New age philosophy! False gods! Violence on the walls! Slaves in the cotton fields! Scandalous, I tell you.
“When she showed it to me, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ ” said Hansell, who added that the mural presents a new age idea of peace and unity that could be confusing to Christian students. Hansell said she’d also like a more positive image of African Americans. “It doesn’t even represent even a fingernail of the faith here in Bastrop County and what (residents) believe.”
Among the images on the mural are an Aztec sun, ancient Egypt’s King Tutankhamen, Buddha and Shiva, a Hindu deity, dancing on a demon of ignorance.
Oh, my gosh! It will corrupt the students! We know that peace and unity are confusing to all Christians!
What, you might ask, in the heck am I talking about? A mural. A mural that is on the wall of Bastrop High School. A mural that has been on the wall of Bastrop High School since 2003. A mural that has been on the wall of Bastrop High School since 2003 with nary a peep from anyone that it might be harmful to their eyes or morals. And then….along comes Lauren Hansell.
To point out the sins of this mural. And to insist that it be removed. And you know what the funniest thing about this is?
Bastrop resident Lauren Hansell, who made the original complaint, homeschools her children but visits the school on Fridays to pray with students at the flagpole.
Good grief. Get a life.
BENZION ADDS–Here is the mural that, apparently, contains the power to destroy the faith of those who follow Jesus.
I am Art; FEAR ME!
You, on your way to the flagpole–feel your faith decline!
Bow down to the images of these Pagan Gods!
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68 Responses to “Too Much Time On Homeschool Mom’s Hands”Search
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Some people (both left and right) are just looking to be offended, or their lives aren’t complete!
Can lauren Hansell pray not to be stupid? Is there a special prayer for not saying stupid things and making stupid conclusions?
Okay, BigJolly; just exactly which is your point of concern? Are you concerned because Christianity (still the predominant religion in this country) is so specifically absent from the wall mural? Or is it because you are disconcerted because the ACLU has yet to weigh in on the “separation of Church and State” nonsense? Or is it something else?
– Ken
I think BigJolly doesn’t like demons.
Can you say “ig’nant”?
Ken and Darren, go back and read the post. It looks like BigJolly doesn’t have a problem with the mural.
He has a problem with this woman’s complaint about the mural.
Sheesh.
Oh good GAWDS and great Googly Moogly!!!!!!!
I’d love to know how an interior hallway is “unavoidably on the way” to a flapole??
Wait’ll the “yo quiero Taco Bell” whiners hear about this!
PT Barnum was only partially right:
“There’s a
SUCKERWHINER born every minute!!Flagpole* even………
The only thing I find offensive about the mural is that someone thought it was worth $10,000 in taxpayer money for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bastrop Association for the Arts to pay for it.
Matt and I will be happy to go into schools and paint murals on the walls for HALF that amount.
whiskerfish, glad you didn’t drop the ‘l’ instead of the ‘g’ in flagpole, that could have been interpreted as some kind of Freudian thingie!
9 BZ
HOLY FREAKIN CRAP! $100,000 for that? I’ll do two hallways and the band hall for free for half!
It looks like crap anyhow.
I agree about the cost of the mural. It’s not offensive just another decision made by some not too bright bulbs who didn’t want the endowment to disappear. As to the Mom, this world is full of people with good intentions, who do harm.
for what it’s worth—-to me it looks like the mural is an overview of the “peoples” who have lived on the land where Bastrop now lies. I don’t see those other things mentioned. Maybe there are two murals?
Gotta watch out for those Freudian thingys….. they have a tendency to creep in, at the most inopportune moment!
“this world is full of people with good intentions, who do harm.”
Why did I think of Chavez when I read that?
You mean someone paid for that POS? That’s where the outrage should be - I’ve seen better looking rodeo murals on the windows in downtown San Saba than that, and the painters only make about $25.00 for one of those.
Should have had the kids in the school art classes design and paint it for free, instill some school spirit! Geez!
I’m offended! Where’s a lawyer when you need one?
Faster I agree, but this was an endowment, and I’m sure the school didn’t want to loose the benefit.
I want an endowment. How do I get an endowment? I’m endowment deficient. I’m pretty good at art. I want an endowment! I’ll settle for 45k.
Maybe they could have gotten
an ILLEGALa day laborer to paint it for much less?!If the mural depicted any symbols of the Judeo-Christian heritage of the city/state/country, I’m sure it would have been painted over immediately…if not sooner.
Its all socialist diversity inspired crapola if you ask me!
Typical of the touchy feely artsy fartsy stuff that comes out of colleges of education.
