the attack on the innocent mind

[Guest LadyC]

this IS a spiritual attack, but i'm not sure if it wouldn't be more appropriately placed in another forum. rather than write out all the details again, i'm going to paste a copy of what i sent off to bill oreilly and sean hannity... but i'd like to add a little preface here.

what you are about to read is going to turn your stomachs... yet apparently only my friend and her daughter's teacher were the only two adults to see what she called to report to me. in the letter i wrote, i indicated that the other adults on this field trip were too busy yacking to pay attention. i suspect it's more likely that their eyes were blinded to it by the enemy.

of course, i also have to admit that i'm also feeling some attack now... doubts creeping into my head now that i've sent off this letter that perhaps my friend was hallucinating and what she told me has no basis in fact. i tried googling the artists work, but the only images i could come up with were the non-vulgar ones that she told me were a part of the exhibit. but i KNOW better. i've known Bonnie for nearly two years and she absolutely loves the Lord... so does her daughter who rarely gets so much as a head-cold, and yet made frequent trips to the bathroom to throw up during this field trip, and could not look at the 'art' while she was there.

Dear Sean,

I really hope that your staff passes this along to you, because I think it will interest you a great deal.

I have a friend who accompanied her 10 year old daughter's class on a field trip to a local museum. What she saw there horrified her, as well as the teacher. Her own daughter made frequent trips to the bathroom during the field trip to vomit.

The artwork included vile profanity, anarchy symbols and "666".

My friend, whose name is Bonnie, went to complain to the principal the next day, who was shocked to hear of it, and promised to cancel the remaining field trips of other classes to that museum. However, her daughter's teacher later informed her that instead, the principal had notified the other teachers and given them the OPTION of taking their students.

Furthermore, the teacher asked her to take a look at a book sent with him by a staff member of the art museum who had recommended he share the rest of the works with the students. The students had not been allowed in the rooms that included the rest of the exhibit. Bonnie was astounded to view pornographic homosexual images in the book.

Apparently the teacher is just as incensed, and feel shame for having not removed the children from the museum immediately. I suggested that maybe he could write a letter of apology to each of the parents of his students, but she told me that any such letter he sent would have to be approved by the principal and would not likely get such approval. I told her to bring it up anyway. If the principal doesn't approve it, then i'm sure the public would like an explanation.

According to the teacher, the other teachers on the field trip claim to have not seen anything vulgar. Bonnie did reflect that they hadn't been paying much attention to the exhibit but had spent their time gossiping among themselves, so perhaps that is why. The children certainly saw it though, because they got a kick out of pointing fingers at the art, laughing, and reading the vulgarity out loud.

Bonnie has tried to contact the local news networks and the superintendant's office, none of which have returned her phone calls.

I will be going to see the exhibit tomorrow or Saturday if I am able. The museum does not allow cameras, but i dare them to take my cell phone away from me. I will make every effort to obtain photos of the offensive material. I have a hard time believing that she, the teacher, her daughter and other students imagined this.

Bonnie does not have internet access. She has given me permission to provide you with her home phone number. Nobody in Las Vegas seems to have an interest in this, but I'm hoping that you will.

i've edited the portion of the letter that includes her contact information

I am also sending this request to Bill O'Reilly.

Sincerely,

...............

[Guest LadyC]

LOL, yeah, very vague...

bonnie finally reached someone at the local fox news affiliate, and they are going to look into it. hopefully tomorrow morning, when another class has their field trip scheduled to the museum. and if i'm not babysitting my grandson, i intend to be there as well. no way will i take him with me... and i'm really wishing my daughter would call me and tell me what her schedule is for the rest of the week!

[rtwo]

Let us know how it turns out.

And yes... sadly, one of the devil's greatest tools is ... ourselves! This is certainly spiritual warfare. Often, Satan won't attack directly (especially when he -can't-) ... instead, he'll choose a side attack like this one.

[Guest LadyC]

ok, i went. i'm back to report. this is truly disturbing.... and while we were there, another field trip of 3rd graders arrived.

among the pieces of so-called "art" were pieces that included.... (i'm leaving it up to ya'll to fill in the blanks, for obvious reasons)

* the numbers 666 encompassed by a Christian fish symbol.

* a demonic looking face in red/black with the words "live" and "evil" on either side of it.

* anarchy symbols AND pentagrams in red paint on white backgrounds.

* spray painted "bumper sticker" on a fake tailgate that said "don't like my driving, call 1-800-eat-____.

* a swastika with a circle around it and slash through it, underneath the words "nazi punks ____ off.

* the names and logos of many bands, but this one stands out... an AC/DC logo which had been modified so that the slash was actually a "Z" and the "DC" said "ID". i asked one of the museum staff about that and she said "oh, it says "Aczid", pronounced ACID.

