Controversy Over Federal Funds for Artists

I’m hearing a curious argument these days for cutting the National Endowment for the Arts. Loud voices are heard claiming that, because certain artworks offend their moral standards, they shouldn’t be forced to pay for these works with their tax dollars.

What a wonderful concept!

For years, my tax dollars have gone to myriads of government projects that I have found more offensive and obscene than any art I’ve ever seen. Slaughtered children and clergy in El Salvador, irreplaceable forests clear-cut at a net financial loss to the taxpayer, secret military budgets, spraying pesticides over major cities while ignoring published reports of adverse reactions.

Obscene things are done with my tax dollars all the time. And I never heard anybody say I might be able to stop them because they offended my moral standards.

It’s not a bad idea. Maybe we could finally cut the obscene federal budget deficit by giving every taxpayer a line-item veto over items in the budget. That way, Sen. Jesse Helm’s (R-N.C.) tax dollars won’t have to go to fund art I find profound and sacred. And mine won’t have to go to build fighter-bombers.

I’ll bet we’d see that deficit come down in a big hurry.

DUANE LAW

Los Angeles