Cuckoos Against Kokopelli

[Community Activism] A story in the Trib illustrates that's it's possible to make a difference in this world, even if you're a misguided idiot. Scandalized and titillated by a statue of an American Indian fertility god at Edge of the Cedars State Park, some puritanical scolds formed a pressure group and had it removed. Blanding is not just a place, it's a process.

(Originally, the group called itself "Citizens Opposed to Carvings of Kokopelli." Then, after they printed out T-shirts printed with the group's acronym, they became opposed to themselves, organized a leaflet campaign, and wouldn't stop protesting each other until they had forced themselves to change their name to the "Values Committee.")

Park management refused to clear a patch of locoweed, however, evidently reasoning that a group that was so obviously insane to begin with has no standing.

Popular images of Kokopelli, of the type found in corporate logos and on wind chimes and serenity desk fountains in gift shops all over southern Utah, typically omit the vital appendage, rendering the "fertility god" infertile--which, if you think about it, is much more offensive and perverse than otherwise. The effect this has had on the the popular imagination is obvious.

(Brandon Burt)