Debate Continues Over NEA Grants

I have been following the recent National Endowment of the Arts controversy with interest, and it seems to me that the artists battle is already lost. And Jesse Helms and his ilk have won.

No matter what congressional dictates may say, and regardless of whether eventual “loyalty” oaths are required or not, any future recipient of a NEA grant cannot help but be examined minutely for the strings extending from each limb. Who is jerking you around, puppet? What did you have to give up to qualify? How little, or how much, did you have to die to get your grant? And tell me, how does it feel?

I sympathize with those whose very existence depends on NEA grants. But government subsidy is an insidious and crippling virus that can only eventually destroy the organism. Better by far to sink into oblivion through popular neglect and disinterest than to achieve “fame” by safe and secure approval of the Senate.

Art whether it be music, painting, literature or any other medium, will never, never be subject to the dictates or opinions of government. One way or the other, the NEA is dead, killed by those who would see it “safe” from controversy.

MICHAEL MAXWELL

Fountain Valley