I thought it would be safe to read the feature article about Christo and Jeanne-Claude's The Gates Project for Central Park, even though the NYTimes account was written by the nasty Michael Kimmelman.

I was wrong. Half of the way through the piece in tuesday's edition he managed to find a way to return to the scene of his crime, when he pulled out all of the stops of his office to try to destroy the person, the idea and the art of Clinton Boisvert, the young artist who was recently arrested and jailed overnight, and who now faces up to a year in prison for his art.

"But public art does not consist only of artists leaving black boxes with "Fear" on them in subway stations. There's a fruitful territory between yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater and erecting a statue of a forgotten hero holding a sword."

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.