Arts Funding

Here’s one additional recommendation that Christopher Knight could add to his useful list of ways to restore the independence of the National Endowment for the Arts (“Depoliticizing the NEA: Time to Call a Truce in the Culture War,” Opinion, Feb. 21):

We should rededicate America to the importance of freedom of expression and to the removal of any content restrictions imposed on the NEA by Sen. Jesse Helms and other right-wing ideologues.

In two separate federal court decisions, attempts to prohibit funding of controversial or “offensive” art have been struck down as unconstitutional. NEA grants should be left to peer review panels, not politicians.

STEPHEN F. ROHDE

Los Angeles