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Last month I posted a blog about a prison reform-themed art exhibition at the 4most Gallery on SW 6th Street and 4th Ave.
At the time I wrote: 4Most Gallery is operated by the UF School Of Art & Art History. And this struck me as being a pretty gutsy display on the part of faculty and students whose university is increasingly coming under the authoritarian thumb of The DeSanitizer.
Kudos for that sort of rare courage. If art is not a form of revolution, it is nothing.
But apparently I blogged too soon. Called out for exhibiting “anti-police banners,” UF – these days being a wholly owned subsidiary of the DeSanitizer For A Free Florida Committee – quickly took the banners down.
No big surprise. As the Florida Prisoner Solidarity activist group – which collaborated with 4Most to present the exhibit – put it: “When the state owns the gallery there is no such thing as free speech in art.”
It’s sort of hard to argue with that.
Then, as if to add insult to injury, some unknown yahoo or yahoos arrived in the dead of night to exercise their own crude form of freedom Florida style.
Said yahoos (i.e. : a race of brutes in Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ for you literary types) hurled bricks through the windows of 4Most.
Because nothing says freedom like shattered glass. (Say, where have we seen that sort of thing before?)
Give exhibits backers credit for grace under fire:
“For the last day of the exhibition, Florida Prisoner Solidarity decided to showcase the four rocks thrown through their window and the glass it broke through. The three pedestals listed their creator as: “artist unknown.” This as reported by the Independent Florida Alligator.
Wish we could just write this off as an isolated incident. Heck, maybe even a “false flag” op staged to make Florida freedom fighters look like thugs. Alas, it isn’t.
As Florida Prisoners Solidarity observed in a statement: There is a clear trend of hate-fueled vandalism occurring in the city of Gainesville. Within the year, multiple murals advocating for diverse social justice causes have been defaced; locations like the Institute of Black Culture, the Pride Center, and Planned Parenthood have been vandalized. Antisemitic flyers have been distributed targeting Jewish communities in town.
In the tradition of politically motivated hate culture, when fascists gain political power, violence and vandalism increase against marginalized communities and those who would resist their oppressors.
Thus is life in the Free State Of Florida.
The Great DeSanitizer has built his entire political base on a divisive campaign calculated to turn Floridians against Floridians.
In the Free State of Florida parents have been turned against teachers. Whites against Blacks. Straights against gays. Our schools and universities have been hammered into submissive state-enforced conformity. Books are banned. Dissent is suppressed.
How much more “freedom” can we Floridians stand?
If you think Florida isn’t on a steady march toward fascism you are not paying attention. It’s about as subtle as a brick sailing through a window.
FreeGNV 