Gun to Be Chiseled Off Public Sculpture

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Skyhawk

New member
Gun to Be Chiseled Off Public Sculpture
Anti-Gun Advocates Object to Water Pistol Imagery
Aug. 2, 2000

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- The boy and girl, slightly crouched, take aim at one another. She has a hose. He brandishes a water pistol.

For Linda Strong, it was an image that captured all the joy of being young.

When the sculptor was asked to create a fountain for a city park, it was a natural: Using her children as models, she caught in bronze their many water fights.

Last year, following the deaths of 14 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado, there were letters to a local newspaper and calls to City Hall objecting to the fountain.

Hose nozzle to replace gun

So Strong is about to alter her sculpture in this art-savvy city. She plans to chisel off the boy's hand Thursday and give him a new one, holding a garden hose rather than a gun.

"At first I didn't consider doing anything about it," said Strong, sitting in her studio south of Santa Fe. "I just went, 'Oh, listen to these people.'"

But then her fountain was vandalized. The boy was smeared with green paint, and someone wrote "no gun" on his legs. The artist became intent on protecting her work.

"And so I capitulated. I thought, the times have changed," she said. "I am open-minded enough to change with the times."

Strong went to the city, and the Santa Fe Arts Commission recommended the change.

'Don't like revisionism in art'

"I don't like revisionism in art, but I think art in public places has another responsibility," said commission chairwoman Letitia Frank.

Not everyone agrees with the revision.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with it," said Diana Beilman, 15, glancing over at the sculpture from a nearby skateboard park. "Little boys hold guns all the time."

A gift to the city from Strong's late mother, the fountain was dedicated in October 1979, the International Year of the Child.

There were objections even then. In a yellowed letter-to-the-editor in one of Strong's scrapbooks, Charlene Neel refers to a recent shooting over a traffic dispute, and writes that there is "quite enough (violence) on television and on the streets of Santa Fe."

Against guns and war toys

The writer -- now Charlene Neel Dye of Oxford, Miss. -- recalls that at the time, she wouldn't allow her young son to play with guns or war toys.

When she saw the fountain, "I was shocked. The little boy was in such an aggressive stance, and he had a gun." She remembers other friends sharing her concern.

But Jack Samson, who moved to Santa Fe in 1930, blames "self-appointed guardians of our morality" for the planned alteration.

"It is an effort to be politically correct, and I think it goes over the bounds of common sense," said Samson, a former editor of Field & Stream.

The estimated cost of the alteration is about $1,700.

************************************************************

Nimrods :mad:

And yet another effort, by extremists, to annihilate the ”the gun culture" from the face of the earth.

Skyhawk

[This message has been edited by Skyhawk (edited August 02, 2000).]
 
Funny, you'd think the ACLU would want to get involved in this....or maybe they only defend artists who paint pictures of religious figures covered in manure..

I tried their web site, but couldn't find a way to e-mail them...

------------------
The first step is registration, the second step is confiscation, the final step is subjugation.
 
What do you say to an oxygen theif like this?

This is your brain..this is your brain on stupid:

When she saw the fountain, "I was shocked. The little boy was in such an aggressive stance, and he had a gun." She remembers other friends sharing her concern.

Oh...my...God! :rolleyes: If that is shocking to people then we have a long hard road ahead cause it will only get worse with time.
 
It is a shame that this is to happen in my own state. :(
 
Personally, if I were the artist, I would insist on either the protection or the return of the present piece.
 
Stupidity knows no bounds. How sad, really. PC is just another word for censorship.

From the same website, here's another gem (methinks the "unemployed office worker" needs to find a job. Obviously way too much time on her hands):
http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/breakingnews/2000/04/12/teletubbies0412_01.html


Lawsuit to Target
Teletubbies for Gun
Talk
'I Want Them All Gone' Declares Angry Mother

April 12, 2000

By Randy Dotinga

OCEANSIDE, Calif. (APBnews.com) -- Eh-oh.

A Southern California woman is planning to file a
lawsuit and wipe Teletubbies from the face of the
earth after a Tinky Winky doll allegedly talked to her
baby daughter about guns.

"I want them all gone," declared Renee Michelle
Taylor, who has hired a lawyer to help her sue the
company that manufactures a set of talking
Teletubby dolls. "They shouldn't be on the air. They
shouldn't be on the shelves."

But the chairman of the company that licenses the dolls said the woman's
threat of a lawsuit is "a violent overreaction to a situation that's clearly a
misunderstanding." Kenn Viselman, chairman of the Itsy Bitsy
Entertainment Co., said the Tinky Winky doll is actually saying "Again,
again," in a snippet of audio taken from the Teletubbies television show.

Teletubbies are the cute, babbling
creatures that star in a British children's
show seen in this country on PBS.
Teletubbies romp around green fields,
hug each other, eat toast, slurp custard and watch videos.

