In comments he described as “tongue in cheek,” Rep. Jon McKane (R-Newcastle) weighed in on the controversy surrounding the recently removed 36-ft. wide mural from the state’s Dept. of Labor building in Augusta.
Writing in a chat thread on the website As Maine Goes, McKane responded to a statement by poster Earl Nickerson who wrote, “I say we raise the $36 grand to pay off the feds and burn it.”
McKane, posting under the moniker J.McKane, responded by writing “you read my mind.”
In an April 5 interview with The Lincoln County News, McKane said he was simply expressing frustration over the issue.
“Obviously I’m not in favor of burning the mural,” said McKane. “I do believe that it shouldn’t be there, however.”
McKane said he was opposed to the removal of Frances Perkins’ name from a committee room in the labor department.
Perkins, the U.S. Dept. of Labor Secretary under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was a Newcastle native and the first woman to hold a presidential cabinet post.
McKane said he did not agree with Gov. Paul LePage’s decision to remove her name but does take issue with the images depicted in the mural.
“The image depicts organized labor,” said McKane. “It does not represent all labor.”
The mural was created by artist Judy Taylor who won a 2007 competition sponsored by the Maine Arts Commission for artwork to be placed in the department’s lobby.
The mural depicts scenes of Maine workers in various eras throughout the last century and was paid for with a $60,000 federal grant; money that the U.S. Dept. of Labor is asking be repaid.
The department said on April 4 that LePage violated the terms of the federal grant when he removed the mural in March and that Maine must repay 63 percent of the cost.
The controversy surrounding the issue has received national attention and has been called a “distraction” by members of LePage’s party.
An April 4 protest at the State House Hall of Flags drew 300 demonstrators who oppose the removal of the artwork.
McKane said the gathering was one of the most “mean spirited” and “disrespectful” things he’d ever seen.
