Repackaging Trash as Art

Thanks to Zev Yaroslavsky for condemning the sale of anti-Semitic books at a city-sponsored African Marketplace.

Of course, the publishers and vendors could always neutralize such opposition by simply repackaging the trash as art. Then, if anybody complains, they just cry “Censorship!” or “Suppression!” or “Free Speech!” That way they’ll never have to defend the bilge. After all, the best defense is a good offense and there’s no disputing taste.

Don’t believe me? Consider David Wojnarowicz. He not only called New York’s Roman Catholic Cardinal John O’Connor a “fat cannibal . . . creep in black skirts” and St. Patrick’s Cathedral a “house of walking swastikas,” but his “art” was lauded as an important exhibit in the recent, city-supported L.A. Art Festival. Not only that, but through the National Endowment for the Arts, we taxpayers paid him $15,000 to do it. Ah, what a country!

JOHN PAUL ARNERICH

Los Angeles