statue
Yael T. AbouhalkahOverland Park Mayor Carl Gerlach and the City Council once again are being pressured to remove the semi-nude statue at the city’s arboretum.
(Yes, sorry, I thought this absurd matter had died away, too.)
So now we get to see whether elected officials more used to dealing with noncontroversial, suburban-type issues will have the backbone to stand up to this attempt at censorship, something being watched by lots of area residents.
I’m on record as saying Gerlach and the council indeed will do just that.
They don’t want to look like country bumpkins who don’t understand that giving in to pressure over the arboretum statue would make them look silly. They also would look like people who don’t understand much about obscenity and the First Amendment.
The American Family Association wants a grand jury to weigh in and help determine whether the controversial sculpture violates some vague obscenity laws.
The group wants Overland Park city officials to step in and move the statue ahead of any grand jury meeting.
I don’t think it will happen, and good for Gerlach and the council if they do the right thing here.
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 1 week agoYT has spoken from that bastion of “doing what’s right, KC”….. Now mind him OP!!!!
Johnathon Busby
9 months, 1 week agoThe conservatives will waste their money in suit, and force the city to waste their money in kind. Wish they would simply stop going, instead of trying to totally shut down something they don’t agree with. Just like they told the liberals about Chic-whoever.
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 1 week agoMaybe the cons want the l’s to stop putting things like this in the park Johnathon?????
Or, the l’s “stop going”……
William R. Nelson
9 months, 1 week agoKrykee doodle. Frost warnings in Hades (again)!
Yael and me agree on something (again). I thought this absurd matter had died away, too!
But this where Yael’s reasoning and mine part company.
Once more, with feeling:
It’s not a question of what; it’s a question of where.
arboretum (n.) - a facility where trees and shrubs are cultivated for exhibition.
The Overland Park arboretum is not an art museum.
I’ve seen the bronze statue at the OP Arboretum. It’s a disjointed, partially clothed female body that’s devoid of a head depicted photographing ‘her’ exposed breasts. It’s intended to be a social commentary about the anonymous ‘sexting’ world that many teen girls debase themselves. I liken this bronze conglomeration to a virtual thumb in the eye of the beholder. It maybe a vivisectionist’s wet dream, but I find it unappealing.
This sculpture needs to be removed, and the Parks Board members who approved it taken to task for their calloused judgment in this matter.
Kathy Frazier
9 months, 1 week agoFor once I agree with Yael. That does not happen often.
Mark Hastert
9 months, 1 week agoA Grand Jury? Don’t these ?!!?? have anything better to do that waste time and taxes money? If they don’t like the stature close their friggin’ eyes, don’t look at it, stay home. What’s next with these prigs? The fountains on the Plaza? Paintings at the Nelson? Why does this small handful of ersatz Girolamo Savonarolas think they have the right to dictate tastes?
Johnathon Busby
9 months, 1 week ago“Maybe the cons want the l’s to stop putting things like this in the park Johnathon?????”
Just like the libs want Chic-whoever to embrace equality. However, that can’t be forced… all we can do is take our business elsewhere, not force them to make decisions that please us. That would be the conservative view, anyway.
Phil Cardarella
9 months, 1 week agoI am in favor of posting a warning sign:
WARNING!!! IF YOU ARE SO NARROW-MINDED THAT YOUR EARS TOUCH BEHIND YOUR NOSE, GO NO FURTHER!
IF YOU BELIEVE YOUR CHILD(REN) MAY BE ADVERSELY IMPACTED BY A (MEDIOCRE) REPRESENTATION OF THE HUMAN BODY, PLEASE TURN AROUND AND TAKE YOUR CHILDREN TO A SERVICE THAT WILL SEEK MORE INTELLIGENT ADOPTIVE PARENTS FOR THEM, BEFORE YOUR WARP THEM INTO FOLKS WITH EARS TOUCHING BEHIND NOSE.
These folks must all be closeted prudish atheists, since no one who believes in a Creator can possibly be so offended by the human body they believe him to have created.
George Hunsucker
Northland
9 months, 1 week agoAh Johnathon, but CFA is a PRIVATE business see, and that means they do not have to bow to the PC world of you libs…..
And you are correct, that is my conservative view that CFA is perfectly within its rights, and you, are perfectly within your rights not to frequent them.
Kent Mueller
9 months, 1 week agoPhil, you really aren’t clever at all. Never have been. That hasn’t changed.
As far as the statue goes, this is much ado about very, very little. Those who oppose the statue’s existence are from a portion of the Republican Party with whom I very much disagree. There are many examples of overuse of sex in our everyday lives. This isn’t one of them.
I wish that energy would be channeled to where good can result. A significant one would be to expend that energy on defeating Obama/Biden and electing Romney/Ryan. Obama/Biden are taking the country to a place where the majority of Americans do not want to reside. That place has nothing to do with the arboretum.
Lest someone on the left thinks this signifies a fissure within the Republican Party, it does not. Unless the one who thinks that will stand up and say that Maxine Waters speaks for all Democrats. Haha.
Phil Cardarella
9 months, 1 week agoKent:
I do not recall referring to this as a GOP/Democrat issue. In fact,I re-read, just to be sure.
Of course, if you have a case of guilty fleas (the Guilty flee where no man pursueth..”) it may have come from lying down (figuratively)with the local ayatollahs of public prudishness. It was John Ashcroft who draped the breasts of justice. I suspect that none of those advocating burkas for statues are voting in the Democratic primaries.
Kent Mueller
9 months, 1 week agoPhil, your constant condescension precedes you. You have always denigrated conservatives as being lower intellectually. You, with your exceedingly redundant theme of books that have or have not been read. That wasn’t even funny the first time. You are the one who didn’t read my comment above. I have no idea where you were going with the fleas, but you went on to talk about prudishness, local ayatollahs and burkas. Did you not read my first paragraph where I took the religious right to task for their opposition to the statue? Apparently, not.
Kent Mueller
9 months, 1 week agoBye Phil.