* a very, very large mural on one wall, very pretty except for the big pack of marlboros painted right-of-center on it.

and of course, there was a small section of the wall with worse stuff. a security guard stood about 15 feet in front of this section to prevent children from getting any closer, but even from where the children were, it was clearly visible to any child who happened to turn around.... the painting depicted a man masturbating in vivid colour.

bonnie and i spoke to the program director of the museum who was very defensive and obstinate, refusing to accept any responsibility. she also told us she didn't know what "catalogue" we were talking about that had been given to the teacher to share with students after the exhibit. when the gift shop opened, we went inside and found the same catalogue on sale for $15. it included three additional paintings that depicted massive orgies including homosexual and heterosexual behaviour.

the program director insisted that she'd sent out notices to the schools that some material MAY be inappropriate and that the exhibit could be previewed in advance by school staff members. as far as she was concerned, she'd done her job. she also insisted repeatedly that the children are not TAUGHT by the "dossen" about the symbolism or profanity. she also stated (falsely) that the children were not allowed to SEE the pieces that contained these images.

i can assure you those children were SEEING every bit of it. i was watching them. well, most of them probably didn't notice the pornographic one. the remaining offensive images were scattered throughout the exhibit at random.

oh, and i wasn't allowed to carry anything in with me. no purse, no cell phone, no camera.

i totally agree that the responsibility does not rest entirely on the museum, although the museum SHOULD tell schools "i'm sorry, our current exhibit is not age appropriate for school children". bonnie was livid that the principal had assured her three days ago that she would cancel all remaining field trips to the museum, and then she didn't. the students that were there this morning were another 3rd grade class from the same school bonnie's daughter attends.

honestly, i believe that principal should be fired.

[Scarletprayers]

Well where are the rest of the parents, 3rd graders? If I found out my child had been taken to see something like that by the schools it would be on, I would be getting arrested. Have you called the newspapers or something????

[Guest LadyC]

oh yes.... bonnie talked to someone at the local fox news affiliate yesterday who said they'd "look into it". the abc, nbc and cbs news affiliates have not returned her calls, that we know of... but she wasn't home today so maybe they called while we were out. i've written sean hannity and bill oreilly.

the day that bonnie's daughter's class went, the parental chaperones included a woman who could barely speak english, a dad who looked like he was into the grunge rock thing, and herself. when asked, they said they didn't see anything offensive. NOW i understand WHY they didn't.... for the most part, the one father thought it was probably cool, the mother who didn't speak english well probably didn't understand what she was seeing... and additionally, this is my opinion anyway, most of the items look like the kind of garbage they probably see every day in their teenager's rooms.... and they're probably so accustomed to seeing similar things that they didn't actually LOOK at what the children were seeing, know what i mean? many of the things, like logos and stuff, were designed to look like the ones on CD jackets... like the ac/dc one that actually said aczid. i don't think they were paying attention.

i told bonnie to call fox 5 news again. if nothing else, we'll try to gather enough people from our church to go picket in front of the museum and notify the media that we will be there protesting. that might be enough to get a reporter and camera man out there.

[Scarletprayers]

I think thats a really good idea!

[Oh Hamburgers!]

The problem here is, who is there to blame? Freedom of speech and expression is a tricky thing, especially with art. If anything, I think the school should have been more prepared with this. You can't really blame an art museum for having art you may find distasteful... that's sometimes the point of art.

[rtwo]

I have to agree with Hamburgers. It's not the museum's fault.

However, the school should have been, as he said, prepared. They should have known what was on the exhibit, and when, and used that information to determine the timing of the trip, and the locations inside the museum they'd be exploring. What would have happened if the museum was running an entire exhibit dedicated to nudes? Certainly, the museum has that right, but given that right, the school now has the responsibility to do research in preparation. It's fairly easy. When you call a museum to set up a trip, ask about the exhibits. Let the curator (or PR person, or whoever) know that it's a group of 3rd graders. It's not hard.

But, I don't think I'd attribute this as much to a conspiracy of systematic desensitization of our children as much as I would to pure and simple laziness.

[Guest LadyC]

oh, i have no problem with the museum displaying trashy art. BUT...

every single show in this city has a minimum age requirement for viewing. THIS should be no different. if the museum is going to show vulgarity, i think they DO have a responsibility to tell schools "i'm sorry, we do not have an exhibit that is appropriate for 9 near olds at this time."

alternatively, they could keep the children OUT of the part of the exhibit that is offensive. there was one small room with some nice asian art that was not offensive. ironically, the children were NOT taken through that room as part of the field trip. it was NOT THE TEACHERS who led the children through the museum, it was the museum "dossens".

i believe the school bears the brunt of the responsibility though. especially because the principal WAS informed of the content, and yet still allowed students to go anyway. she has no business being in a position of authority over elementary school kids, and i'm not going to be happy until she loses her job.

freedom of expression through art is one thing. if they want to express disgusting things and if adults wanted to view it, that's fine and dandy. but not little kids. this was labled as an educational field trip by the school AND the museum.

my youngest daughter attended an art magnet school during her high school years. she was an art major. while i personally didn't like the art, i will also say that if her art teachers had taken their students on such a field trip during her senior year, or even during her freshman year, i would NOT have been so outraged. for THEM it could have been educational because they would have learned about using multimedia.... the sculptures (if you want to call them that) were made out of nothing but canvas, bondo and paint.

but third graders don't know what bondo is, and most don't know what canvas is. NONE of that was explained to those kids.

if a show on the las vegas strip can put limits on the age of viewers, then so can an art museum. this isn't about freedom of expression, this is about responsibility towards children. and i don't think those two things should be exclusive.