What is it that Clear Channel finds so objectionable about a simple illustration of a ticking bomb painted red, white and blue with the caption, "Democracy is best taught by example, not war."
Maybe it's because the billboard ad was purchased by a group of prominent Bay Area women, including Alice Waters of Chez Panisse? You know how the GOP feels about taking money from liberals, especially if they're francophiles.
Maybe Clear Channel simply disagrees with the ad and believes that democracy is best taught through warfare?
Maybe the use of bomb in any shape or form now warrants consideration as a terrorist?
Without further explanation, they took me to the onsite police station, where I waited for an "interview" with the Transportation Security Administration. By then I was being accused of writing "bomb" on a piece of paper and waving it around for people in the back of the plane to see. While two policemen guarded the door, the honcho behind the desk informed me that my choice of dialogue was unfortunate, that life was not a stage play and that the tiniest thing can ignite fear in American travelers these days. He wanted a summary of my novel's plot to get the context for why I'd written what I had.Let's send Clear Channel a metaphorical bomb. Find out whether Clear Channel owns any television or radio stations in your area. Make a point of boycotting them, and encourage your friends, family and neighbors to do the same.
In Long Island, New York, the Port Washington schools dropped Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies for its crude drawing of a hand-made bomb. The highly-acclaimed novel about three sisters active in the resistance movement against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo was taught in the 10th grade until a school board member questioned whether the illustration could “trigger violence.”
