Art Funding Controversy

Your editorial missed the point. Supporters of the exhibits causing the congressional actions and your editorial use an argument based on “free speech.” A lady representing the museum used the same thesis in a recent debate on KCET on this subject. The congressman in that debate properly defended Congress with the statement that Congress controls the expenditures for the program and has the right to make the rules. The right of members of Congress to grant the funds also gives them the right to make and enforce the rules to be followed by the recipient(s) of those funds.

Artists who are entitled to freedom of expression and who don’t want to be told that government funds do not support their particular expressions and works of a certain nature are not being denied the freedom of expression--they are only being denied government funds for work that is not approved by the government. They still have the right of free expression to sell their work to some other buyer with private funds. In other words, go sell your work elsewhere.

Don’t confuse the issues--this is not an issue of the rights of artists to produce their conceptions of their feelings--this is a case of wanting the government to give them money with no strings attached. GEORGE DARLING

Claremont