
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 20, 1990                   TAG: 9003202765
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

USE OF TAX MONEY IS THE OBJECTION

PROPONENTS argue that people should have the right to desecrate our flag, or to display questionable works of art, such as Robert Mapplethorpe's "P--- Christ," as a symbolic form of free speech. Horsefeathers. If this reasoning were followed to a logical conclusion, it would mean that any form of behavior could be interpreted as free speech. The ultimate result of this could only be anarchy. A line must be drawn somewhere.

Secondly, they say that those of us who consider Mapplethorpe's work offensive favor censorship. Not so. I too am very wary of censorship in any form.

If these people, with their distorted view of what can be considered art, think Mapplethorpe should have his abomination displayed, then let the private sector supply the funds. What the public is objecting to is the use of taxpayers' money, through grants to the National Endowment for the Arts, to support this trash.\ STANLEY A. KNOTT\ WOOLWINE

by CNB