Columnist displays incoherence and lack of focus

Maureen McClarnon's column entitled "The Art of Politics and the Politics of Art" is quite possibly the most inane, incoherent example of writing I have ever read in any publication.

I am not quite sure what topic she was trying to cover with her allotted column space. Was it free speech, gun control, art or was it simply a flimsy cover for a campaign ad? I would venture to say that the last option holds true.

The topic supposedly at hand is a controversial new exhibit that is planned for the Brooklyn Museum of Art. McClarnon implies that Rudolph Giuliani's objections to the proposed exhibit are racially motivated (as the exhibit displays a black Virgin Mary).

Perhaps, however, she objects on the grounds that pornography and elephant feces surround the Virgin Mary. McClarnon does not allow this assumption as a possibility. She would have you believe that the exhibit and the recent police violence in New York City are somehow related.

Additionally, she points out that Giuliani is fond of doing illegal things to get his way (such as withholding certain city documents).

It is interesting that McClarnon should bring this up in the same article in which she oddly injects the fact that Hillary Clinton will be running against Giuliani for the New York Senate seat. Hmm-withholding documents-that sounds awfully familiar. Does Whitewater ring a bell? Perhaps, words and time would have been saved if a "Clinton for Senator" ad were printed in place of the article.

I would also venture that Giuliani is not the only person that would take offense to this display. Of course if McClarnon were to have her say, anyone that does object would be labeled a bigot. If the Pope objected to surrounding the Virgin Mary with elephant droppings I'm sure that he too would be labeled an intolerant racist.

Jesse Panuccio