Edgar Allen Beem’s column “Reign of error in LePage’s state of me” is right on target. Gov. Paul Lepage has no right to take down public art because he doesn’t like it. There is a legal process to remove public art that is deemed not suitable. It was just done in Portland concerning a sculpture titled “Tracing the Fore.”
We do not live in China, where art is censored and was removed by Mao’s revolution. Public art is for the public and should not be censored by any political party. We are a free society. Artists should be allowed to create in freedom on whatever theme they choose.
The artist was commissioned to create a mural on the theme of labor in America, for a Labor Department building. There is nothing wrong about that in a free society and a visual record of labor’s struggle historically is an appropriate theme for that public building.
The mural is not anti-business management. It is not an angry statement against any group. It is simply a work showing respect for labor in a free society. LePage is traveling in an autocratic fog.
The issue is censorship. Who advises LePage? He has managed to make a non- issue a national crisis.
Pat Davidson Reef
Falmouth
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