Pic was on Michelle Malkins Blog
Posted on 02/09/2005 10:44:05 PM PST by hipaatwo
By MARK REYNOLDS The Providence Journal February 08, 2005
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Jeffrey Eden devised his award-winning project less than 30 minutes after his high-school art teacher asked him to express a thought or two in a three-dimensional way.
So, in the wake of last year's polarizing election and the war in Iraq, the 17-year-old built an abstract scene comparing President Bush's war policies with Adolf Hitler's pillage of Europe.
The student's diorama-like assemblage juxtaposes Hitler quotes with Bush statements, Nazi swastikas with American flags, desert-colored toy soldiers with olive plastic figures. And so on.
Eden said he's trying to point out certain similarities between the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the German blitzkrieg - without actually equating Hitler to Bush.
In this, the success of his project is debatable.
Nonetheless, it has earned the Charlestown student a silver key at the Rhode Island Scholastic Art Awards. It has also tested the contest's commitment to an overriding principle: that students should be encouraged to express their own thoughts through art.
The piece, titled "Bush/Hitler and How History Repeats Itself," triggered a complaint soon after it was displayed at a store with other award-winning entries last week.
"It's offensive to me," said Paul Lewis, a 34-year-old North Providence man.
Lewis asked that Eden's piece be removed and phoned newspapers as well as TV stations. He said he sees zero relationship between the policies of Bush and Hitler.
"It's a stretch," he said.
Lewis said the piece poorly conveys what Eden told The Providence Journal he was trying to convey because it leaves too much to interpretation. Someone might think the artist believes the president is as evil as Hitler, he said.
"I believe he should have been a lot more clear in putting those two things together," Lewis said.
The store refused to remove the exhibit, but the store did attach a disclaimer. The views of the artist do not represent the store, it said.
"We don't censor art," said store owner Hershel Alpert. "We're not in the business of censoring art."
Eden hopes to study art after he graduates from Chariho Regional High School next year. Eden said that although he supports U.S. soldiers, he believes the invasion of Iraq was unjustified.
The recent election in Iraq has not changed his views.
"At the time we invaded we did not have the justification nor the intelligence to take him (Saddam Hussein) out the way we did," he said.
Eden thinks the work is comparing Hitler and Bush - not equating them.
"I felt I was clear about what I was trying to get across," he said. "I believe those who misconstrued the artwork didn't take the time to really read into it."
His teacher, Lynn Norton, believed he got his point across. She gave him an A.
Pic was on Michelle Malkins Blog
Ward Churchill would be proud!
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Bush has nothing in common with the anti-christian (called it a 'gutter religion') leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party
Hasn't Hitler been over-represented in these feeble historical analogies? I'm sure Jenjis [sic] Khan, Napoleon, and Alexander the Great could use some attention. Come on, Leftists, there are other adventurer-conquerors out there!
Ping!
trying to point out certain similarities between the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the German blitzkrieg .. ???
So, for his next project, will he equate the Nazi extermination camps to Gitmo?
Incredible how impressionable little minds are and how ignorant teachers feed them.
Exactly. I'm sure Saddam, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-il, Stalin and Arafat could use some attention too...wait, nevermind...they are all leftists. They can't possibly be evil.
Of course, he supports them by spitting on them and calling them babykillers and mindless savages. Just like the hippies in the '60s supported our guys in Nam.
that is ridiculous
my kerry-shrek diorama got me a c-
What the hell kind of History are the teachers at that school teaching???
Some whacked out nut killing several million people should NEVER into our considerations as to wheather something should be done about the touchy feely turdbucket,,,right?
Kudos, absolute kudos.
BRAVO!!
Gee, I wonder where the lil' punk got the idea to equate President Bush and Hitler?,,,, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Another kid getting brainwashed by liberal teachers. Where do you think this kid learned this stuff?
The kid doesn't know that Bush is different than Hitler, and that's worth an "A". I'm glad to see that positive reinforcement hasn't been abandoned at our nation's high schools. < /sarcasm >
Perhaps the teacher or group of them, that gave this kid an "A" could explain for us the similarities between freeing people who were being butchered by Hussein, and Hitler conquering a free people in a stable prospering economy.
Husseing responsible for the death of millions, Hitler responsible for the death of millions, Hitler's focus on Jews... aw hell why go on?
This is despicable. If the teacher or teachers don't know this, fire them for incompetance.
Teenagers are stupid, but not even the biggest bonehead in the world would pull a stunt like this on their own, unless they were interviewing for an internship with Ward Churchill.
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