We spend our lives striving for a kind of perfection and even though we know that it is an illusion, we try nevertheless. Art, even the angriest, darkest variety, is created out of love. In America, at this time, we are fortunate to have a handful of visionary presenters who understand this and perceive how important this is to their constituents. What has happened generally, in the past ten years, is that because of the economic climate, some of these brave souls have had to quit or to hand over their jobs to people who have no love for the arts and whose concern is merely for the bottom line. What they get is what they already know.
Adventure is stripped away.
What we need in America right now is to fight for our right to jump off the cliff. Art, even the most irreverent, is a vivid response to the time in which we live. As artists, presenters, audiences and lovers of art, we have a deep function and role in our society. We are responsible human beings. To abolish the NEA would be an act of utter ignorance and destruction.