Hi, folks:
You might have missed it in the flood of political news lately, but President Trump's budget proposal proposes to defund the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and eliminate the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which helps fund PBS and NPR stations).
You may recall that we ran a previous thread on this topic when the proposal was just a rumor, but now that it's an official proposal we decided to update this and ask you to take action.
The mission of /r/Askhistorians is to provide high-quality historical answers to a wide audience. We usually work online, through our Twitter account, our Tumblr account, and here, but that's not all we do. We talk to historians and bring them here for AMAs. We have (with your help) presented at historical conferences. We also advocate: for good history, for civil discussion, and for keeping historical research going.
That's what we're doing today, and we need your help.
We don't get political for a particular candidate, a particular party, or a particular point of view. We get political when good history matters. If you're American, we're asking you to call your Congressmen and Congresswomen to support funding for the NEA and NEH.
The federal budget process isn't fast, and it isn't straightforward, but it is changeable. Each February, when the president submits his or her budget to Congress, there's a better chance of a cow getting through a slaughterhouse untouched than that budget staying in the same form. That's why your calls matter: Congress catches a lot of flak, but it does do work, particularly in the details of the budget.
And we say call, not email, because calls matter. It's easy to ignore an email; you probably do it a few times on any given day. It's a lot harder to ignore a phone call. Call your Senators and Congresswoman. You won't talk to them directly; you'll talk to a staffer or an intern answering phones. They've been getting a lot of calls lately. Chances are, they'll have a local office as well as their DC office. If you can't get through to one, try the other.
Don't call other Congressmen than your own. It's a waste of time. Don't follow a script; those tend to get ignored. Just say who you are, where you're calling from (city/zip code, if you don't want to give your address), and what you're calling about.
Repetition helps. Put the numbers in your cellphone and give 'em a call when you're headed to work or have a spare minute or two. It doesn't take a lot of time, but it can make a world of good.
Why are you calling?
The National Endowment for the Humanities funds a lot of good things. If you've seen Ken Burns' documentary The Civil War, you've seen some of its work. If you've read Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-45, you've seen some of its work. If you've visited your local museum, chances are that it too received some NEH funding.
There's something else important: NEH funding indirectly supports what you're reading right now.
Many of our moderators, flaired commentators and even ordinary users have jobs that are funded in part or wholly by NEH grants. They have the spare time to offer their knowledge and skills here because of those grants. A lot of the links we provide in our answers exist because of the NEH. The Discovering America digital newspaper archive is supported by the NEH.
The NEH does all of that with just $143 million per year in federal funding. That's just 0.003 percent of the federal budget. If you make $40,000 a year and spent that much of your income, you'd be spending $1.20.
For all the NEH does, that's a good deal.
The previous post had three comments in reply that I'd like to highlight here:
u/restricteddata on the history of the NEH
u/khosikulu on the types of grants offered by the NEH
u/the_alaskan on how the NEH benefits many people who aren't historians
Edited to add this, from u/caffarelli:
If you're making a call for NEA/NEH, please also take a moment to mention Institute of Museum and Library Services which is also on the block, and to be crude, odds are better you'll personally be impacted by it's loss more quickly than any of the other federal humanities funding. IMLS funding is of particular importance to rural libraries and Native American museums and libraries, and can sometimes be the bulk of funding at those libraries. But if you're a patron of smaller public library, your library probably only got the Internet because of an IMLS grant, because that was their largest grant impact during the 90s-00s. It's a quiet, effective and responsible distributor of tiny amounts of federal money, that have nevertheless had an out-sized impact on the quality of public library services available in America.
It's worth restating just how small the combined budgets for the NEA and NEH are.
Arithmetic was never my strong suit, but I thought it'd be useful to quantify it against Trump's proposed border wall. How much of the wall will cutting these programs pay for?
Projected cost of border wall (midrange estimate): $15 Billion
Approximate length of border: 2 thousand miles
Approximate cost per mile of border: $7.5 Million
Approximate NEA and NEH budgets combined: $300 Million
Length of wall built with NEA and NEH funds: 40 miles: 2% of the overall border
Eliminating these programs isn't about wasteful government spending, it's an attack on our shared culture, intellectual curiosity and freedom of expression.
If you're making a call for NEA/NEH, please also take a moment to mention Institute of Museum and Library Services which is also on the block, and to be crude, odds are better you'll personally be impacted by it's loss more quickly than any of the other federal humanities funding. IMLS funding is of particular importance to rural libraries and Native American museums and libraries, and can sometimes be the bulk of funding at those libraries. But if you're a patron of smaller public library, your library probably only got the Internet because of an IMLS grant, because that was their largest grant impact during the 90s-00s. It's a quiet, effective and responsible distributor of tiny amounts of federal money, that have nevertheless had an out-sized impact on the quality of public library services available in America.
For a very long time I would read posts and statements and calls to action like this and never have it truly cross the threshold of action in me. These past few months have changed that.
I'd encourage you, if you haven't made the calls to your senators and representatives, to do so. It wasn't easy the first time I did it. I took half an hour to walk out of my workplace, find a park bench, think about what I wanted to say, call, and say it. Then call again and say it again to my other senator.
