Lawrence has a problem. I am not referring to the budget deficit or to the continuing sagas of the South Lawrence Trafficway or the proposed WalMart on the west side of town. The problem I’m concerned with today is a problem that goes to the very heart and soul of our community: the senseless, repeated vandalism of public art.

Last year, it was the “little green men” sculpture. This year it is the “prayer booth” which was only in place a few days at the corner of Massachusetts and Seventh streets. How can a community which defines itself as an intellectually and socially progressive oasis surrounded by conservative philistines possibly maintain its self-respect when it is unsafe for art? What other communities in Kansas, communities we consider to be less attractive than our own, have this problem?

In the years I’ve lived in Douglas County, I’ve told countless of my friends from both coasts about how astonishing a community Lawrence is. It’s safe, it’s progressive, it’s tolerant. We cherish the arts and have a splendid arts center, the Lied Center for the performing arts, a number of arts programs for children and adults including the Van Go program, and even our own Watkins Community Museum.

The town and surrounding county are filled with artists of every stripe. We have a vibrant arts community that is displayed in galleries and restaurants all over town. So how is it that artwork put on display on downtown streets cannot pass safely through the night?

Art is more than simply property. Vandalism of an art work is something far more heinous than destruction of an automobile or bicycle. The destruction of art is nothing short of desecration. In Europe, artists and their work are protected by a set of laws known as droit moral. This legal regime recognizes that artists put a bit of their souls into every work that they create. It also recognizes that no individual can really own a piece of art; rather individuals may possess artworks for a time, but art belongs ultimately to all of humanity. Even the legal owner of an artwork in Europe may not deface, mutilate or destroy it. Such actions are impermissible under the droit moral.

Since the vandalism to the prayer booth I’ve heard several people explain it by saying that the city should not have put a “religious” sculpture on the street as part of the public art program. These folks believe that the prayer booth violated the separation of church and state. I must say that I’m not convinced by this argument. There were no religious symbols involved. Some viewers may have wanted to pray, but they could have prayed to God or Satan or Nature or to themselves.

Further, others would have seen the prayer booth as a satire of religion and, in fact, irreligious. That’s what art is supposed to do: make the viewer think. But whatever interpretation onlookers might have put on the sculpture, the fact is that nothing justified damaging the work. Those who vandalized this work are no better than the Taliban extremists who destroyed centuries-old statues of the Buddha in Afghanistan, an action which drew condemnation from around the world. There can be no excuse for such vandalism and certainly not here in our hometown.

The people of Lawrence owe the artists whose work has been vandalized apologies. And we owe ourselves an examination of why such things happen here and how, as a community, we can prevent them from ever happening again.