[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 115 (Monday, July 17, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H7065-H7066]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR ARTS AND HUMANITIES CAPTURES SPIRIT OF AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, it has been said to many of us that if 
you are not able to remember the past, sometimes you may be doomed to 
repeat some of the negatives that occur. That does not mean that 
history is all negative. But it means that it gives us a sense of 
direction and future. It helps us understand where we should be going.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise to talk about the value of the National Endowment 
for Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Because for 
many when we begin to talk about budget cutting and assuring that we 
are fiscally responsible in this Congress on behalf of the American 
people, I think we must also ask the question and answer it about 
focus, about where we would like to go in the 21st century.
  Allow me to tell a simple story about a man named John Biggers, a 
gentleman who has created a mosaic of art and history over 50 years of 
his life. Coming from North Carolina and now a resident of Texas, this 
gentleman has painted the mosaics of life. He has painted the canvases 
of life and he has been able to share with young people and old people 
and middle-aged people a continuing history of America. His art has 
been touted internationally and nationally. He has traveled to Africa 
and he has brought back the dreams and aspirations of those who live 
there and he has shared them with those of us who live here in America.
  More importantly, he has opened the eyes of children, inner city 
children 

[[Page H 7066]]
who would wonder whether or not they too could paint a brush and make a 
picture. He has been very instrumental in a program in Houston, TX, 
called the artists in residence program.
  What does that mean? It takes middle-school children and introduces 
them to famous artists and allows them to have the same creativity and 
spark of interest and thrill and excitement about being creative. This 
project is sponsored by the Museum of Fine Arts and, yes, it receives 
dollars from the National Endowment for the Arts.
  Pornography? No. Sinfulness? No. opportunity? Yes, I salute both John 
Biggers and these many artists who have contributed to this program but 
more importantly I think it reinforces the value of the National 
Endowment for the Arts and likewise the history-telling of the National 
Endowment for the Humanities.
  We wonder about art and whether or not it is part of culture. I would 
say if you asked the Houston Grand Opera or the Museum of Fine Arts or 
the Ensemble Theater or Mecca or the Asian Dance Company in Houston or 
the Acres Home Dance Theater, they could be able to tell the story of 
the eyes it has opened of children, children who thought for a moment 
that they had no creativity, that they could not be a danger, a 
speaker, an orator or an artist, or maybe someone who might have never 
had the opportunity to see some of our history unfold, not so much in a 
story book but on the theater stage as produced by the Human Grand 
Opera or any opera in this Bation.
  I always believe that we must do things constructively and 
positively. I also believe we should do it with reason and a focus on 
the future. I do not think this country directs itself well if we take 
away the value of our culture, if we do not preserve it, if we do not 
teach it, if we do not
 understand it.

  The National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the 
Humanities captures the spirit of what America is. It reflects on its 
diversity but more importantly it helps to uplift those who want to 
share our story.
  It is important to have your story shared, whether it is in music, 
whether it is in the story teller or the history professor, whether it 
is in the opera singer, whether it is in the actor or on the stage, it 
is important to have the story of a nation told so that all people can 
understand the story.

                              {time}  2230

  Mr. Speaker, let me share with you that the American public is 
willing to spend $15 of its tax money, per family, to have the National 
Endowment for the Arts. Does that sound like a nation that wants to cut 
from underneath its very soul the opportunity to spread its culture? 
How proud we are when we share European history and African history and 
history from Latin America and history from Canada and history from the 
Pacific Rim. All of that is valuable.
  Should we deny the American public the same opportunity to preserve 
both its history and its culture? I think not. Let us be instructed 
wisely. Shakespeare said the first thing we should do is kill all the 
lawyers. Some would say, as a trained lawyer, I would want to burn that 
and not want to hear the play that offered those words.
  But I think in the spirit of art, certainly, there are limitations, 
but it is important to have that kind of diversity, that kind of 
contradiction and conflict, but as well, the opportunity for artists to 
express themselves.
  The National Endowment for the Arts helps us do that. The National 
Endowment for the Humanities helps us preserve our culture. And with 
the great culture of the American Indian and all that is rested in this 
Nation, we would not want to lose that.
  So my instruction, Mr. Speaker, is that we as Americans should draw 
together, yes, and be fiscally responsible. We have many, many 
challenges and many, many tasks. Many, many responsibilities for this 
Government. But I would say to you that to the child who stands in the 
classroom learning about his or her culture, or expressing himself or 
herself creatively through art or in the inner city or down in the 
stages in downtown Houston or New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, it is 
valuable to have entities that help us preserve who we are.
  I support the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment 
for the Humanities and I think the amendments cutting these particular 
entities do us a disservice in this Nation. Let us preserve who we are.


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