Krauthammer on Censorship and Cincinnati Art Exhibit

Your editorial “Dabbling in Artistic Censorship” (April 26) would give the impression that all who oppose the National Endowment for the Arts are either cretinous Christian fundamentalists, self-aggrandizing cynics or troglodytes--or perhaps all three.

What about the average citizen who feels it’s wrong to use hard-earned tax money for “public” art, even if that art is pictures of flowers and fully clothed children? Somehow, many public officials and newspaper editors seem to feel it is their obligation to enhance the artistic appreciation of the “churlish masses” through art projects purchased with money that could better be spent on health care, education or aid to the homeless.

The NEA is not the only offender, of course. Our own fair city has built such monuments to triviality as the musical Triforium and the administration is now touting the merits of a proposed monolithic junk pile to be placed over the Harbor Freeway as Los Angeles’ answer to the Statue of Liberty.

Enough! Let’s use public money for solving our serious problems.

KRIS VOSBURGH

Santa Monica