[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 35 (Friday, February 24, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H2218-H2219]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


           TO BE OR NOT TO BE CIVILIZED: THAT IS THE QUESTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bateman). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Filner] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker and colleagues, I rise today in support of 
continued Federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the 
National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Museum 
Services and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. To be or not to 
be civilized; that is the question, Mr. Speaker.
  A civilized society must include art and cultural enrichment, and it 
is one of the responsibilities of government to support that aspect of 
our civilization. We get what we pay for. We cannot rely solely on the 
good will of a relatively few private individuals to fund the arts--it 
is the duty of us all.
  This Nation's investment in the arts is one of the best we make. For 
example, the approximately $2 million in Federal funding for the NEA, 
NEH, and IMS that goes to my county in California, San Diego County, is 
matched by nearly four times that amount in local contributions. This 
is a perfect example of public-private partnership. The Government's 
funding stimulates local giving to the arts which in turn stimulates 
local economies.
  According to a recent study commissioned by the California Arts 
Council, nonprofit art organizations contribute some $2.1 billion 
annually to California's economy, generate $77 million in tax revenue, 
and create some 100,000 jobs. Yes, the arts are important to the State 
economy of California, and to other States as well. Business Week says 
that Americans spent $340 billion on entertainment in 1993.
  Critics tell us that the arts are only for the elite. Nothing could 
be further from the truth. Audiences and participants alike are people 
from all walks of life. Nearly 40 million tickets were sold last year 
to theater, music, and dance performances. Nielsen-rating figures show 
that 56.5 percent of households watching PBS programs earn less than 
$40,000 a year. And a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll showed that 76 percent 
of respondents thought the Government should continue to fund public 
broadcasting. Exposure to the arts is especially important for our 
children. If our young people can be motivated, thrilled, enriched, and 
``turned on'' by exciting experiences in theater, painting, pottery, or 
dance, they will be less likely to ``turn on'' to drugs or gangs to 
fill their empty hours and empty souls.
  Barbra Streisand, in a speech at Harvard University earlier this 
month, told how participation in the choral club at her Brooklyn high 
school was the beginning of her career--and she urges more support for 
the arts, not less. She asks how we can accept a country which has no 
orchestras, choruses, libraries, or art classes to nourish our 
children. How many more talents like Barbra Streisand's are out there, 
whom we will lose when there are no programs to challenge them?
  In San Diego County, the San Diego Opera Company and the San Diego 
Symphony provide opportunities for kids to attend the opera and 
symphony concerts. The opera regularly goes out to schools with 
ensemble performances.
  San Diego's recipients of arts funding range from elementary schools 
and universities to KPBS public radio and TV to the Samahan Philippine 
Dance Company and the Centro Cultural de la Raza to the Balboa Park 
Museums and the Old Globe Theater, groups representing the entire 
population of San Diego County.
  TheatreForum, and international theater magazine published at UCSD; 
the renowned La Jolla Playhouse whose productions go on to thrill 
audiences on Broadway and in the rest of the country; an international 
festival at locations on both sides of the border between San Diego and 
Tijuana, Mexico; graduate internships at the Museum of Photographic 
Arts; touring exhibitions from the Museum of Contemporary Arts in San 
Diego. I could go on and on. These and hundreds of other art forms are 
advanced by arts funding in San Diego County.
  Even so, among all First World nations, the United States now spends 
the least on Federal arts support per citizen--and we are thinking of 
reneging on that support. If we say no to culture, we will prove, in 
the words of Los Angeles Philharmonic managing director Ernest 
Fleishmann, that ``we are the dumbest Nation on the planet.''
  According to the General Accounting Office, the Department of Defense 
plans to spend $9 billion over the next 7 years building nuclear attack 
submarines that the Pentagon admits it does not need. That $9 billion 
could sustain the Arts and Humanities endowments at current levels for 
26 years. 26 years of National Public Radio, Big Bird, music and art 
for kids--or superfluous subs for the Pentagon. Is this a difficult 
choice?
  If we defund the NEA, the NEH, the IMS and PBS, we will be telling 
the world that we no longer take pride in 
[[Page H2219]]  our theaters, our educational children's programs, our 
museums, our dance companies, our poets, ourselves.
  Ultimately, we are judged by the heritage we leave our children. I 
hope we leave them more than soap operas and talk shows, attack 
submarines and assault rifles, gangs and drugs!
  Yes, Mr. Speaker, to be or not to be civilized; that is the question.

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