THE
CUTTING EDGETHE
CUTTING EDGE
by sonya hammond
The next time your visiting big city relatives smile condescendingly at Eugene, sneer at Oregon's version of a grown-up freeway, or express amazement that you manage to survive hundreds of miles from the nearest Neiman Marcus, you might want to bring up some of our city's more successful efforts to compete with the big guys. Eugene is beginning to rack up a plethora of arguments guaranteed to rank favorably with 'real' cities.
You could point out that our City Council not only rivals the nation's highest legislative body in its ability to drag out arguments long enough to ensure their demise prior to any solution, our local legislators have added a new wrinkle. Adept as they are at squandering public funds, members of Congress so far lack the creativity Eugene's Council showed when it hired at considerable expense a panel of family counselors to analyze their inability to agree on anything that might remotely benefit the electorate that put them in office. Eugene's Council is a veritable pacesetter in this area of inter-legislative communication.
Eugene, as part of a state with an uncanny ability to embarrass itself in national headlines, cannot afford to be out of step. Admittedly in some cases we can simply ride the State's ample publicity coattails: The Perils of Packwood, the Trials of Tanya, and the Odious Offensiveness of OCA are all ours by association.
We defy other states to top Measure 19, Oregon's proposed answer to the idiotic notion that individuals have the right to decide what they can see, hear or say. If this measure passes, we will be given a mandate to define obscenity, and Eugene will have the opportunity to lead the nation in censorship.
The very idea is apparently so inspiring that the University of Oregon decided to jump the gun with a decision of its own.
In its relentless search for opportunities to lose popularity polls, the U of O found a new way to achieve their objective by censoring an art exhibit specifically designed to celebrate free expression. If you think about it, and we're afraid you'll have to, it makes perfect sense to keep a show titled "See no Evil" hidden from view behind a large black curtain.
This decision to detour any viewers unconcerned for their souls behind a curtain of shame puts our fair city in the exalted company of San Antonio. where a convent's gallery was recently forced to close by an archbishop still recovering after viewing a painting of angels carrying on with abandon on an altar.
The good Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, who are either extremely progressive or too preoccupied in prayer to notice the content of artistic work proposed for exhibit in their gallery, have shut it down while they review what may have been a misguided attempt at courage. While they're at it, they might consider enlightening the archbishop on the meaning of 'Incarnate', which if taken literally, makes this exhibit of artist Donell Hill's work surprisingly appropriate to their mission.
We doubt that the U of O's Erb Memorial Union administration has been so absorbed in prayer as to miss the announcement that the exhibit in their gallery was destined to be part of an 'Uncensored Celebration of Art', terminology which practically guarantees provocative content.
We must, however, admire their innovative rationalization that curtaining off art, rather than making it inaccessible altogether, somehow offers a viable choice. We're only surprised they did not change the title of the exhibit to 'A Censored Uncensored Celebration of Art', although that would, of course, have had the disadvantage of keeping what's left of their integrity intact.
Should your aunt from Chicago still doubt Eugene's claim to avant-garde status, you might remind her that censorship does have the advantage of attracting that national attention so crucial for successful repression of any base instincts that might be running rampant through a city.
Cincinnati, where Maplethorpe's photography aroused the wrath of a Grand Jury, can be cited as precedent-setting in this area. That city unfortunately blew its chances for the Blackout Hall of Fame by refusing to convict the offending gallery of obscenity charges.
If Measure 19 passes*, and the University of Oregon keeps its black curtain drawn, Eugene will be well on its way to join the ranks of metropolitan watchdogs, and we can all sleep better in the knowledge that we need not waste effort thinking for ourselves.
Let your cousin from LA top that one.
*Update: It didn't.
©sonya hammond, 1995