Looking at the included picture it kinda reminds me of prison cell feces art, but in this case being smired on the walls of the public schools we all pay for!
It was painted with the help of art students at the school, who also helped chose what to paint. Although 10K is a lot of money, judging from the size of the mural it’s about right, considering typical efficiency of government sponsored projects.
I haven’t been able to find more photos, but it sure doesn’t look like the mural has a pervasively religious basis or theme. It’s message seems more to be one of history and the unity of the human experience over time.
But as I reckon, beauty and meaning are both in the eye of the beholder. I think I see a dove in the second image above.
#10 - hehehehehehehe - the proofreading duty of a 2 fangered typist is NEVER done!
Thanks, Benzion! Now that I have seen this image I am screwed up for the rest of my life. It makes me want to go out and commit a random act of kindness.
This ‘tempest-in-a-teapot’ does remind me of the previous FLAP a few years back when the head of the ‘People’s Republic of Boulder’ Colorado’s Library thought it was a wonderful and artful thing to string up multi colored ceramic PENISES above the foyer at the Library entrance (while relegating the Stars and Stripes on a nice flagpole to a back corner of the facility)
At Least we could truly and honestly be offended!
I agree it’s not the end of the world, but the mural really is stupid and over-the-top-pc. Why not paint over it?
Paint over it? I think it’s pretty cool.
I’ve always loved murals. There’s been one down on Navigation for years, I think the building it is painted on is going to be demolished.
Here it is:
http://lonestartimes.com/images/2008/05/salinas_-046_navigation_mural.jpg
#6, Matt:
You’re right. I attributed too much to the quoted parts, and not enough to BigJolly’s comments.
to BigJolly:
Please accept my apology.
– Ken
The NEA website has this at only $5,000:
http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/03grants/states2/TX.html
No problem, Ken.
I don’t see what the problem is. Looks like a typical day at Walmart to me.
Hey! That Sphinx just winked at me!
BigJolly, 1st: if we put a Bible story on the wall it would be OUT of there. It’s quite ‘Constitutional’, however, to allow the other World Religions’ Deities to be shown in ‘Public Schools’. That isn’t a problem for separation of Church and State. This lady may be a busy body. But She’s entitled to check on her Tax money TOO!
Well, where are the Shamanic images? I am insulted!
Why are my beliefs censored along with the Chrstian and Judaic ones? Boy. You never know what groups you will be sidelined with….
Happily, I couldn’t ask for better company!
#30 Ah, the ol’ Mercado development. Another one of the City’s boondoggles.
Okay there are plenty of things to gripe about out there but I seriously just stared as long and hard as I could at that mural and couldn’t find anything to make me offended.
/graduated homeschooler and pretty fundamental Christian
#37 you worship one of those European white blue-eyed devil gods. Those are right out!
I see things like this and the first thing I think is - graffitti deterent.
I’m not offended, home school mama can complain all she wants. But … I think she’s on the lonely side of this one.
Two points:
1. This woman is crazy and nobody should pay any attention to her about this or anything else.
2. Paint over the damn thing anyway, not because of what she says but because like almost all murals painted on any school wall at any point later than circa 1960, it’s butt ugly.
Oh, I see now. It’s one of those murals.
Why am I thinking of one of my favorite South Park episodes now…”Achtung! You vill draw zee children of many races holding hands!”
Lauren Hansell has proven herself incapable and unqualified to homeschool any child older than six. She just handed the anti-parental rights crowd a perfect effigy to parade through the streets. The woman is a dangerous moron.
I happen to like Diego Rivera murals and all the great artists of the Mexican Muralist school. Rivera was a despicable, nasty man enthralled with Marxism and serially involved with the equally reprehensible Frida Kahlo, psyho-b**ch of the Mexican art world. Nevertheless, Rivera did great work and because I enjoy and appreciate it does not make me a godless communist or a totalitarian mysogynist. It does, however, give me an excuse to reflect on the artistic nuances of the image of Salma Hayek. Hmmm…
Phil_M, If someone decided that you were “butt ugly” would you mind if they painted you?
Regardless of individual opinion, this mural was painted by the students of that school, and has been there for years. I’d agree that the person causing the recent ruckus is a PC nutjob, but neither she or I has any real stake in the matter.
The school belongs to the community, so let the community decide. If the PC nutjob gets her way, many will be disappointed, including me.
Yeah, but they would be intruding upon my personal property (namely, me) to do so. This school is public property, and while I think this lady is stupid for doing what she is doing, I see no reason that the public should be forced to subsidize butt ugly murals to the tune of $10,000 in wasted tax money.
