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« Video: The god who wasn’t there | Home | Boycott the Customs House Museum »
Censorship! When will they learn?
By Bill Larson | November 16, 2006 | 
Small-minded people often tout the many blessings of using censorship to protect society, the children. The government tried it with COPA, which was then promptly blocked by the federal courts, due to the likelihood that the plaintiffs would prevail in their lawsuit against the government. The FCC is still doing it to broadcast television, and they want to expand their reach to cable TV, satellite TV, and satellite radio. Guess Howard Stern didn’t run far enough away for them. Some Christians love the idea of burning books and other cultural material that they find ideologically unacceptable.
All censorship ever does is create a firestorm of opposition, and a renewed interest in the material being banned. So why did the Customs House Museum think they would be an exception to this rule? Any censorship raises people’s hackles. Intellectually we know that allowing it to pass uncommented erodes our freedoms much more rapidly than by any other means.
Critics cry out that you can not desecrate the American flag. But it is perfectly ok for politicians to wrap themselves in the flag and use it to justify abhorrent actions. It is also considered ok for musicians to wear the flag as an item of their clothing. How many flag belt buckles have I seen proudly shown off over the years? How many pickup trucks and cars have I seen driving around town using the flag as a tawdry decoration? All those uses of the flag are fine, but don’t you dare use a flag in any way that actually makes a point!
Where one person sees desecration, another sees artistic interpretation and inspiration. Lets take a moment to read the words that the artist printed on the flag. “Waste creates jobs. Waste is good for the economy”; “Poor people are obese because they eat poorly”; “More Consumption, More Waste, More Jobs, More Economic Stimulation, More Consumption, More Destruction, More Jobs, More Economic Stimulation”. Know what he’s right. We are a consumer society for good or ill. We as a society place more emphasis on buying and owning, than on the community good. We can disagree with him all we want on how he made his point, but we can’t disagree that he has the right to make it.
Ned Couch the executive director of the Customs House Museum has supposedly in the name of protecting community sensibilities used his personal judgement that this exhibit might offend Museum patrons as justification for requiring the artist to remove portions of it. In doing so he has offended the community much more than one artist and his exhibit ever could. Part of his job is to protect the right of Clarksville citizens to experience the arts. He abdicated that responsibility by choosing to exercise censorship over this exhibit. As such he should step down from his post.
Call the museum and tell them that you oppose their actions on this matter and that they should restore the exhibit in full. You might also consider letting them know that if they do not reverse this rash decision then you will consider terminating all support you give their organization.
Phone Numbers:
Voice: (931) 648-5780
FAX: (931) 553-5179
TTY: (931) 553-5101
E-mail: info@customshousemuseum.org
Mailing address:
Customs House Museum
P.O. Box 383
Clarksville, TN 37041-0383.
About Bill Larson 
Bill Larson is the Creator and Publisher of Clarksville Online, and works as a network administrator for Compu-Net Enterprises. He is politically and socially active in the community.
Bill is a member of the Friends of Dunbar Cave, and an associate of the Clarksville Free Thinkers for Peace and Civil Liberties.
You can reach him via telephone at 931-920-0043 or via the email address below.
Sections: Arts and Leisure, Issues, Opinion
Topics: Arts, Censorship, Culture, Customs House Museum, Local Politics
4 Responses to “Censorship! When will they learn?”
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November 21st, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Bill:
Read about the story on MSNBC.com, so congratulations on the nationwide quote. However, you’re wrong about the free speech and censorship issues.
Free Speech. While the Constitution does guarantee free speech, it does not require anyone with a platform to allow people to speak from it. William Gentry has a right to put together anything he wants and call it art; he does not have the right to demand that the Customs House Museum display it. To illustrate the point: does al-Qaida have the right to demand that the four major networks air an hour-long lecture, in Arabic, on why America is evil, capped by the live beheading of a hostage?
Censorship. Every time someone decides not to publish or display something potentially offensive, civil liberties people go off on censorship. This is a misuse of the word. Censorship is a governmental suppression of speech. No one has claimed that a government agency has prohibited the display of this work. The museum has simply decided that it is not in its best interests to continue the display. Gentry is perfectly free to find some other organization to put his work on display.
If you don’t agree with the museum’s decision, you are, of course, perfectly free to cease your patronage of the place. But your rhetoric is overblown.
Allen McPheeters
Lynnwood, WA
November 21st, 2006 at 4:27 pm
The issue is the museum reviewed the exhibit, approved the display, the exhibit opened, they then got a complaint, and only after that decided that the artist’s flags had to be removed. That’s Censorship beyond any reasonable doubt. The only questions is does the artist sue, and how much does the museum end up settling for.
If the museum never approved the display, then yes it wouldn’t fall under free speech. But in these circumstances it clearly does. My statements are dead on target. I don’t agree with the artist’s action. I just defend his right to take them. Become more informed on the situation before making definitive statements on the matter. I appreciate your comments though.
November 22nd, 2006 at 4:27 am
Well, Bill, I disagree. You said, “The issue is the museum reviewed the exhibit, approved the display, the exhibit opened, they then got a complaint, and only after that decided that the artist’s flags had to be removed. That’s Censorship beyond any reasonable doubt.”
To quote Inigo Montoya, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Or, to put it another way, I doubt that it’s censorship and here’s my reason: the artist is not being restricted from showing his work in all possible venues, only from this particular venue. Censorship would prohibit him from displaying his work anywhere at any time.
What you’re describing is, at most, a potential breach-of-contract, depending on the terms of the agreement between the artist and the museum.
Now, if you really believe that William Gentry deserves a venue in which to exercise his right to free speech, you’d arrange an alternate venue for his work. In fact, the Customs House Museum has an auditorium that seats 200 and is available for rent. You should call Terri Jordan at (931) 648-5780, ext 38 and find out how much it costs to rent the room. Then you can either pay for it yourself, or together with some friends. Have Gentry do a short lecture on what he was trying to say, and allow everyone who attends to examine his work at close range.
Boycotting the museum is easy–anyone can just not show up. Let’s see where the rubber meets the road for you on this issue.
November 22nd, 2006 at 5:48 am
If the glove fits wear it. Your comments are very self centered. Guess it would not have been ok if their action disagreed with your point of view. It’s a good thing for this country that free speech doesn’t work the way you portray it. You really should go find a civics 101 refresher class that you can take somewhere, you need it badly.