Krauthammer on Censorship and Cincinnati Art Exhibit

I agree with Krauthammer’s column, up to a point. He says, television shows us Mapplethorpe’s tamer portraits but “tells us about the nasty ones.” He goes on, “No one protests the banning of Mapplethorpe’s nastier pictures from television and the newspapers because there is a general consensus that some things are not to be shown on the mass media.”

True enough. However, that misses the most important point. What is exhibited in a museum or art gallery is out there for each individual citizen to decide what is offensive or pornographic; not a group of politicians or city officials or any other group. In a free democratic society it is assumed that each adult citizen is capable and mature enough to make his or her own judgment.

Judging from the description of some of Mapplethorpe’s portraits, I would be inclined to avoid such an exhibition, but I reserve the right to make that judgment. Censorship says that we as a people are forever infantile. That is an insult.

MARY PANZARELLA

Anaheim