First, Joanne Hughes; Now, the art Nazis

First one prudish and priggish Ms. Joanne Hughes protested the statue, above, in the Overland Park Arboretum.

Now, a Church organization is getting into the mix, trying to censor what you and I--the public--can or can't see in the world.

From The Star today:

Petition drive launched after Overland Park refuses to remove nude sculpture

"Tuesday night, Phillip Cosby, the director of the Kansas and Missouri chapter of the American Family Association, George Hsu, a minister with Emmanuel Chinese Baptist Church, and Joanne Hughes, a Stillwell resident who began an online petition against the statue, met with Overland Park Mayor Carl Gerlach to ask that the statue be removed from the arboretum."

Fortunately, a calmer, cooler and more intelligent head prevailed--so far:

"The mayor denied their request to remove the statue"

Kudos and salutations to the Overland Park Mayor and the City Council for not buckling to this closed-minded group--again, so far. Let's hope they don't.

Let's call these censor-freaks what they are: art Nazis. I love the irony that the name of the statue is "Accept or Reject." I'm sure that is all over these people's heads. I'm sure they don't get that. At all.

It's not bad enough their Kansas Governor Sam Brownback arbitrarily killed the state Arts Commission in the recent past, no. Now, these, again, prigs, have to go about the countryside, trying to clean the world of things inappropriate for eyes. At least they're trying to remove things "inappropriate" by their standards.

I say again, the Nazis.

Between these two moves, the Governor's killing of the state Arts Commission and now these censorship freaks, along with the Governor's much more recent destroying of the state tax base, it seems clear Kansas' arts future is dim.

Very dim, indeed. Sad, unnecessary and unfortunate.

It is, literally, going to be one sad state, Kansas.

Link: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/05/3644162/overland-park-refuses-to-remove.html