To the editor:

I attended the meeting of the Lawrence City Commission on July 10 and watched in dismay as the commission decided that groups promoting a message that the commission agrees with will be allowed to paint murals on the Lawrence Public Library. Even the lead artist of this Womxn of Color project stated that the group originally could not imagine that they would be permitted to paint on the library itself and for that reason they had initially proposed placing their mural on the nearby parking garage. But, with neither the Lawrence Historic Resources Commission nor the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission, or even the Library Board of Trustees, taking a stand to defend this award-winning architectural masterpiece from defacement and damage, the City Commission decided, without seeking a broad, city-wide consensus on the issue, to allow the defacement to occur.

It is important to note that those asking the City Commission to protect and preserve the library were not against the goals of the Womxn of Color group. They just wanted alternative ways to achieve those goals to be considered. It was wrong and unfair to imply, as Commissioner Leslie Soden did, that their desire to maintain the beauty conceived by a team of very creative and talented architects was a manifestation of some bubble of white privilege and wealth that Soden said she had become aware of while growing up in a Topeka trailer park and being driven to movies by her father in an old car.

Gary J. Bjorge,

Lawrence