David Obey: “those of you who know me know that I often quote my favorite poet, Archie the Cockroach. It is not my religious bible…”

“those of you who know me know that I often quote my favorite poet, Archie the Cockroach. It is not my religious bible, but it is my philosophical bible. I want to read my colleagues something that Archie wrote a long time ago: He wrote it about the movies, but you can just as easily say it in reference to the arts or the humanities. He said this: They are instinctively trying to preserve for the public some kind of stuff that wins an audience away from the often sordid surface of existence. They may do it badly. They may do it obviously. They may do it crudely. But they do have a hunch that what the millions want is to be shown that there is something possible to the human race besides the dull repetition of the triviality which is often the routine of common existence. And every now and then they blunder into doing something with just a touch of the universal. Now, to me that is what the Endowment for the Arts and the Endowment for the Humanities is all about. I would just suggest that if Members want to save money, I can show them 50 line items in appropriation bills that I will serve the American public. This is a tiny little amount, but it is crucial to seeing to it that we can spread the basic foundations of our society and western values as broadly as possible in this society. Is it done error free? Of course not, because everyone is human.…”