Art

Should we still fund the NEA?

l3wis April 10, 2017 1Comments

Of course we should.

Whichever side of the federal funding for the arts and humanities debate you stand on, in light of the proposal to not only eliminate future funding but also renege on already promised funding for 2017, please inform yourself of what is at stake locally. It’s substantial.

I had a revelation the other day when our beloved president decided to shoot 59 cruise missles into Syria. Did you know a cruise missle is valued at $1 million a piece. We don’t have the money to fund the NEA but we have $59 million to harass a country? This is why it often irks me when people cry about funding the arts, public broadcasting, Planned Parenthood or SNAP. You want to know what the biggest waste of your tax dollars are? The Pentagon. We could easily cut military spending in half, and still be the strongest military force on the planet while providing even better care to our veterans.

You might think I’m against arts funding with all my criticism of the Pavilion and SculptureWalk, not at all, I just think if these projects are going to receive funding, they should be using it prudently, I get that argument from the Right. I have benefitted from arts funding tremendously since I have lived in Sioux Falls (mostly to display my work, but not much monetary). But if it weren’t for local (city), state, and private funding also, the NEA couldn’t work.

Personally, I think the president is just blowing a bunch of smoke to piss off the liberals when it comes to cutting the NEA and Public Broadcasting, but I guess we will have to wait an see, afterall, we elected this monkey not based on a popular vote so anything is possible these days.