Letter to the Editor

Editor:

This is in response to Lee Hoyt’s opinion (June 2), which he has every right to express. However, I would remind him that “taste” and “aesthetics” are subjective. What might be “very tasteful” to him could be “rural, kitschy Rockwellian” to another. I don’t believe the outcry was over the execution of the sculpture (of a couple reading) itself as much as the jarring juxtaposition of its placement on the busiest corner of Leisure World.

It was as inconsistent with the active Leisure World lifestyle as a life-sized Inuit in anorak reflecting coastal California would be.

Now in its new placement at the LW Library, the statue depicts a charming couple sharing the contents of a book.

What is disturbing to me was the implication that the Mutuals should have volunteer committees that adjudicate what is “taste appropriate” for the small frontage allowed shareholders outside their units. I have seen everything from austere to “junky.” Such a suggestion smacks of Big Brother conformity and is the antithesis of the diversity we celebrate in America and Leisure World, and the liberty of expression we constitutionally uphold.

Mutuals should ban anything that is a safety hazard. That is in their province, and they should see that these regulations are not violated. But, whether it is a pagan tiki god, a Zen Buddha, a Roman-Greco Eros hovering over a bird bath, a pagoda, a cross draped with rosary beads, pet rocks, flamingos or a Christian cross is immaterial. We don’t have to agree with anyone’s choice or political and religious sentiments. It’s called tolerance.

Mitzi Winks Mutual 6