Tax argument fails when it comes to `Our Lady'

Editor,

Jeremy Reynald's column about the bikini clad Virgin Mary is interesting but typically wrong.

I won't comment on the merits of the artwork since I am neither a Catholic nor a Christian. Personally I have no problem with it, but I can understand how others may feel differently.

What I find wrong is the argument that it shouldn't be displayed in a tax-funded museum. I am sorry, but we all pay taxes, and most of us have differences of opinion on how our tax money is spent, but there isn't too much we can do about it.

For instance, I don't believe my tax dollars should be funding a first-class health insurance plan for members of Congress when we have so many people without any health insurance.

I don't believe my tax dollars should subsidize the tobacco industry when they make a product that, when used as directed, will kill you.

I don't believe my tax dollars should be spent to execute Timothy McVeigh when a better solution would be to let the son of a bitch rot in a cell for 60 years so he can reflect on his crime.

I don't believe my tax dollars should fund a $200,000 dollar-a-year raise for that bonehead in the Oval Office.

I don't believe my tax dollars should be funding the development of multi-lingual driving tests (in Spanish, German and Russian) when all of our street signs are in English, and I don't believe my tax dollars should be spent building a baseball stadium in Albuquerque when the city is in financial dire straits.

On the other hand, I do believe our tax dollars would be put to better use if we guaranteed every child three meals a day and the homeless would not be living on the streets. If they used the money to insure that every American had the same health benefits that our so-called representatives do, that would be a good thing.

When we pay our taxes, we have no control over where they are spent. That may be unfortunate, but that is the way it is. We vote for the folks that represent us and we get what we vote for - unless you live in Florida, where you thought you voted for Al Gore but actually voted for Pat Buchanan and ended up with a moron who probably couldn't find Texas on a map.

As for the artwork, I never would have seen it if they hadn't complained about it and probably only a couple of hundred people would have ever seen it. Now everyone in the world has or will see it in the weeks to come. Sometimes our actions lead to unintended consequences.

Richard Fagerlund, B.C.E.

Environmental Services