[Stones] Longman of Wilmington Abuse

[Andy Norfolk]

David Swindlehurst wrote:
>  I'm a bit surprised by AN's lack of conviction. If a site is worth
>  preserving it's worth preserving - no ifs, buts, maybes. It should be
>  treated with respect. In a similar vein, this clown from South Wales
>  does 120mph on a 60mph limited public road, driving a powerful car
>  which he can't handle, puts an innocent victim into a wheelchair for
>  life, and the school governors say he was an excellent headmaster and
>  his job is safe when he comes out of prison! What message is that
>  giving to the children at that school - that if you can do sums, it's
>  ok to break the law and hurt other people? Can I go to WLM and
>  commit potentially-damaging  acts just for laughs and feel clever?
>  Perhaps I should go to Stonehenge with a lump hammer and knock chunks
>  off, as happened in the 1800's. Not convinced it would do any harm.
If we can take a step back a moment...

 From what I know of what happened and was planned to happen a bunch of 
women were going to walk over the monument and lie down on it in lines 
to indicate the outline of breast and pigtails etc. The photo I've seen 
of the rehearsal showed that apparently relatively few people would be 
involved. The proposed very temporary change in appearance does not seem 
to have involved any direct physical intervention or damage to the site 
itself and it was approved by the archaeological trust that owns and 
manages the site. Many people do walk over and around this monument each 
year apparently without causing harm.

So just why have people got upset about this? I think it's because a 
pair of bumptious tv personalities have been involved and it's become 
perceived as being somehow disrespectful to the site. I reckon it's the 
apparent disrespect that's really got people annoyed rather than any 
actual or potential damage to the site. This is why I asked whether 
people would have got upset if it had been done by radical feminists 
wanting to reclaim the Long Man as the Long Goddess (though I didn't put 
it quite like that).

Since Dave mentioned Stonehenge - what about the real damage being 
caused by the people who go there for summer solstice each year?

I am utterly opposed to any unnecessary damage to ancient sites, but I 
really don't see why there's been so much fuss about this stunt.

Andy N



---
avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 000754-4, 06/07/2007
Tested on: 11/07/2007 09:59:47
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software.
http://www.avast.com