Helms’ Letters

Allan Parachini’s article “Helms Letters Add Fuel to the Arts Controversy,” Jan. 29, deserves a response. As a writer and an artist, I believe that everyone has a right to create and sell anything that he or she is able to.

But once an artist accepts money before he creates, he is being “sponsored.” He may be able to persuade one indulgent patron to allow him total freedom of expression. But an entire country--whose citizens are paying him with their own money--will never be as indulgent. No one has a right to take taxpayers’ money and expect to be able to offend religious, social, political and sexual mores.

Therefore, the question is not: Should Sen. Jesse Helms be allowed information about art groups receiving grants from the National Endowment for the Arts? Of course he should. He enjoys the same Freedom of Information Act that Parachini does. The question, instead, is: Should a democracy of divergent and respected views be in the business of funding art at all?

MARILYN DUFF, Fullerton