To the editor:

This is a message for Richard Wingfield (Public Forum, Jan. 12). Thank you for taking all of a paragraph to completely generalize the world of art. Art is ultimately about thinking, and it is clear you did little of that. The mannequin, you so easily tossed aside as irrelevant and absurd, symbolizes my mother. It is even more relevant because my most vivid memory of my mother involves her sewing clothes for me on a mannequin dress form. The baby dress on top of the mannequin’s “head” symbolizes me and the way my very existence can be a burden and a blinder, both financially and emotionally.

So, before you decide to attack art, me and, by extension, my family, perhaps you should do some thinking of your own. Even some abstract thinking if you’re up to it, because that is the kind we could use here in Kansas. I now live in Boston, where the arts are celebrated for bringing culture and vitality to the city, not punished for being “frivolous.” Kansas is a beautiful place that I will always call home, but it is people like you and their ignorance that causes people in Boston to cast aside Kansas as easily as you cast aside my mannequin.

Also, if you would care to take a look at the Kansas Department of Transportation’s Condition Survey Report of 2011, you will find that, statewide, 85.8 percent of Kansas roads are above performance level one and a mere 0.8 percent are below performance level three.

I like to be informed before submitting things to the newspaper, and so should you.