Letters: Eskenazi museum's exhibit cancelation, gateway sculpture, information bubbles

'Reach out rather than push away'

On Monday, Jan. 15., we celebrated the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., and as I sat in the audience in the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, I was thinking about the news I heard on the way to the event.

Indiana University had canceled an exhibit at the Eskanazi Museum of Art by a Palestinian artist named Samia Halaby. That dismayed me.

I worked with Rabbi Sue Silberberg and Bloomington United for years. I can’t believe in this community we would allow ourselves to close doors to an opportunity for a human showing their art. We preach love and this is not love.

I’ve been in the community for 60 years and always supported peaceful activities (even led some). I urge the university to go back to the beloved community that Herman Wells reigned over. Reach out rather than push away. Look for an opportunity to work together. I worked with Rabbi Sue and Bloomington United for years. 

Charlotte Zietlow, Bloomington

Both gateway design proposals 'deeply flawed'

I think both gateway sculpture proposals are deeply flawed.

The 40-foot obelisk shouts power, while the limestone blocks whimper Bloomington lacks imagination. They both represent a continuation of the current gentrification aesthetic sweeping Bloomington that replaces whole blocks of the city with glitzy apartment buildings, bike paths and self conscious graffiti walls. It feeds a conceit that towns can be forced into a utopian vision.

The Miller-Showers Park is actually an interesting piece of "Environmental Earth Art" way ahead of its time by using natural drainage and native plantings. One can often see ducks and beautiful great blue herons moving through the grasses.

Why would you want to scatter monuments over that? In fact, I don't think we need anymore monuments in Miller-Showers. I would be happy to use the money for a few more paths and native plants. How about making Miller-Showers Park a monument for the nature lovers of Bloomington?

Bonnie Sklarski, professor Emerita Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design, Bloomington

Are you in your own information bubble?

I think most people would agree that a major contributor to America’s bitter divisiveness comes from those who live in information bubbles where opposing points of view aren’t aired.

Let’s first agree that hearing someone out doesn’t require compromising our beliefs. Here’s a test of whether you’re in an information bubble: Do both Republicans and Democrats solicit money from you? If you’re a Biden supporter have you ever watched an entire unedited speech or interview of Trump? ... Vice versa if you’re a Trump supporter?

Do you believe that our media always tells the truth while the media of those we’re told are our enemies always lie? Do you feel that the media of our enemy shouldn’t be heard since misinformation espoused by them might mislead our fellow citizens? Does this justify censoring them?

Have you ever heard an entire unedited speech or interview of Putin? If you were forced to build a case justifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, could you do so? Would you be open to hearing such a case made? Why or why not?

Let me ask you again. Are you living in an information bubble? If so, are you willing to change? Why or why not?

John Linnemeier, Bloomington

Indiana University has 'gone off the rails'

The recent outrageous suspension of Professor Abdulkader Sinno is yet further evidence of how badly Indiana University has gone off the rails under its new cheerleader-in-chief.

No honest person believes that Dr. Sinno is being suspended for incorrectly filling out a room request form. The reality is far more insidious: a political appointee so confused about her job that she would sacrifice her own faculty on behalf of a foreign power.

When it’s this easy to get witless administrators and legislators to do their bidding, it’s no wonder that rogue nations around the globe are eager to get a piece of the action, or that American democracy is in such dire straits. Poor Herman B Wells must be spinning even harder in his grave.

Ramsay Harik, Bloomington

Red states lead in solar, wind power

Four out of five states leading in adopting solar power are red. According to Solar Energy Industries Association quarterly report, the best states for solar energy are California, Texas, North Carolina, Florida and Arizona. How can this be?

The top states for adopting wind power are Texas, Iowa, California, Oklahoma and Illinois. How is this possible?

This is possible because some red states can do the math. Wind and solar are the least expensive way of producing power. During the 2023 session of our Legislature, the interest was either in carbon capture or small nuclear reactors. Wind and solar were off the table.

Carbon capture was attractive because we could keep burning coal. So what if the cost of power would more than double? The small nuclear reactors were attractive even though there are no examples of communities in the U.S. using one. Indiana keeps burning coal even though there are health costs.

What community in Indiana has the greatest life expectancy? Carmel where people can live a healthy lifestyle and there are no coal power plants or polluting industries nearby. For life expectancy by county, Google: “The growing divide in life expectancy among Indiana counties."

Norm Holy, Bloomington

Museum patrons share their views

We have just sent this letter to Eskenazi Museum at Indiana University, and felt we should share it with you, as well:

Dear David Brenneman,

According to the New York Times (1/13/24), the Eskenazi Museum at Indiana University has just cancelled an exhibition by the artist Samia Halaby, an outspoken defender of an unpopular position on the Israel-Hamas war.

As potential patrons of the museum, we hereby notify you that we are deeply disturbed by the decision of the museum and the university to cancel a long-scheduled exhibition by Ms. Halaby, which you described only a few months ago as "dynamic and innovative.” This, after the university suspended a tenured professor for expressing a similar unpopular opinion.

Not long ago, your chief curator, Jennifer McComas, wrote us to ask that we lend our painting "De Profundis" by the artist William Gropper to her forthcoming exhibition "The Holocaust and American Art,” and, of course, we agreed. Now, in light of your censoring of the work of an “outspoken” living artist, we are asking ourselves how William Gropper, a Jewish artist deeply committed to free speech and social justice, would have wanted us to react to this blatant instance of censorship, and its implied demand for intellectual conformity.

Our first instinct was to withdraw our approval of the loan, given the university's arrogant denial of the voice of one of the few Palestinian artists in our midst, at a time when dissenting voices are more urgent than ever. However, we realized that, by doing so, we would be joining the advocates of censorship, who are currently working to diminish our ability to make informed choices. Indeed, William Gropper abhorred nothing more than the self-righteous hypocrisy of those whose feigned outrage at others' non-conformity to a specific set of values is designed to maintain the power of one group over all others.

McCarthyism attempted to muzzle Gropper in 1953. He responded by speaking out more loudly, and by satirizing those he identified as holier-than-thou "patrioteers" whose arrogant demands for uniformity were designed to silence all "dangerous" dissent. To us, it is very clear that this true Jewish-American patriot would have included the thousands of those dying or suffering starvation in Gaza today amongst those for whom the heart-rending wail of the Rabbi he portrayed in "De Profundis" was a small, but profound, commemoration.

Sincerely, Sandra and Bram Dijkstra, Del Mar, California