They Won't Grow Up, and Courts Can't Make Them

Jeff Miller notes (with an all-too-true punchline) that a judge has decided not to order a statue that is offensive to Catholics removed from Washburn University grounds while a lawsuit to do just that goes through the motions:

A federal judge will allow Washburn University to continue to display a sculpture of a Catholic clergyman while a lawsuit seeking its removal moves forward.

U.S. District Judge G. Thomas VanBebber today denied a request for a temporary restraining order prohibiting the statue's display.

The storyline disoriented me for a moment, until I remembered what statue it was. And while it is grotesque and offensive, I don't agree with using the tactics of the PC censors to remove it. It isn't the high road, for one thing. For another, when those without PC establishment backing try to duplicate the tricks used on them, they hardly ever have the desired effect.

The artist in question, for example, is delighted that his prank has caught some attention (that link has a picture). Moreover, rather than the quick retractions (and increased funding for demographically based professors and student groups) reserved as rewards for the fashionable groups, the school administration offers a variation of "lighten up":

The sculptures are on loan to the university and should remain on display until July, [David Monical, Washburn's executive director of university relations,] said. He said no one involved in picking the sculptures intended to cause anyone pain.

No, lawsuits serve no purpose except to highlight who holds the upper hand in the power struggle and to imply that switching hands would change angle, but not action. Instead, area Catholics should seek ways to force administrators to address the pain that the sculpture did cause. Make them sit in on long chat sessions, for example. Cause a rebuttal controversy.

Running and telling Uncle Sam, however, just brings the lifelong adolescents the satisfaction of exactly the sort of attention that they crave. How much better it would be to creatively offer the attention that they dread — something that confronts them with the superficiality of their poses.