Political Quotes

“this rule needs to be defeated because if it passes, the National Endowment for the Arts and all the great work that it does will be defeated. During our hearing on the Subcommittee on Interior of the Committee on Appropriations, we heard from a young lady by the name of Denyce Graves. She grew up just a very few miles from here, right next to the Kennedy Center, but the Kennedy Center could have been a world away. She never had the money to go to the Kennedy Center. But because of an NEA grant, there was a community opera production that she went to when she was a teenager. She was inspired by it. She went on to devote her career to being an opera singer. She now plays Carmen at the Met. That may not seem important to the Members of this body, but I know it is important to millions of young families and children around the country who would like that similar opportunity and will not have that opportunity if it is only the elitist organizations that are funded. NEA works on behalf of the real people of America. Give their talent an opportunity to express itself. We are all richer because of it.”