Lenin Quote on the NYC Subway

Here are the facts.

This morning at around 9:30 AM I caught the Uptown A train (#5302) at 14th Street, on my way to Columbus Circle. This 10 minute trip took about 30 minutes, what with being stuck in the tunnel for quite some time and having to wait for the crack MTA team to fix some switch and all that.

Like the alert citizen that I am, I started looking around the subway car for the evacuation instructions. I figured a quick refresher wouldn't hurt, just in case. And that's when I saw this ad:

Terrorist Quote on the Subway

The text of the ad reads:

If I keep listening to Beethoven's Appassionata,
I won't be able to finish the revolution.

Vladimir I. Lenin

At the bottom of the ad, from left to right, we have:

www.rivernyc.org.....COULD CHURCH bring peace?.....river.....Christ (something I wrote down but can't read) to be me.....greenwhich village.....wall street

(you can see the ad here, at the top of the page)

The ad is for a NYC church, The River.

Here are my problems with this ad.

A) I don't think religious ads on public transport are appropriate.

First, there's that separation of Church and State thing that we must strive to safeguard. [The MTA is partly funded by the federal government.]

Second, and more importantly, it's cruel and unusual punishment (not to mention counterproductive) to taunt post-9/11 bus and subway riders in NYC with religious slogans, vivid reminders that religious zealots want to blow us all to bits.

B) I know quotes from murderous terrorists [are there any other kind?] don't belong on subways.

This one's self-explanatory: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Here's what I did.

I called The River church and spoke with the senior pastor, a Mr. Charles Park. He took full responsibility for the ad (they did work with an ad agency, but he said the church ultimately had final approval).

According to Mr. Park the intent of the ad was to "raise awareness" (?!), to ask if spirituality (listening to Beethoven) could bring about peace by stopping people (Lenin) from, you know, murdering tens of millions.

It's a shame I don't approve of profanity because I so should like to use a certain expression (rhymes with What The Duck) just about now to describe my reaction to Mr. Park's explanation. Is Mr. Park dense or what?

I quickly provided Mr. Park with the answer to his most challenging and unknowable devoid of any sense of reality question: No, listening to classical music does not bring about peace and it does nothing to stop the massacre of tens of millions of people, not to mention the nonimpact it had on establishing communism, one of the most malignant, despicable and destructive political systems ever to be invented. [No way to tell what I really think of communism, no?]

Mr. Park assured me that his church's intention was not to be offensive and I suggested to him that using quotes from mass murderers is not the way to go about it at all.

I also called the MTA customer service line (718-330-3322) and asked to talk to the person in charge of approving ads on the subway. I was transfered to CBS Outdoor (212-297-6400), a division of the CBS Corporation, a "media agency responsible for placing ads on the subway" according to the woman who answered the phone.

I explained to her that I saw an offensive ad on the subway and wanted to talk to the person responsible for approving it. She told me the only way to go about it was to send a letter to the legal department. She also said, and I quote, "I cannot give my name at this time." What can I say, CBS Outdoor and, by extension, the CBS Corporation--International Outfits of Mystery(TM).

Here's the address, should you feel inclined to write to them:

CBS Outdoor, 405 Lexington Ave., NYC, NY 10174, Attention: Legal Department.

My bottom line:

Shame on The River church for choosing to disseminate its message by stepping on the memory of tens of millions of corpses.

And shame on the MTA for allowing this ad on its subways. I guess there's just nothing like drawing ad revenue from the wisdom of a terrorist and from making light of the deaths of tens of millions of people.

What's next for The River church and the MTA, ads featuring Osama bin Laden's musings on the impressionist masters and Kim Jong-il's bromides on the shape of fluffy clouds?

God, Still Riding The Bus

Spotted today on the 104 (#6682):

God On A Bus

"This is how God showed his love among us:
He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through it."

1 John 4.9

For a Bible or to share in this ministry:
Women's Bible Society of New York 212.603.3052
wbsny@earthlink.net

Although it's not the first time I spot a God ad on a bus (interestingly, last time I saw one was on the same bus line), I was perturbed, nonetheless.

Guess I haven't warmed up to the MTA's Mock-A-Bus-Rider campaign yet.

My only thought, after reading the God ad, was "I really hope the next delusional who thinks he/she has a direct line to God doesn't decide to share the love, strap on a suicide vest, and blow us all to bits."

Cow Spotting and God on a Bus

I spot a cow and become perturbed by a religious ad.

Look what I saw in the lobby of a building on 7th Ave--one of my beloved park cows:





Not to single out the security in this particular [office] building (believe me, this is the norm), but I'm walking by, I see the cow in the lobby and do a double take, walk in, and start taking pictures, with nary a peep from the people at the security desk. Oh yeah, the terrorists don't stand a chance.

And speaking of terrorists, I was on the 104 bus (bus #6660 to be exact) and I noticed a God (?)ad; a quote form the Bible, I think (sorry for the poor quality):



Now, here's the thing. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is in charge of running the buses here. The MTA is pretty much a government agency (or, as close a government agency as a corporation can be without being the IRS). It's a public-benefit corporation chartered by the New York State Legislature in 1965...governed by a 17-member Board. Members are nominated by the Governor, with four recommended by New York City's mayor and one each by the county executives of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Rockland, and Putnam counties....All board members are confirmed by the New York State Senate. Moreover, the MTA is funded by federal, state, and local government and by the issuance of bonds.

So, the federal, state, and local governments think it's appropriate to put religious propaganda on buses. You know, the very same buses that have been--and will quite likely be--targets of fanatical religious terrorists. I find this very disturbing.

I'm indifferent to the "In God We Trust" on the currency. I don't even care if the federal and local governments, in their zeal to do away with the separation of church and state, decide to plaster religious ads on park benches. But I draw the line at the government's cruel taunting of bus riders with religious ads.

We know that there are people who believe in sky fairies. We got that! We also know that some of these people want to blow us to bits. We also got that!

Instead of religious slogans, the government/MTA should use the space to educate riders on how to spot terrorists, or how to act in case of a terrorist emergency.