< PREVIOUS ] [ 2007 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >
Somewhere in this great land of ours there must be an organization called The Society to Keep Children from Seeing Things. Not that I have been able to find its headquarters or identify its officers, but it does seem to be an active outfit that emerges from time to time.
The most recent outbreak has come in Littleton on account of plans to honor a local war hero, Navy SEAL Danny Dietz, with a statue in Berry Park. Before we get to that, however, we ought to recall some earlier outbreaks.
About four years ago, one Rep. Ted Harvey of Douglas
County ventured into a Virgin Records store, and was
shocked to find blatant triple X-rated covers right
there at eye level for any 5-year-old to see.
Children must be protected from viewing this, he
decided, and so he sponsored a bill which would have made
it a crime in displaying in a commercial establishment
any materials that are harmful to minors, to fail to take
commercially feasible measures to prevent the display of
the materials to minors.
Harvey went into some detail as to what was harmful to minors. Suffice it to say that images of body parts used for the natural production and feeding of children are images that are harmful to children, according to Harvey.
The protection racket popped up again last year in
Loveland, where there was a statue called Triangle
by Kirstin Kokkin. It had three people -- a man and two
women -- none with clothes on. Two were standing, their
feet together, as they leaned back and held a third high in
the air between them.
It was about as sexual as a high-wire act at the circus, and the sculptor said it symbolized the interdependence of people, rather than anything sexual.
But If you look at it, it's pretty clear the intent
of the statue is sexual,
said one detractor, Dan
Danowski, who wanted it moved because it could be harmful
to children who might pass it on the way to nearby schools.
Nowhere could I find the specific damage children might
suffer from exposure to a statue, though. Perhaps we should
consult the Greek and Italian authorities as to how they
heal the children damaged by their statues.
Now we get to Danny Dietz. He grew up near Berry Park in Littleton. He was part of an elite fighting unit, the Navy SEALS. The 25-year-old warrior was killed in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005. He and three other members of his unit were ambushed by guerrillas. Severely wounded, he fought for 45 minutes, providing cover for one of his team members to escape. Posthumously, he received the Navy Cross.
His statue, with him holding an assault rifle, is scheduled to be dedicated on July 4 at the park.
And some parents don't like that. If I've got a
4-year-old at the playground, I feel it would be a
threatening image that would frighten her,
said Emily
Cassidy Fuchs, who has opposed the location.
In my experience with my own four-year-olds, back in the day, they can get quite frightened by things that shouldn't scare them, like the Bogey Man that haunts bedrooms when the lights go off at night, and they don't get frightened by things that should scare them, like the river along Salida's Riverside Park during peak runoff. In other words, there's no logic connected to what scares four-year-olds, so it's hardly a basis for sane public policy.
Further, if statues of soldiers with guns are unfit for the eyes of children, then it's time to cancel school tours of our state Capitol. Out on the grounds there is a statue of Joseph P. Martinez, a Coloradan who won the Medal of Honor for bravery during the Aleutian campaign in World War II. He's holding a rifle.
So also is the bronze figure of a generic Union soldier facing south. He's flanked by two bigger guns -- Civil War cannons. Old artillery appears in broad daylight elsewhere in Colorado -- I pass a cannon in a park on every excursion to Cañon City or Gunnison, but I haven't seen any accounts of terrified children in those cities. Indeed, sometimes I see kids playing on the cannons.
Obviously, the Society to Protect Children from Seeing Things has a lot of work yet to do, which unfortunately means that it is not likely to vanish anytime soon.
< PREVIOUS ] [ 2007 Index ] [ Ed Quillen HOME ] [ SEARCH ] [ NEXT >