The People’s Plaza

The Thousand Oaks theater commission has considered banning heavy metal and rap music concerts from the new Arts Plaza out of concerns over attracting “hordes of sometimes rowdy teen-agers.”

Any rendition of Ravel’s “Bolero” brings to mind, among other things, the vision of Dudley Moore scrambling to engage in out-of-wedlock sex with Bo Derek in the movie “10.”

Can the commissioners envision the day when overzealous fundamentalists petition them to ban classical music because of how it can inspire some to engage in demonic fornication?

Get with it. This is America. That teen-agers are not yet old enough to protect themselves via the voting booth does not give the commission the authority to suggest which form of artistic expression should grace their precious “elegant concert hall” and which should not. The hall belongs to the city, therefore, the people.

BRUCE ROLAND

Ojai