Sacrifice and decay

Who is Jerry Rubin, and why is he chained to a fence?
Why is he fasting for 10 weeks?
And what does all of this have to do with public sculpture?
I'm here to enlighten you, my friends, with a story straight out of our flower-powered past.
Seems that there's  an anti-nuke sculpture, designed by a political cartoonist in the early 90's standing near the Civic Center in Santa Monica.

(picture from the Santa Monica Patch)

Shaped like a mushroom cloud, it's made of chain links and is called, appropriately enough, "Chain Reaction" to protest the arms race when it was built. As a matter of fact, its inscription reads- "This is a statement of peace. May it never become an epitaph". A worthy hope indeed.
But time and wear have endangered the hope. According to the Lookout News, "The 22-year-old sculpture was deemed unsafe after structural engineers retained by the City found that many of the fasteners that attach the copper tubing chain to the fiberglass core were either missing, not fully embedded or exhibited severe corrosion. City Staff estimates that preserving the statue could cost anywhere from $227,372 to $423,172, and that there is no guarantee how long the repairs would last."
Enter Jerry Rubin (no- not that Jerry Rubin!), a peace activist, who feels that the council's refusal to fund repairs and threats to decommission the piece are a political tragedy. In order to rally the troops (and the cash needed) to fight the decisions, he has chained himself to the surrounding fence and will live on liquids only for 10 weeks.
I am thrilled that anyone cares that much about public art these days. The world, in fact, not all as bloodless as it seems any more.
Read all about it at:
http://santamonica.patch.com/articles/peace-activist-will-fast-to-save-anti-nuke-sculpture#photo-9023144