The past is perpetually present in Sarasota, and it is high past time to stop trying to whitewash history, and put the fairy tale of the tall, dark, and handsome “kissing sailor” to bed.  We CANNOT continue to intentionally perpetuate a Big Lie in order to preserve false memories and the myths we tell ourselves about ourselves.

For over a decade, Sarasota has been actively harming people who have suffered sexual violence in the present, and sending mixed messages about consent into the future, in order to avoid admitting all-to-human error, and salvage the tainted tribute which serves as a trophy of the class war waged on Sarasota’s art community.

The fake-nostalgia crowd has come up with endless ways to excuse the inexcusable, and elide the fact that a piece of interactive assault art was accidentally foisted on this city.  Despite the good intentions of those who secured it, the work is baked through with confusing and contradictory signals—from its cheerful color scheme, to its aggrandizing size, to its less-than-forthcoming signage. To try and perpetuate this untenable state of denial, politicians engaging in cosplay issue commands to “stifle” so that they may continue to celebrate a mistaken symbol of what makes America great, in the person of a heroically-depicted, romantic, heterosexual White Christian male conquering all.