Krauthammer on Censorship and Cincinnati Art Exhibit

Washington’s eternal sophomore, Charles Krauthammer (“We All Believe in Censorship,” Commentary, April 29), would conscript us into his argument for governmental censorship based upon a series of false assumptions.

The purpose of censorship is to regulate the morality of thoughts. The purpose of restricted access is not to achieve “the smallest possible audience,” but to obtain the most voluntary audience.

Images stimulate thoughts. Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs and Krauthammer’s simplistic descriptions of them prompt similar, if aesthetically different, thoughts. The harmful effect of such thoughts is easier to assert than to prove. Censors seem always to be endowed with the ability to survive greater exposure to these materials than the rest of us.

What goes in a public gallery is best decided by a curator who understands the purpose of the gallery.

Those citizens of Cincinnati who are burdened with “small, censoring minds,” even if they were a majority, should not seek to impose their handicap on others.

As the people of Eastern Europe know, when bureaucrats undertake the invention of thought-crimes, freedom and democracy disappear. And, if his billboard project results in his arrest, I pledge $100 to the Krauthammer Legal Defense Fund. But be careful; even “exquisite flower pictures” can be nasty.

MICHAEL YEOMANS

Goleta