To the editor:

We are told that the controversial flag at KU is one of 14 commissioned by a New York organization called Creative Time for its ironically named “Pledges of Allegiance.”

As reported by the Journal-World on July 13, the flag project “‘aims to inspire a sense of community among cultural institutions’ amid the nation’s divisive political climate.”

It seems reasonable to ask what “sense of community” was intended by Creative Time, and perhaps we might look at the organization’s leaders to determine that. Nato Thompson, variously described as the organization’s “artistic director” and “chief curator,” provides a partial answer in a telephone interview with Brian Boucher of artnet News. Boucher’s article, titled “Nato Thompson Asks Whether We Can Weaponize Art and Culture for Good in a Post-Fact Era,” was published on Jan. 18, 2017. In it, Thompson says, in part:

“The Trump situation is obviously a black hole that sucks all conversation into it. The giant, galvanizing force against Trump obscures the situation we’re in. ‘How can we stop Trump?’ is a reasonable and obvious conversation to have, but it glosses over the idea that the right-wing megalomaniac is the problem and that we are not the problem.”

I’m very much in favor of a sense of community, in our nation and here in Lawrence, but I’m not convinced that the flag project or Mr. Thompson’s attitude contributes to such a sense. They seem rather to intensify “the nation’s divisive political climate.”

Dean Bevan,

Lawrence