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"The question is," said NEH chairman Hackney in a speech in San Francisco last April, "who are the real elitists? Isn't it insultingly elitist to assume that ordinary Americans are not interested in the humanities? Isn't it the ultimate arrogance to believe that 'culture' should be the private property of those who can pay for it? The NEH is, in fact, our best guarantee that our cultural heritage will be available to all Americans, regardless of how much money they make or where they live."
The conservatives' agenda, if it goes through, is going to depress the quality of cultural and educational life for everyone in America, young and old, white, black, brown, male or female. This is one of the most ill-conceived, profoundly anti-democratic ideas ever to get loose in Congress. Private philanthropy will never be able to restore what seems about to be taken away. Some will not notice it; others won't care; given the shortness of American social memory, perhaps the next generation won't know what happened. Partial lobotomies work that way. They favor Beavis and Butt-head. Is that the business of American government?