• According to the Associated Press (2003), First Lady Laura Bush cancelled a poetry symposium: Thursday January 30, 2003 4:50 AM
  • "NEW YORK (AP) - The White House said Wednesday it postponed a poetry symposium because of concerns that the event would be politicized. Some poets had said they wanted to protest military action against Iraq. The symposium on the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman was scheduled for Feb. 12. No future date has been announced. "While Mrs. Bush respects the right of all Americans to express their opinions, she, too, has opinions and believes it would be inappropriate to turn a literary event into a political forum." Noelia Rodriguez, spokeswoman for first lady Laura Bush, said Wednesday." We would like to hear more about the possibility of a literary event that does NOT turn into a political forum. The fact that Mrs. Bush has cancelled the event does not alter the power of the arts for peace, on the contrary, the symposium has attracted much more attention by its absence. We need to wonder what it is she needs to hide at this point. We can assume it is any attempt at praising people, praising life, freedom, happiness, human feelings, the essence of poetry: these concepts are probably a threat to the U.S. national security.
• Attorney General John Ashcroft had the "Spirit of Justice" covered permanently to make sure no female breast would distract the audience while he is biting away chunks of U.S. civil liberties:
  • BBC News Tuesday, 29 January, 2002, 13:37 GMT Curtains for semi-nude justice statue. No longer will the 'Spirit of Justice' bare her breast. No longer will US Attorney General John Ashcroft appear in public with a semi-nude statue towering above him. The US Justice Department has spent $8,000 on curtains to hide the statue from the cameras. The female, art-deco "Spirit of Justice" statue, with one breast exposed, is located on the podium in the department's ornate Great Hall where news conferences are often held. Mr. Ashcroft 'knew nothing' of the decision. However, ABC News reported that the decision was taken at the request of the conservative Mr. Ashcroft himself. What we have here is an Attorney General who has to hide the "Spirit of Justice" to promote the war agenda. This fact would not have come to light without the covering up of the statue.
• Colin Powell ordering the U.N. to cover the tapestry of Picasso's "Guernica", which hangs at the entrance of the Security Council, when he tried to make his case for the bombing and killing of civilians in the new Guernica, Baghdad.
  • Sunday, February 9, 2003 by the Toronto Star.
    The Lessons of Guernica. 'Profound symbolism' as U.N. hides Picasso's anti-war masterpiece for Colin Powell's call to arms Bush's `game over' remark makes it definite: U.S. will attack.by William Walker. UNITED NATIONS. On the second floor of the United Nations building in Manhattan, just outside the Security Council entrance, hangs a seminal piece of 20th-century artwork that offers a graphic and chilling reminder of the horrors of war. But as U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell sat down last week to deliver an historic speech about why America must go to war with Iraq, Pablo Picasso's Guernica was concealed by a large blue drape. To twist an old axiom, those who ignore the horrors of history - or cover them up - are doomed to repeat them.

"The game is over," President George W. Bush declared, just 24 hours after Powell's presentation failed to sway doubtful U.N. Security Council members. This last statement is correct, the game is over. There have been too many attempts at canceling political and critical thinking, at covering the true spirit of justice with warmongering and at hiding the horrors of war with doublespeak.

The game is over; 30 million people took to the streets on February 15 to show that they cannot be fooled any more. Works of art have acquired a magical power to address the issues of our time: If the authorities let us see them, we will get the message. If the authorities try to hide them, the message will be even stronger. The game is over.

References
AP (2003) Retrieved from "Circular: poets, artists and critics respond to U.S. global policy" on Feb. 26, 2003 from http://www.arras.net/circulars/archives/000126.html

BBC (2003) Retrieved from "BBC News" on Feb. 26, 2003 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1788845.stm

Commondreams (2003) Retrieved from "Commondreams News Center" on Feb. 26, 2003 from http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0209-04.htm