- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
...that would be Lawrence's ornament I'm talking about. It's like obnoxious "performance artists" that commit acts of vandalism for "their art", or whatever. Part of living in a democracy is accepting a certain level of public decorum and respect, even if you dislike the policies of those people currently in office. Now, you might argue that Bush & his crew have shat on that level of public decorum - and I would agree with you. That doesn't mean that those who oppose him need to stoop to that level. If Lawrence wanted to make a point, she could have made an inoffensive ornament celebrity pacifism, honor, or just plain honesty - the point would have been clear enough, but it wouldn't have been a direct "fuck you" at the tradition of White House Christmas tree ornaments. That's really what this ends up being - an attack on that tradition, rather than on the Bush administration (whether that's what she intended or not - and given what she's said, I don't believe that was her goal). Some things need to be out of bounds, because we don't want the other side going there when they're on the outside and we're on the inside. How would you feel if next year around some pro-life Christian artist sends a nice little aborted fetus ornament to the Obamas? All of this just cheapens the discourse, pure and simple - we need to repudiate that sort of thinking, not encourage.
