Off-and-On Funding for Disputed Art Show

The idea that a governmental agency should be attacked for following the law warrants a few comments.

Federal aid limits for obscene or patently offensive works are a long overdue remedy for political and spiritual decay masquerading under the term art .

Those who cry censorship are simply ignorant of what censorship is. The federal government, in denying money to these artists, is not saying they can’t paint or photograph whatever they want, obscene or not. The artists still have every right to freely express themselves. They just can’t do it with the federal government’s money, which is, by extension, yours and mine.

To be obvious, in a democracy the majority rules. The majority has taken the initiative to tell their elected officials that they don’t like the idea of paying someone to mock their values.

It’s paradoxical that artists who attack the majority’s beliefs would then cry when the nation takes away their blank checks.

Anne Murphy, executive director of the American Arts Alliance, asks, aghast, if this means a political satire play would not be supported by the government because it attacked the government. Well, yes, and for the same reason that I would not ask her to personally fund a play called “The American Arts Alliance Is a Pack of Ninnies.”

PETER LEFEVRE

Redondo Beach