in a post-9/11 world

what does this look like to you? a lite-brite, right? or something that might be hung on a refrigerator in a house where an eight-year-old child lives? perhaps you recognize it as what it is--a depiction of a relatively (though, apparently, not universally) well-known cartoon character who will be making an appearance in a feature film that's coming out in march. but you have failed the "war on terror" rorschach, because anyone who appreciated the constant peril america is facing in these dangerous and troubling times would instantly recognize this object as a bomb and make numerous hysterical calls to authorities, who would react in an accordingly hysterical manner and deploy multiple bomb squads, halting traffic for hours and sending an entire city into a shrieking, swooning fit. or, alternatively, such a person would make a calm and informative call to authorities, expressing muted curiosity over the nature of the object, and authorities would react in an accordingly hysterical manner and deploy multiple bomb squads, halting traffic for hours and sending an entire city into a shrieking, swooning fit. at least, that's how we roll here in beantown.

i appreciate the need for swift measures to ensure public safety, and of course it's better to be safe than sorry when dealing with a mysterious, blinking box. but the way boston officials dealt with this situation created mass panic where there had been none and where there had been no need for any, and the fact that these innocuous circuit boards have been up and functioning all over the city for about three weeks isn't likely to quell anyone's fear about the ease with which a person could install a less harmless electronic device. the ad campaign has been running for weeks in nine other cities, and police in those places managed to cope with the situation with a minimum of shouting and foaming and public uproar. governor deval patrick, whom i was so proud of only a few short months ago, wants to prosecute the two men who, after being hired by a third-party ad agency, hung the boards, as well as turner broadcasting, the parent company of the cartoon network, for the full cost of the response effort, and i think that's ridiculous. if my son's friend leaves a plastic snake on my kitchen floor and i see it and lose my mind and throw my microwave at it, i don't get to sue that boy's parents for the cost of the appliance and the amount i'll have to pay someone to come in and fix the dent in the linoleum; that boy isn't responsible for my extreme overreaction. a non-crazy person would take a moment or two to assess the situation before calling in a swat team--even if that non-crazy person had once been bitten by a snake. what happened in this city yesterday was nonsensical and embarrassing, and turner broadcasting isn't to blame for it.

mayor menino, whom i've also stuck up for adamantly countless times in the past, says, "it is outrageous, in a post-9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme." but what's really outrageous is that, knowing the emotional and psychological state of most americans, we still can't take the time, or simply don't have the means, to distinguish between a marketing scheme and a citywide act of terrorism before we initiate the kind of large-scale response that leaves a still-shaken populace soiling its misinformed drawers. there are plenty of people who deserve some disappointed glares, but i don't think any of them work for adult swim.

the two men currently being held on bond in the incident, peter berdovsky and sean stevens, are local multimedia artists who specialize in lighting effects and vj events. you can see photos of events they've worked on here, and you can tell mayor menino to take a deep breath and admit to some culpability in the madness here.