Together, the rejection of divine providence and the prohibition of guns will surely place the citizenry entirely at the mercy of the commissar state. In the coming weeks, much will be heard about constitutional authority for these positions. Would that journalists and television anchors, as well as Americans everywhere, reacquaint themselves with that singularly magnificent document our sole defense against an ominous future. A careful reading will reveal not only words of great precision, but also the significance of boundaries not crossed silences of the wise. That which is not there speaks as clearly to us as that which is.
Musicians learn early about that.
The Constitution of the United States is full of wonderful rests. In other words, the needs associated with the useful arts were very much on the Framers mind, leading to the highly successful practice of patents. It would be preposterous to presume that the Framers simply forgot to provide for the fine arts, given their well-known interest in that area. In any case, even with regard to the useful arts, they clearly sought to protect the rights of ownership, as opposed to encouraging a federal subsidy. Thus silence strips the National Endowment for the Arts of constitutional legitimacy.