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Interesting follow-up editorial on Giuliani's decency panel. Remember, this is not the first time he has come out swinging like this, especially when the artwork offends his Catholic theosophy.
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The Art of Rudy
February 20, 2001
PUBLIC INTERESTS
By GAIL COLLINS
Bill Clinton's defense of the Marc Rich pardon may be seen by many as
a plea for understanding. But I prefer to think of it as a bid for
a slot on the Rudy Giuliani Decency Commission.
Our mayor, as the world now knows, is looking for "basically
decent people" to sit on a panel that will determine what sort of
art should be banned from New York museums. Finding volunteers
might be a problem. He had trouble getting recruits for his last
controversial commission, and that one was just about charter
revision.
Mr. Giuliani was offended by a picture displayed at the Brooklyn
Museum in which the figure of Christ at the Last Supper is replaced
by a naked black woman. The piece made it through an exhibit in
Ridgefield, Conn., without setting off any explosions. But New
Yorkers are more easily shocked than people who have been toughened
by life in the upscale commuter suburbs, and the mayor declared
war. What the city really needs, he announced, is some sort of body
that would "set decency standards for those institutions that are
using your money, the taxpayers' money."
Critics were quick to point out that Mr. Giuliani, who has a wife
in Gracie Mansion and a girlfriend who he takes to official events,
is not in an ideal position to anoint himself guardian of the
city's morals. The mayor's team retorts that private behavior is
beside the point, that the museums should be sensitive to public
mores because they receive public money.
Unfortunately this argument is going to force us, much against our
will, to note that the mayoral girlfriend is guarded by city police
at taxpayer expense, while the wife has both guards and a
taxpayer-supported staff that helps her with her duties as
estranged first lady.
Still, if we're going to have a decency commission, we certainly
want a world-class one. Unfortunately, the nation's supply of moral
watchdogs is pretty well picked over right now, what with the
demand for appointees to the Bush administration. And the people
Mr. Giuliani chooses will have to be pretty canny — it's tricky
deciphering exactly what decency standards the mayor has in mind.
As Michael Kimmelman pointed out in The Times, the mayor did not
have anything much to say when the Brooklyn Museum exhibited a work
called "Wrecked" in which the figure of Christ at the Last Supper
was replaced by a topless white woman. Perhaps he didn't know. Mr.
Giuliani doesn't actually go to these art exhibits, and he is
dependent on the media to tell him what's in them so he can get
exercised about it.
Part of the mayor's current outrage may arise from his belief that
the Catholic Church is regarded as fair game for assaults that
would not be tolerated if they were leveled at any other religion.
Renee Cox, the artist responsible for the Last Supper picture,
certainly sounded hostile. But then the only truly insightful thing
Ms. Cox has been quoted as saying during this particular debate is,
"I don't produce work that necessarily looks good over somebody's
couch."
Mr. Giuliani is not the only person worried about anti-Catholicism
in American culture, but the decency commission has pretty much
wiped out any chance of having a serious public conversation about
the issue. Instead, if the mayor has his way, we're going to invest
the city's money in yet another futile trip down to the Supreme
Court. (Somebody really ought to set up an endowment at one of our
local universities for the Rudolph Giuliani Chair in Bad
Constitutional Law.)
But first he needs to appoint a commission, and the mayor's usual
pool of public-spirited real estate developers and former
prosecutors doesn't seem quite right for the task. Lately, New York
has acquired a large supply of former contestants on reality TV
shows, but a strong background in Survivor Tribal Council may not
be what we're looking for either.
Your perfect commission recruits would be very smart, high-profile
people with lots of leisure whose reluctance to join in such a
loopy endeavor might be overcome by the desire to improve their
résumés with an official designation as basically decent people.
Mr. Clinton just might be available. While he has never shown any
particular appetite for assaulting the First Amendment, there's
always the chance that he could mutate into it, the way he did into
pardoning fugitives from justice.
Come to think of it, maybe Marc Rich would be interested, too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/20/opinion/20COLL.html?020inside?ex=983698501&ei=1&en=6dea46a8fd2ba8ef
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