Newsgroups: alt.censorship
Subject: Nea = education *3*
Date: 11 Aug 92  00:13:00 EST

NEA is Education, Education is NEA.  Now repeat this with me class! [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

    Mr. Perez on Self-esteem:

>An artist who supports himself has already earned his chance to try to
>create art. Whether he succeeds or fails, he has learned something, and
>has already paid for his chance. An artist who accepts a grant, even a
>private one, did not earn the grant and must succeed in satisfying that
>grant's reason for being to earn it. This is rather easy to do with a
>private grant. A private party (individual, foundation or whoever)
>either earns its own money or gets it from those who sanction its
>purpose. The receiving artist can then see that he has the approval of
>those who earned the grant money, which is how he earns it himself.
>With the NEA, though, this cannot be. The people who determine the
>purposes of NEA grants did not earn the grant money. That money is
>taxed from private citizens whose control over the NEA is so diluted
>that they cannot be said to have much control over where the money goes
>at all. An NEA grant recipient cannot earn the money from them, and,
>by depending on money he cannot earn, undercuts his self-confidence.

>An artist who depends on government grants risks his self-esteem. An artist
>who supports himself does not.

Me:

You completely missed the point.  I was speaking of how it helps children gain self-esteem & teach problem solving.  Earn?  How about we as a society teach it to them so they can learn how to EARN it!   Risk self-esteem? Nope. Afraid not.  It often comes down to need the help or no work can be created.  If the NEA is run as should be (please see below) then no problem-o.

Oh the issue of cost?:

Me:
>If more young people had it then we would have less of our social ills. The arts have been & will continnue to be a positive outlet for those who are in such a desperate need for a better way.   So why not encourage the arts?  For a whopping 68 to 70 cents a year, the NEA does this.

You:
At what price? See above.

Me:

At what cost, oh you know, "NO PAIN NO GAIN!" --- for 68 to 70 cents we make available creative outlets to many people, not destructive outlets.

Me again:
>    I am not going to pretend that there is no politics or "string pulling" done by some to get grants, but you are gravely unfair & inaccurate in saying that is how it all works.   Many grants *DO* weigh out what positive qualities a project will bring.  I have seen the NEA form, it leaves little room for the "grantmanship" of which you speak.

You:
Perhaps I spoke too soon. I do have an inherent distrust of any grant program administered by career bureaucrats.

My response:

So do I if they won't leave it alone.  The whole idea is to set it in motion and let it work.  It has until Helms & his fundy right-wing hordes went on the attack.

 ALSO-
 Please allow me to include this little tidbit:

  Albert Elsen, art historian, explains that in 1965 Congress passed into law The Declaration of Purpose for the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities Act so that government would stimulate creativity. Part of it even states: "It is necessary and approriate for the federal government to help create and sustain not only a climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination and inquiry, but also the material conditions facilitating the release of this creative talent."

   Art is in every facet of your life.  Who designed your house? the chair your sitting in?  Great creativity is one of the characteristics that use to give this country a great advantage over others.... now well it is too busy being distracted by the fundy right about a few Mapplethorpe photos, which the liberal taxpayer alone paid enough taxes to the arts to cover that cost & the Serrano grant (both being about 35,000 dollars).  If you want to save money cut out waste & start at the top, the military, & 
other governemnt waste

Me before & still:

>           I & many like me also pay taxes, we feel quite good about our 70 pennies a year.

You again:

I don't, and not primarily because they were forced from me. It's because the net good they do does not match the fact that they were taxed away from me. See above.

Me:

You see above!

Me some more:
>                           Go Gators, the real Oranage & Blue!
>
>                 Thank you,
>                              Mark Sablow
>                              aka, Professor Atget
>
>  "Inside every conservative, is a Liberal, just waiting to escape."

You:

Classical liberal, maybe.

My final response:

Classical, oh please, don't do this to me.  I am the last of a dying breed. Don't add additional labels to me, as it is Reagan/Bush/Quayle & the narrow minded pea-brains like him would have you believe I'm a commie!

 "Liberal, Schmiberal!, or as my father would say: "I am not a Liberal, I am a Left-winger"!

                                                        Not bad from a man who turns 72 this coming August 13th.
      In fact, I'm gonna inject some of his philosphies in the future, like his quote on Reagan: "A silly old man with beautiful hair".

                      Go Gators, Live Long & Prosper,
                       & Be All You Can Be.

                       Mark Sablow, aka Professor Atget

 * Origin: Aether (1:112/2020)
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