Numerous toys are based on the TV show, including the Talk Together
Teletubbies. The battery-powered talking dolls, sold exclusively at KB
Toys, are equipped with infrared sensors that allow them to detect each
other and hold "conversations." They initially sold for $59.99 but are now on
clearance for $19.99 at stores in Southern California.

Words shock mom

Taylor, an unemployed office worker, told
APBnews.com today that she bought a talking
Tinky Winky doll a few weeks ago for her
daughter's second birthday. The doll comes in
a set with Po, another one of the four
Teletubbies.

When Taylor tugged at Tinky Winky's left hand
to make him talk, the doll spouted words that
shocked Taylor.

"He was saying, 'I got a gun, I got a gun, run
away, run away,'" recalled Taylor, 22. "My gut
just kind of dropped."

She has no doubt that the toy was talking
about a gun. "It's so clear to me that
somebody would be a fool to say otherwise."

Taylor's daughter soon began to mimic the
words of Tinky Winky and even pointed her
fingers in the sign of a pistol. "The words out
of her mouth were 'a gun,' and that's not OK,"
Taylor said.

Po allegedly in on it, too

Another Teletubby doll, a red-colored creature
named Po, also says inappropriate things like "a gun, a gun," Taylor said.

"It's a sad thing that somebody would put a Teletubby on the market
without knowing what it's saying," Taylor said. "Regardless of whether
they're cute or not, they're not appropriate."

Taylor said she doesn't know why the toy manufacturer would make the
doll talk about guns. "They could have purposely did it, or somebody could
have been out to sabotage Tinky Winky or Po," she said.

Innocent victims?

At Itsy Bitsy headquarters in New York City, Viselman said the dolls are
innocent victims of a misinterpretation, much like that of people who
previously thought the Teletubby doll named Po was saying "faggot" when
she was actually singing in Cantonese.

"Teletubbyland is a perfect place. It's innocent, it's harmless and fun and
filled with hope and possibility," Viselman said. "As adults, we try to put a
lot of negative into it."

He said the dolls are saying "Again, again" and "Run away," just like on
the TV show.

The Teletubbies often watch short videos on their television-equipped
tummies and demand that the images be repeated, yelling "Again, again."
They also play games of hide-and-seek while yelling "Run away!"

Viselman was not sympathetic to Taylor's plans to go to court. "If she now
feels that the best thing she can do is overreact and never let her child play
with Teletubbies or watch them on TV, that's her choice," he said. "To then
turn around and say 'I'm going to sue and make sure it gets off the air'... I
feel very sorry for her."

Gay issue surfaces again

Back in Oceanside, Taylor also is upset that Tinky Winky is considered by
some to be a gay icon. The Rev. Jerry Falwell created a storm of
controversy last year by accusing Tinky Winky of being gay, pointing out
that he has a triangle on his head (a pink triangle is a gay symbol), carries
a red "magic bag" (which looks like a purse) and is purple (supposedly a
gay pride color).

Also, Tinky Winky's best friend is Po, who is a female. "I don't think it's OK
to run around with a little purse on the grassy lands with a rainbow color
that signifies gay pride," Taylor said. "It's OK to be gay, but it's not OK to
show it on TV or show it to kids."

Taylor has hired a lawyer in Oceanside, a suburb north of San Diego, and
expects to sue to stop the spread of Teletubbies.

'It's absolutely shocking'

Taylor's lawyer, Matthew Palmer, said the doll is clearly talking about
guns. "It's absolutely shocking to hear a child's toy that's supposed to be
for a 2 year old saying 'I've got a gun, run away.' It's horrifying. It's a really
cute toy, too."

Palmer compared the Tinky Winky doll to the homicidal doll that starred in
a series of horror movies in the 1990s. "He's got this evil laugh. He sounds
like Chucky."

Palmer hasn't decided what kind of lawsuit to file. "I'm consulting different
attorneys to develop a legal strategy," Palmer said. "You have to look and
see what the damages are. But the monetary damages aren't the primary
goal. It's having these things taken off the shelf."

Viselman said the dolls are already being phased out, and he has no plans
to do anything differently. "I feel badly that [Taylor] has misunderstood the
message and the commitment behind the series," he said.
 
The ACLU wouldn't get involved because the artist doesn't mind changing the sculpture. I saw her interviewed on TV this morning. She said something like "The sculpture was made twenty years ago, and times change. Everything changes. And when they turn off the water, it does look like a gun."

She was calm and smiling. She really doesn't seem to mind.
 
Poor Tinky Winky, first he/she is labeled “gay”.

Now he/she is packin’ heat (or wanting to).

I want “again again”.

