Long Beach : Council Passes Resolution Backing Arts Endowment
The Long Beach City Council this week backed the National Endowment for the Arts and, in a resolution, urged Congress to resume the group’s funding without any restrictions.
The federally funded group has come under attack by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Lomita) and other critics who complain that the government is subsidizing pornographic works. Supporters of the arts have argued that Rohrabacher is in essence calling for censorship.
On Tuesday, the council unanimously agreed that “the restrictive language approved by Congress in 1989 would have the effect of promoting censorship and inhibiting creativity at the expense of quality within the arts community, and gives Congress the power to micro-manage the endowment and define obscenity rather than the courts . . . “
Councilman Tom Clark, who asked for the resolution, said that “Long Beach is supportive of the arts. I don’t think that Long Beach is that conservative, although it has an aura of being conservative.”
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