Furthermore, since that $10,000 came from the federal government, the mural’s butt ugliness is being unwillingly subsidized by the taxpayers of the entire country so the mural’s purview is, by definition, well beyond a the community of Bastrop alone.
You’re right that it doesn’t. But why piddle around with Rivera when you can have not only an immensely better artist but also one with commendable politics in Salvador Dali?
#47 Phil
What does Salvador Dali have to do with Salma Hayek ? Although a quick Google search reveals Salma has been considered for the role of Dali’s sex-addicted wife in a biopic of the artist. And check this out as it looks to be a fascinating read:
http://www.amazon.com/Dali-Surreal-Story-Stan-Lauryssens/dp/0312379935/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1197799702&sr=1-3
Can we tie any thread on LST to Salma in six degrees?
Matt #6;
Yes Matt, I know that.
Me-Myself… #22;
Have yu not read tel;iberal manisfesto by now? Judeo-Christian symbols, like, totaly violate the pseudo-laws for separation of chrch and state. Aztec and Egyptian symbols, as well as demons, do not. That’s free speech.
Umm, look at far the upper right-hand corner of the first pic. That appears to be a Spanish mission.
What a tempest in a teapot. Keep Mrs. Hansell away from an art museum that might have nudes displayed. Or worse yet, Hieronymous Bosch’s The Garden of Delights (ca. 1500 and truly oddball). Perhaps an El Greco would also offend, those longish skinny people must be perverted. Mayhap the frescoes in the Sistine Chappel are too much? There are so many pieces to give a sheltered soul a bad case of the vapors. /Retract sarcasm and claws/
#52;
Good eye there in spotting the Christian church. Now the ACLU can ove in and shut this mural down.
Dang, Adee, no wonder you and Texpat get along! Good call.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Hieronymus_Bosch_-_The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights_-_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights_%28Ecclesia%27s_Paradise%29.jpg
Darren10, Guess it all depends on how busy-body the Texas ACLU is at the moment, as in maybe they are booked solid with the Eldorado affair. So I suppose they could take care of this trifle and delcare it isn’t a mission but rather a mansion with a tower.
BJ, I had to dig out my HW Janson, History of Art to find it again. Bosch was on the diseased mind cusp I think. And El Greco had astigmatism, thus the distorted figures.
Adee, the fact that you even have a copy of History of AR by HW Janson to dig out is telling! No wonder you write such awesome descriptions of the beginning of every day!
Looks like a year of ancient history to me.
Yikes ! Adee with claws ! A model for Bosch himself ! I’m horrified. All my dreams have been shattered on the rocks.
BJ and Texpat, My Janson is the 1965 edition/printing.
Now y’all don’t go getting a case of the vapors, hear? Need fainting couches for that. /Grin/
My brother in law is thinking of putting fainting goats on his 40 acres to get an ag exemption.
I knew my daydreaming in “art appreciation” would come back to haunt me one day. At least I aced P-Chem. THAT’S certainly come in real handy
#61 - How ’bout some Roller Pigeons?
Hey if i painted a mural with Christian pictures and symbols would this “tolerant” school allow that to be displayed on school grounds? I am not afraid of other religions, what irritates me is that as a Christian i am excluded from displaying my beliefs at any public school. Lebag
What if they wanted to paint a picture of this religious figure on the mural?
/ok, ok, I’ll stop.
#61 BJ, Now that will give PETA a case of the vapors.
#62 Hamous, I never memorized valences and always had to stop to look ‘em up for HS chemistry class. Was also a klutz trying to get thistle tubes through rubber stoppers without breaking or chipping them. Theory was always the stronger suit than lab.
As a homeschooling parent, I’m much more offended by the teachers (and custodians) diddling the children, schools banning military uniforms at graduations, acting like jackbooted thugs by quashing protests they don’t like, saying that 30 kids with TB is no problem and the like.
On the other hand, while I’m not proud of this woman, she has proven herself up to the general standard of public school teachers (react loudly, vigorously, and with ideological tunnel-vision about almost nothing), so I’m sure the TEA will be chiming in in her defense.
Ya’ll think a little farther ahead - could this homeschooling Mom be cashing it in as a homeschooler (Math & Science get tough to teach in the upper grades when you got no sense at all). Maybe her kids are going to public school next year and she is trying to create an tough kook lady aura early to get heard in the principals office when she defends her oppressed hooligan on Monday,Tues, Wed, etc. there has to be an angle somewhere more than what is said?????