;)

Skyhawk
 
The way things are going, there won't be a penis left on a greek statue, a rifle in a minuteman's hand, or a cannon in a city square. Can't you picture this as a Simpson's episode?

Noban
 
>>The way things are going, there won't be a penis left on a greek statue, a rifle in a minuteman's hand, or a cannon in a city square. Can't you picture this as a Simpson's episode?

>>Noban


You're way behind. Several years ago the morons who now populate the U. of Mass. (most on "quota" scholarships) demanded that the Minuteman on campus be torn down because he was "a racist white male with a gun."

For a while it looked like that would happen. Then, alums raised hell and told the school they could kiss alum bucks goodbue if it happened.

Miraculously, the Minuteman stayed.
 
The squirtgun thing is just SAD. When I see a squirtgun, I get a little nostalgic for the time when squirtguns were squirtguns, you know, TOYS! Not some EVIL non-PC symbol.
I think a better time has passed us by.

The lady who is worried about what a doll is teaching her child is a MORON. Don't like the doll, don't buy it, take it back, burn it, throw it away, use it for target practice ;), whatever. If she's worried about what her kid may be learning, sit down and spend a little time with the kid, don't park her with a $20 doll, a couple of videos, and some other store bought crap, then wonder why she grows up all ****ed up (And if the kid is ****ed up, don't worry, just buy these pills.....) Some things take an investment of TIME, not $$.
-L
 
"Change is difficult for people," Kuebli said. No doubt they are setting up re-education camps for them.

Next week - book burning.

The latest:
http://www.sfnewmexican.com/localnews/index.las

Sculptor begins process of swapping hose for gun

SANTA FE - Sculptor Linda Strong was feeling good Thursday as she prepared to lop the hand off a bronze replica of her son.

"It's OK. It's really OK," said Strong, who planned to give the boy a new hand - holding a hose, rather than a gun. "The world isn't the same as it was 21 years ago."

The fountain Strong created in 1979 for a city park depicts a boy with a squirt gun and a girl with a hose, aiming at one another.

In the aftermath of the shootings at Columbine High School last year, there were complaints about the gun, and the sculpture was vandalized.

Strong decided it was time for a change.

"It's the way I can take responsibility for my little part of the universe," said Strong, who paints, sculpts and draws in a studio southeast of Santa Fe. "It's everybody's responsibility, the way the world's going. We're all in this together."

Strong, wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat against the bright sun, watched as a worker from a local foundry sawed off part of the squirt gun barrel, the first step in the hours-long process of replacing the hand.

The fountain doesn't operate during the winter, and little water has run through it this summer because of drought. Strong acknowledges the gun looks more menacing with no water streaming from its barrel.

"I just feel that it's too bad this had to happen. It's an innocent sculpture," said Mary Gonzales, who came to the park to videotape her son, foundry worker Martin Gonzales, as he operated the power saw to cut the gun.

The 72-year-old great-grandmother said she let her children play with water pistols as youngsters, but not other guns.

"I used to hide the little guns that my children would get. I didn't want them to grow up having war games," she said.

The city of Santa Fe approved the change to the sculpture - which was donated to the city by Strong's late mother, Roberta Utz - and will pick up most of the tab.

Greg Kuebli, a planner for the Santa Fe Arts Commission, said the city has received mixed response to the alteration of the fountain. Some residents said they saw no reason to swap the gun for a hose.

"Change is difficult for people," Kuebli said.

Strong said her son, Lars, 32, of Santa Fe, and her daughter, Kare, 31, of Tucson, Ariz., who were the models for the sculpture, had no objection to the alteration.

Lars told her he welcomes holding a hose, Strong said.

"He said he's quite glad he's going to have as much (water) pressure as his sister, now," she said with a laugh.

-- 30 --

Too bad the lady didn't have the backbone of this Maryland artist - http://www.thefiringline.com:8080/forums/showthread.php?threadid=27353

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The New World Order has a Third Reich odor.

[This message has been edited by Oatka (edited August 03, 2000).]
 
On the news, everyone interviewed at the park thought that it was a bunch of pc bs. The news also showed quite a few folks playing with squirt guns at the park. Given that it is a Santa Fe park, they'll probably vote Democrat, but at least they recognized it for what it was.
 
Hell, I've got me a full automatic, high capacity super soaker and a collection of 'vintage' squirt guns. I used the chartruese green Luger to train the cats (they learn faster than most people). Sometimes on Saturdays, after the lawns are mowed, the cars are washed and all the suburban chores are done, we play 'War' with waterguns. It usually starts with a small raiding party, triggering repriasals, and later, ending up at one of the neighbor's pool for the grand melee. The youngest participant is 38. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. Skrew those PC pecksniffs. M2
 
First a sculpt water pistol. Next, let's rearm that Minuteman with a scythe instead of that musket. So much for "art" and the First Amendment.
 
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