Indigo Nights's electrons arrived as:

>the standards meant to address, as the mayor said last spring,
>"whether or not there should be a different assessment made when
>public dollars are being used than when private dollars are being
>used" in city museums.


In fact, there IS a difference between public and private funding of the
arts.  Private funding can be restricted with impunity --  if a Jewish or
Christian or ethnic foundation wants to give money which is to be used
only in support of the ideals they espouse, that's fine -- why not?

Public funding for "self expression," on the other hand, represents. . .
. the public.  "The public" doesn't mean one group or another --  it
means EVERYONE.  In a society that values freedom of expression, it MUST
mean everyone -- or we surrender to the tyranny of the majority --
exactly what the 1st amendment seeks admirably to avoid.  You cannot
separate the intent of the 1st Amendment from the responsibility that
public funding has when it supports the expression of ideas -- they are
inextricably linked and mutually dependent.  If it is protected by the
1st amendment and does not break any existing laws, then it is, defacto,
decent, no matter how "indecent" it may be.  Giuliani (and most
politicians who are conservative on this issue) has confused the two
types of funding, and thinks he can treat money raised from the broad
outreaches of a melting-pot society as if it were a homogenous private
foundation.

It won't work, but not for a lack of trying.  We've seen these
thick-sculled politicians make fools of themselves again and again in
recent years, trying to appropriate public arts funding for private arts
agendas.  In the end it always seems to me their concern is not so much
the moral indignation they typically spout, as it is a desire to appear
heroic to some voting contituency -- and if the Constitution be damned in
the process, they don't seem to care.  Now, THAT'S indecent.

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