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Johnson City, TN, May 4, 2005
What
intelligence analysts are calling a "suspicious object" now appears to
be in the final stages of construction in a remote parking lot near East Tennessee State
University in Johnson City, Tennessee. Because weapons inspectors
failed to turn up any "weapons of mass destruction" despite an
intensive search effort in Iraq, a dedicated group of student
artists, in collaboration with their instructor,
Mel Chin,
decided to construct their own
WMD project.
They are quick to assure concerned onlookers that the object is not
a weapon of destruction, but rather a Warehouse of Mass
Distribution, designed to provide free food, clothing and literacy
products to people in need.
Although this WMD follows the specifications of the 71-foot long,
7.75-foot diameter
LMG-118A Peacekeeper MX Missile, the artist/student WMD project
has a dramatically different payload. While the original Peacekeeper
is constructed of space-age materials and is filled with caustic,
volatile, solid rocket fuel propellant, this WMD has design features
like window flower boxes, three-light gull wing doors and
maintenance-free vinyl siding more in keeping with an economical,
single-wide mobile home.
The Peacekeeper MX comes loaded with
ten 300-megaton Multiple Independently Targetable Re-Entry Vehicle
warheads -- a missile with menace. The Warehouse of Mass
Distribution is a missile with a
mission -- to deliver much-needed food and clothing items, books and
toys.
Superficial similarities to the original Peacekeeper MX Missile also
diverge in the capital budget. The "fly-away" cost of the
Peacekeeper MX was approximately $70 million each, while this WMD
started with $50 from the ETSU homecoming steering committee with
additional funds from the Basler Chair Foundation, plus volunteer
labor and private donations.
Unnamed sources have determined that the students will be taking the
WMD to the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art’s annual Art Car
Parade to be held in downtown Houston. on Saturday, May 14, 2005.
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