Stolen Gnomes

* Political and emotional upheavals in our country and around the world are reported daily. “Protectors” of Elian mill about in Miami, “protesters” against the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund create civil disobedience demonstrations in our nation’s capital, and the political candidates are gaining momentum to tear each other apart. But nothing illustrates better the turbulence of spring than the theft of the garden gnomes from an exhibit in a Paris park (April 15). Now there’s a crime to put the unrest of the world in perspective.

That this is not the first time the Garden Gnome Liberation Front has struck should send chills through the hearts of gardeners everywhere, not to mention the threat of more peaceful protests by the Garden Gnome Emancipation Movement. Thank you, John-Thor Dahlburg, for alerting us to this new danger.

BARBARA S. THUET

San Diego