Today, the Johnson County District Attorney convened a Grand Jury.  This, in and of itself, is not a big deal.  This happens every so often to determine probable cause to see if a crime has been committed.  Now, probable cause is way different than reasonable suspicion.  Probable cause is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as “Reasonable grounds for belief that an accused person may be subject to arrest or the issuance of a warrant.”

In this case, the Grand Jury was being held over a sculpture.  A statue in the middle of a park, that has to be walk to through the woods.  Before you walk down the trail, the city has seen fit to for-warn the family or the sensitive.

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Then you come to this:

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“Accept or Reject” by Yu Chang.  This statue shows the way the virtual world removes control over one’s image.  Parts and pieces are representing the whole, and the woman fails to center on her entire being.

I remember as a kid, seeing photographs of starving women and children in National Geographic that were more graphic than this.  I also fail to see how a group of people can get together to sign a petition, to request a grand jury over this.  I also fail to see how this sculpture is worse than, say a fountain. 

Say a fountain that is in the center of a populated area… such as downtown Overland Park.  Say this fountain is, give or take, a couple of feet off of the sidewalk (public access).  And let’s say the center of the sidewalk is three to four feet from the curb.

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How is this less “profane” than the sculpture that is in the middle of a woods, that has to be walked TO? 

Oh, by the way, the Grand Jury did not return an indictment today.  They said they did not think the statue reached the definition of “obscenity.”