Parsons All Wet on Demonstration

* I read with amusement Dana Parsons’ recent attack on a demonstration sponsored by Young Americans for Freedom (“For Freedom, From Wit?” July 7).

The amusing part was the spectacle of a middle-age Parsons bemoaning the demonstration tactics of college demonstrators. I’m sure for Parsons it seemed like only yesterday when he was in college, then wham, he had been transformed into a grumpy old man complaining about how immature those darn college kids are and doling out advice on how to be taken seriously.

What exactly did YAF do to waken old man Parsons’ wrath? They held a demonstration and attempted to draw a parallel between offensive government-sponsored “art” funded in America by the National Endowment for the Arts and offensive art sanctioned by the Communist regime in Vietnam. Was it too abstract? I don’t think so. Parsons could have disagreed with the premise of their argument and forgone his pompous attempt at ridiculing YAF members.

I can only imagine a hack columnist 200 years ago in Boston writing about some silly pranksters staging a demonstration. “They dressed up like Indians and threw perfectly good tea into the harbor! They’ll never make their case against King George pulling stunts like that!”

This nation has a proud history of “silly” demonstrations. Accompanying these demonstrations are a smattering of smug media hacks that attack the messengers and ignore the message. Sometimes it takes an irreverent demonstration to get the attention of the media to drive home a serious point. I have no doubt that if YAF sent The Times an issue paper detailing its objections to the display of sanctioned art from a totalitarian regime, without providing a balance or a footnote of how art is controlled or monitored in Vietnam, it wouldn’t receive a fraction of Parsons’ attention.

The next Parsons column on those “little scamps” might mention that YAF produced several campaign mailers last cycle. Two of their mailers, among all the campaign mail produced in 1998, were judged by the American Assn. of Political Consultants and were awarded the prestigious Pollie for second best local mailer and mailer dealing with an initiative or constitutional amendment.

I’m sure the humor behind the mailers would be lost on Parsons and he would revert to more name calling and lectures on how young people should be more tasteful.

JAMES BIEBER

Costa Mesa