"And I thought, 'Here we go.' "

I'll admit it, I have a weakness for this sort of story.

It appears that there is a controversy brewing about a painting hanging in the municipal offices of Provincetown, MA. It is a depiction (painted by the noted American impressionist Max Bohm, shown at right) dramatizing the signing of the Mayflower Compact. While I've been unable to locate a photo of the painting, reports say it shows the men of the pilgrim group holding ballots. No women are shown, and a Native American in the painting isn't holding a piece of paper.

Well duh. But you can smell what's coming, can't you?

"There's this lovely oil painting," [Cheryl Peake, chairwoman of the town's Board of Selectment] said yesterday. ''The thing is huge. It's been up there since forever. It was painted by Max Bohm, who's considered quite something in local art circles.

"And [Selectwoman] Sarah Peake turns around and faces it, and it's government. They're voting. She says, 'I'd like to talk about this painting. I find this painting disturbing.' That's a quote. She said it's disturbing to her because there are no women in the painting and the only one not holding a ballot is the Native American Indian. And I thought, 'Here we go.' "

What's more disturbing is that three of the town's four selectmen voted to remove the painting. Peake has since claimed that her motion was designed to give some of the town's other artworks a chance to hang in the prominent space, but I suspect this is simply her bending with the wind.

Can you imagine what would happen if we started censoring our own history? What a terrific idea: we can get rid of all the blemishes in American history--slavery, the Trail of Tears, Manzanar, you name it--because they're "disturbing." Maybe this political correctness thing ain't so bad after all. Sweep it under the rug and nobody will notice. Seems like just the sort of thing PC advocates have in mind.

Tags: Political Correctness, Idiocy, Massachusetts, Provincetown