EDITORIAL : ART FOR ART'S SAKE; KAZAN'S AWARD IS LONG OVERDUE.

ART and politics don't mix.

Hollywood needs to learn that and realize it's a new day in America, that the Cold War ended years ago.

Director Elia Kazan's lifetime achievement - ``On the Waterfront,'' ``East of Eden,'' ``Gentleman's Agreement,'' ``A Tree Grows in Brooklyn'' to name a few - deserved an Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences a long time ago.

At the Oscars ceremony Sunday night, he will be honored for artistic achievement - not for his role in the shameful blacklisting of so many Communist-leaning writers, directors and actors 50 years ago.

Even to his detractors, Kazan has long been considered one of the greatest

stage and film directors for his work that contains so many Hollywood classics.

Even to those who believe he was wrong to name the names of eight Communists in Hollywood during the infamous McCarthy-era hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953, the time has come to forgive and to put that past in perspective.

Kazan - himself once a member of the Communist Party who became disenchanted because of Stalin's wretched excesses - joined many others in the film community, including former President Reagan, in denouncing what they saw as infiltration of the industry.

Anti-Red fear and the exploitation of fear was so great that it is not beyond the bounds of human compassion to understand how Kazan could have been intimidated into informing on friends from the Group Theater, the best known of whom were playwright Clifford Odets and actress Paula Strasberg.

It's important to remember that Kazan was not the man who initiated the hearings. He was merely a sorry player in a sorry political play.

But the McCarthy era has no relevance today and no connection to Kazan's work.

In protesting the decision to honor Kazan this weekend, Hollywood's elite PC crowd shows the world that after 71 years of Academy Awards shows, it cares less about art than political correctness.

What a funny joke in one of the most amoral businesses in the world.

And how sad that the men and women who often make films about forgiveness can't find it in their hearts to forgive and forget, to change and grow and move on with their lives and their work.

The pain and suffering of those who were blacklisted cannot be minimized. The injustice they endured should not be forgotten.

But by staging protests and threatening to disrupt Sunday's show before a global audience, the Committee Against Silence is adopting the same tactics that Sen. Joseph McCarthy employed decades ago in his march for fame and recognition.

The protesters are denouncing a man who did speak out, right or wrong. They would destroy someone solely because they do not agree with his views.

Rather than celebrating their art, they would rather open old wounds and dredge up past hurts.

Whether in Bosnia or Hollywood, no good can come from never forgetting the crimes of the past.

The academy took the high ground, and in doing so, sent a message to the world that there is a time for forgiveness, a time for peace between old enemies.

In honoring Kazan, the best of Hollywood forgave Kazan and celebrated the contributions he made to the world of film.

Blacklisting people for their political beliefs was wrong back in 1953 and it's wrong today.