About a year ago, I set up our cable to automatically record CBS’s Sunday morning show, called, appropriately enough, CBS Sunday Morning. I did it for one main reason: to watch the beautiful nature scene, complete with sounds, that goes for about 30 or 40 seconds at the end of each episode. The sights and sounds are often breathtaking.
But over the last few months, I’ve found myself pausing to watch some of the other segments of the 90-minute show. I skip the news, most of the political content, and most of the art, especially if the art is about paintings, which is a little ironic given what follows. What I have often found compelling, though, is the human interest stories. On a recent episode, for example, there was a segment on integrating autistic people into the work force. I loved it.
My favorite recent human-interest segment was the one about the family with the autistic adult son who seemed to love “The Starry Night” by Van Gogh. They had their whole wall outside the house painted in that theme. But, this being modern America with all the intolerance people have for other people’s tastes, intolerance that they’re willing to express with stiff fines, a city official insisted that they pay a fine of $250 a day or have the wall painted to resemble the house. So they did. Take a look at the video to see the result. The busybodies in government backed down. While watching, I wondered if the public-interest law firm Institute for Justice, one of my favorite charities, had been involved. I’m guessing not, but this is IJ’s kind of cause.
I find that for a 90-minute show, I can get through the parts I liked for 30 to 40 minutes. I recommend doing what I do: record it and then fast forward through the chaff while watching the wheat.
UPDATE: I just learned from an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation that PLF took (and obviously won) the case. Here’s visually the whole of PLF’s press release on the case:
Mount Dora, Florida; July 18, 2018: At a news conference today, Mayor Nick Girone will issue a public apology to Nancy Nemhauser and Lubomir Jastrzebski, owners of the popular “Starry Night” house in the artsy community of Mount Dora.
When Nancy and Lubomir painted their house in the likeness of Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night,” they didn’t expect to become a national story. But after city officials trampled the couple’s First Amendment rights by ordering them to remove the mural and threatening significant fines, that’s exactly where they found themselves.
Nancy and Lubomir sued, represented free of charge by Pacific Legal Foundation. Last night, they declared victory as the Mount Dora City Council voted unanimously to settle the lawsuit, allowing them to keep their mural.
“This is a huge win for Nancy and Lubomir,” Jeremy Talcott, attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, said. “The agreement is a total victory for their liberties and those of everyone in Mount Dora. The family will get to complete the mural, and the city will revise its unconstitutional sign code.”
Here are more details from PLF.
READER COMMENTS
Steve S
Sep 10 2018 at 10:12am
I’m having trouble seeing this as a first amendment issue…but I will defer to actual lawyers and take their word for it. I’m guessing there are no community covenants or anything in this city and they tried to apply whatever law they could find to try and justify their actions
Personally this makes me slightly glad I live in an area with an HOA. Would not want to look out my window and see that every day. But good for them.
David Henderson
Sep 10 2018 at 12:57pm
Steve,
I see it as both a freedom of expression issue and, at least as important, a property rights issue. That’s why I think defenses of burning the U.S. flag should depend on who owns the flag. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court, for about 80 years, has not put huge weight on property rights.
Matthias Goergens
Sep 10 2018 at 12:13pm
Truly the land of the free..
Comments are closed.