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My first instinct on reading Jerry Grillo's letter condemning the censorship of the flag painting at Gainesville State College was to agree; however, further reflection leads me not to agree with the censorship, but to understand it.
I am not acquainted with GSC's president but I do know thoughtful people who know and greatly admire her. I cannot help but believe that pulling the painting was painful to her. Reading between the lines, it is obvious that she made no effort to stifle faculty protests.
Dr. Martha Nesbitt, unlike me or Mr. Grillo, heads an institution that lives or dies at the whim of our redneck legislature, a group that loves to waste the people's time and money pandering to lobbyists, forbidding the microchipping of citizens and passing patently unconstitutional laws on matters of federal, not state, concern.
Doing all this while ignoring the real problems that threaten to drag us down. Can you imagine the demagoguery that would flow if an artist (of all people) dared to criticize one of our sacred myths? Can you not hear the howls from the gold dome demanding that GSC be punished?
Sometimes hard choices have to be made.
Robert D. Milledge
Flowery Branch