Desecration of Photo !
OrthodoxyToday.org
Commentary on social and moral issues of the day
Sunday, December 12, 2004 - 02:50 PM
The Artist as Vandal: Culture and the desecration of religious symbols
Johannes L. Jacobse
“ Desecration is more than the destruction or misuse of the symbol itself. Desecration is sacrilege; the use of the symbol in ways hostile to its meaning and in ways that the tradition considers profane. By desecrating the symbol, the desecrator not only defiles the symbol, he also denies the legitimacy of the community to whom the symbol belongs.
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“ There is contempt of the past, a senseless denial of any possibility of enduring meaning, in desecration art. Desecration art functions like the parasite; it destroys the heritage from which it draws its meaning. Ofili’s piece illustrates this. The icon gives the piece meaning, yet the icon is what the piece seeks to destroy. Destroy the meaning of the icon and the meaning of the piece is destroyed with it like the parasite that dies with its host. The artist is vandal and the museum the gate to this cultural barbarism.
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*Russell Kirk “Civilization without Religion?” The Heritage Foundation Report (July 24, 1992).
This article was published on Front Page Magazine website under the title "Desecration as a Political Weapon."
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Repairs made to James Byrd gravesite after desecrated
(5/28/04 - JASPER, TX) — A funeral home completed repairs to the desecrated gravesite of a black man from Jasper who was dragged to death.
Workers from Robinson Community Funeral Home repaired the gravesite of James Byrd Junior.
Three white men were convicted in the 1998 death in which Byrd was chained to a pickup and dragged.
Two of the attackers were sent to Texas death row, while the third received a life prison term.
Two white teenagers have been charged with criminal mischief for disturbing Byrd's gravesite and two others.
The damage was discovered May sixth to the sites at the Jasper City Cemetery.
Racial slurs and profanities were etched into a steel plate covering part of the vault of Byrd's grave. His headstone was also knocked over.
Workers replaced the steel covering, put the headstone back in place, secured it -- and left flowers at the site.
source: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/state/print_052804_APstate_byrd.html
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Mother of dragging victim James Byrd Jr. aghast at desecration of grave
Associated Press
JASPER — Whoever desecrated the grave of James Byrd Jr., a black man who was dragged to death behind a pickup by three white men in 1998, lacks a conscience, his mother said Friday.
“I just think whoever did it must be very sick to go and do something like that to someone’s grave,” Stella Byrd said from her East Texas home, a day after authorities discovered racial slurs and profanities etched into a steel plate covering a portion of the vault of her son’s grave.
Byrd’s headstone was toppled, Jasper Police Chief Stanley Christopher said.
“Whoever did it, they must not have any conscience,” Stella Byrd said.
Byrd said she and her husband, both in their late 70s, were dealing with the news as best they could. She said she hadn’t been able to go to the city cemetery where her son is buried, but other relatives had gone to view the damage.
Police patrols have been increased around the cemetery on Main Street, about six blocks north of downtown. About 8,000 people live in Jasper.
James Byrd Jr. was 49 years old when three white men chained him by his ankles and dragged him nearly three miles behind a pickup in the early morning of June 7, 1998. The crime resulted in two death penalties and one life sentence for the convicted killers and thrust Byrd’s close-knit family into the world spotlight.
“These people have had five years to try and heal over this. And then some jerk comes up and does this and it just opens the wounds all over again,” Christopher said. “It is just a shame that someone would do this and not let them have final closure.”
People cleaning their family's plot alerted police to the desecration Thursday afternoon.
Byrd’s grave was dusted for fingerprints and the police chief said the effort resulted in a partial print, but it isn’t enough to run through federal fingerprint databases.
Jasper Mayor David Barber called the desecration a horrendous act and said city workers have called the Byrd family to find out whether they can help restore the grave.
Christopher said the case is being investigated as criminal mischief, which would be considered a state jail felony because a human burial plot was damaged.
If the amount of damage exceeds $20,000, it could become a felony, which can be enhanced to a hate crime at trial if it is proven the crime occurred as the result of bias or prejudice, the police chief said.
source: http://www.news-journal.com/news/newsfd/auto/feed/news/2004/05/07/1083988723.02632.0689.0627.html;COXnetJSessionID=B8kz7SuQGFqrTsaSkKk0y3ggkxsks8GDwR2tW0SA4GLr0SISy5g2!-1525185344?urac=n&urvf=11028820350790.680385474120691
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