"The Mirror of the People" (a.k.a. your Republican-dominated legislature) plans to be the UW arts czar

"Carbon Sink" sculpture at UW before removal (top) and after (wyofile photo)

Thanks to Rodger McDaniel for his excellent three-part series on the University of Wyoming's censorship and eventual removal of the "Carbon Sink: What Goes Around Comes Around" sculpture. Rodger recently filed an open records request that revealed how Republican state legislators, UW donors from the energy industry and the UW administration colluded to destroy a sculpture by world-renowned artist Chris Drury of the U.K.

Rodger outlined the process fully in his series, featured in his Wyoming Tribune-Eagle column and on his blog, Blowing in the Wyoming Wind. I suggest you read it from the beginning. Here are the blog links:

Part 1: Wyoming's mining industry vs. freedom of expression at UW
Part 2: Wyoming legislators as art critics & bullies
Part 3: The art of surrender at UW

The newspaper headline this morning for part 3 was "Mirror of the people shatters," referring to a Rep. Tom Lubnau quote in which he called the Republican-dominated state legislature "the mirror of the people."

"The mirror of the people?" That's a good one.

Read it and weep for free expression at our state's only four-year public university.