Statue versus small minds

Coeur d'Alene is quite frankly cultureless. It is a crying shame when culture is introduced into our community and expunged by closed-minded residents like a virus under attack from white blood cells.

I am referring to the July 7 front page story, "Art ouster sought," by Tom Hasslinger. This article first grabbed my attention because of the photo of a beautiful piece of art, the Ganesha statue created by Rick Davis. I figured it was something new The Press wanted to feature. Then I read the caption and the story and my heart broke.

First of all, Coeur d'Alene has been trying to embrace the culture and art of other societies through events at NIC and the HREI as well as other organizations. This piece of art is a symbol of that effort; it represents what is beautiful and cherished in a culture very different from our own. To remove it on account of a religious misinterpretation from one Christian man's ideology is bigotry and would showcase the intolerance that still dominates North Idaho. Many of us would like to believe the narrow-mindedness is nonexistent, but that belief, too, is narrow-minded. Intolerance is all around us; we are just blind to it because we have very little here to shake up our cultural awareness.

Second, shame on you Ronald J. Vander Griend and Lake City Lighthouse Church. It is people with small minds like you who keep our community the way it is. Didn't people immigrate to this great country of ours to escape religious persecution? Is it not the First Amendment that prohibits the making of any law "respecting an establishment of religion," impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech..." and so on? Which I believe means we have the right to create and interpret art and worship who and whatever we please. Mr. Vander Griend, you are welcome to your opinion, but please don't drag us into a religious debate because we have a statue of Ganesha instead of Jesus. "Simply doing good and proclaiming the good news of Christ," as Pastor Rodney Wright claims to be conducting, should include tolerance and acceptance of others, despite their religious and artistic ways.

Lastly, kudos to Deanna Goodlander and those in the City Council who are holding their ground to keep the statue in place. These representatives of our community are clued in to the big picture here and I commend them. Please do not cave to the ignorance that is surrounding this situation; we need you to be proactive and sensitive to the cultural importance of keeping this piece of art right where it is! It reminds Cd'A residents that the world is a big, diverse place and we are not the only people on this planet.

This issue means a lot to me, because I have lived here my whole life and I know, as a community, we are capable of love and respect. We just have to encourage each other to practice it.

Devin L. Heilman is a Coeur d'Alene native and currently editor of the North Idaho College newspaper, The Sentinel.