Dale Bumpers: “since I have been in the Senate, I have come to the floor--and I would not want to miss my last opportunity before I…”

“since I have been in the Senate, I have come to the floor--and I would not want to miss my last opportunity before I leave the Senate--to express my strong, strong support of the National Endowment for the Arts. We talk a lot in this country about how uncivil we have become; how uncivil our children have become. During the same time--I am not making the correlation--the National Endowment for the Arts' funding has gone down about 50 percent. I think it was close to $200 million when I came here. I can tell you an experience I had when I was overseas waiting to come home after the war, and was bored to death. I have told this story before. But it is worth repeating. I saw a sign up on the bulletin board one day: ``Would you like to learn about Shakespeare? Come to such and such a room tonight.'' So about six people just like me, bored stiff, waiting to get home, went over. It turned out that a Harvard dramatist--a drama coach from Harvard--had put up the sign. He began to tell us about Shakespeare. He began to tell us about Hamlet. He had a tape recorder. In those days I had never seen a tape recorder. I remember. He said, ``Listen to this.'' He spoke into his tape recorder and he proceeded to deliver Hamlet's speech to the players. It was a magnificent thing. It was the most mellifluous voice I had ever experienced. He played it back on his tape recorder. I was just stunned. It was just so beautiful.…”