HomeMy WebLinkAbout1/21/2020 Item 15, Inchausti
Purrington, Teresa
From:Robert L. Inchausti <rinchaus@calpoly.edu>
Sent:Monday, January 20, 2020 12:37 PM
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Public art
On this day celebrating the life and work of Martin Luther King Junior, I would like to lend my support to those want to
honor our imperfect human heroes, rebels, and reformers via public art.
Robert Inchausti
We reject this attempt by the council to restrict how our community may remember and interpret our
past. A community is made of its “actual people.” Its suffering, its heroism, and its progress are the
suffering, heroism, and progress of actual people—be they 9/11’s first responders, the victims of
Japanese relocation, or Rosario Cooper, who rescued the Northern Chumash language. This attempt
to erase human beings from our past will censor our artists and police our thoughts and emotions. No
government has ever attempted to purge people from the sphere of public space and public memory.
To make San Luis Obispo the prototype of this dehumanizing policy may bring international
embarrassment to our community.
John Ashbaugh, former council member, City of SLO
David Brody, Emeritus Professor of Architecture and City Planning, Cal Poly
Alex and Anne Gough, Sauer-Adams Adobe
Lynn Hessler, Artist
Donna Hoff, Artist
James Papp, Member, Cultural Heritage Committee, City of SLO
Robert Inchausti, Professor Emeritus, Department of English, Cal Poly
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