Arts and Arms
With great Love, immense appreciation , and a deep yearning for a healthy and happy America - I applaud our Constitution and Bill of Rights. It is with visions for a better future that I stand up for and speak out about issues that we Americans have as common concerns. Here is one issue . . .
Arts funding is being canceled . . Arms spending beyond reason! What kind of balance can Americans possibly receive from our Congressional leadership when the House of Representatives votes to cancel spending for the Arts, and the Senate votes a super whopping $247 billion dollars for weapons and defense. Our precious American society is being sucked dry of opportunities for cultural richness, and simultaneously legislating and budgeting, as well as our American people (at almost all levels), by tacit roll-over-and-playdead allowing, are participating in the disintegration of our cultural values. At stake are some essential balance and basic vitality for our lives.
Newspapers are carrying the current Congressional dispute over funding for the Arts. The (less than) 100 million dollar National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) budget has been under attack. It may not survive at all; even a 90% reduction to 10 million dollars was not funded by the House of Representatives. One headline (LA Times, July 16, 1997) read: "House GOP Votes to Strip All Funding From the NEA."
In the very same paper, in fact, in the adjacent column, read another headline. "$247-Billion Defense Bill OK's in Senate." Here is that amount more clearly illustration: $247,000,000,000.00. In yet another recent news story about America's out-of-control arms spending, a comparison was made of America and other major powers' arms spending. It illustrated that America's defense spending was nearly equal to the combined spending of the six next highest international powers: Russia, Japan, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and China - all of them totaled together! America's proposed near one-quarter-trillion dollar defense spending is what we are overtly told about. What about the additional covert defense spending for CIA, etc.? And what about the out-of-control Super-Fund expenditures now needed for storing the massive nuclear wastes and cleaning up their resulting contaminated waste-sites? These are additional costly and direct results from producing weapons! America's penchant for such outlandish spending is likely puzzling to virtually every American. But to politicians and defense industry beneficiaries, that insanity will likely continue to be pork-barrel and fat-cat tendencies respectively.
What is screaming at us for attention is the disparity of the Arms and Arts imbalance. As Americans, do we really want to vote $247,000,000,000 for Arms and ZERO for the Arts? Do we Americans really want to take our children to a gun & rifle show instead of a museum? Do we Americans really want to send our kids to boot-camp instead of an arts learning program? Do we Americans really want to spend our evenings listening to artillery and sonic booms instead of symphonies and music concerts? do we Americans really want to watch soldiers in formation instead of ballets and theatrical performances? Do we Americans really want to encourage arms-spending at the expense of our life-quality and cultural health?
A notable contempoary American advocate said that we can tell a person's values by looking at their checkbook stubs, i.e., America is a society that votes with its dollars. As American citizens, do we really support American values to be demonstrated by writing more blank checks for Arms? Are our American values being properly exemplified by canceling the check to the Arts? Do we American voters really agree with Congress' vote our tax dollars: $247,000,000,000 to zero?
I know that's NOT my vote! I vote to have some balance and culture. (And I also suspect it is NOT the vote by most Americans.)
We may have heard similar concerns before and valid cautions about other issues. Too often we Americans have suffered adverse consequences for not speaking out to our political representatives, and for not taking specific individual actions. Our elected officials cannot hear us if we do not speak up and vote for ourselves. For our personal and collective good, we Americans need to speak and be heard. Otherwise, our balance and vitality as a antion and our lives as individuals, families and communities deteriorate - and as an American culture we all suffer significantly.
There is not need for further suffering. Please let all of your Federal and State level congressional representatives know that we want and deserve to have Arts supported as an American value. Vote by demanding their support for continued Arts and NEA funding . . tell them to vote with a Congressional authorized check to increase the NEA budget to 200 million. Your vote can be a simple letter, FAX, e-mail, and/or phone call to ALL of your representatives, and also President Clinton. Simply tell them.
"Yes, we want funding for the Arts . . . 200 million for the NEA! "
Repectfully, and with love for all . .Marvin Banasky -
If you wish to send an email to Congress, you can find your Representatives and Senators at the Congress.Org site Once you find your Congress member, you can directly send an email letter.