Learn to flex this muscle. I make the call about once a week on whatever thing I feel passionately about. Then I reward myself by wearing a patriotic little pin that means something to me for the rest of the day.
If you really don't want to talk to a human being, you can call outside of business hours and leave a voice mail. It doesn't have to be long, and the line is specifically for people to express their opinions. So do it!
202-224-3121, follow the prompts to be directed to your elected officials.
Hi, I'm in the UK (not American) so I can't do much to help, but I just wanted to let you all know that we're watching and supporting from over here. Good luck.
Could you link us to where we can contact our representatives? At least a general contact page would be good.
I thought it might be useful to help illustrate just what kinds of projects NEH grants go to fund. All grants are searchable on their wbesite here, but I did some searches to find a few examples, with a focus on smaller, rural areas:
The L.C. Bates Museum in Fairfield, ME, population 6,735
The museum includes amazing natural history exhibits, fun local history, Native American collections, rocks and minerals, fossils, outside nature trails, picnic tables, and an arboretum behind the museum. The museum even has themed art exhibits from artists of New England each summer through fall.
They recieved a $5,990 grant to help with their preservation goals:
The project is designed to turn an unused room on the museum's second floor into appropriate storage space for humanities objects, purchase shelving and storage supplies, train staff in storage methods, store the project collections, and present a public workshop on Storage Management in a Small Museum.
Appalshop, Inc. in Whitesburg, Kentucky, population 2,139:
Since 1969, Appalshop has been enacting cultural organizing and place-based media, arts and education to document the life, celebrate the culture, and voice the concerns of people living in Appalachia and rural America.
They got a $12,000 grant for a cultural history project titled "The Hills Remember: Preserving Heritage in an Appalachian Coal Community":
Building on a sense of place that is deeper than its Appalachian coal seams while confronting the limits of a fossil fuel based economy, Letcher County, Kentucky, is in a moment of transition. The proposed project will build upon local efforts to increase sense of agency and appreciation for the community's heritage and assets. It will result in the digitization of vernacular photographic materials, artwork and 3-Dimensional objects, historical paper records and audiovisual materials provided by members of the public and gathered as a result of community engagement, public programming, and digitization events. By catalyzing the area's cultural assets, the project will increase local capacity through activities that safeguard and celebrate both the archival materials collected and the wellspring of community expression and traditions.
The Town of Rockingham, Vermont, population 5,282 recieved a $6,000 grant for the Public Library's "Cataloged Photograph Collection Glass Plate Negative Rehousing Project":
The Rockingham Free Public Library seeks to rehouse and properly store components of its extensive and popular Cataloged Photograph Collection. This collection contains photographic material from the 1860s-1970s and has provided visual information to support historic research on a broad range of topics of both local and national significance. Funds from The National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistant Grant will support the rehousing training and purchase of archivally sound housing materials for the collection’s glass plate negatives and the purchase of a flat file to house larger format photographic prints. The furniture and rehousing activities would support the goal of a stable storage environment for the Library’s most popular local history collection.
The Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County, in Livingston, Montana, population 7,044:
The Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County’s mission is to collect, preserve, and interpret the cultural and natural history of Park County, Montana and its relationship to Yellowstone Park for the education of everyone.
They got $5,102 for "Archival/Photo Collection Preservation Project":
The Yellowstone Gateway Museum of Park County (YGM) holds numerous significant manuscript, archival and photograph collections. Collections are held to preserve Park County and Montana’s heritage. YGM honors the spirit of Montana’s history by accessioning, processing, and making accessible archival materials that reflect the state’s diverse cultural background. Currently a large majority of these collections are located in a storage building behind the museum. The building does not have any environmental controls such as heating or cooling. Historic documents and photographs received by donors are currently stored in acidic boxes. As with many small museums, a large amount of backlog exists from the early years of development. Our goal is to move the material to the HVAC-controlled museum and store significant photographs and documents in archival folders, boxes, and cabinets to ensure the stability of the items for current and future researchers.
Hopefully this helps to illustrate the kind of work that these grants can do. They are often very small, and they go to help small organizations which likely couldn't do the work that they aim to, or at least not on the same scale, without the help. All the grants are searchable online. I would certainly love to see people search through and share ones that have affected them!
A correction: The Trump budget doesn't cut PBS, but rather it cuts the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The latest numbers I could easily find (2011) indicated that CPB's contribution to PBS and PBS stations (which are largely independent public TV stations that carry PBS programming, local programming, other public TV sources such as BBC, etc.) were $71 million and $210 million (distributed somehow over the 1400 or so public TV stations across the US). During 2010, their revenue was around $570M, so assuming 2010 and 2011 are directly comparable, CPB was paying for about 12% of PBS's budget.
Another big chunk of PBS's revenues would of course be fees from all the local stations so they can run PBS content.
W/r/t NPR: NRP gets a very small portion of its annual revenue from CPB and it's not direct funding but grants, per this page.
On average, less than 1% of NPR's annual operating budget comes in the form of grants from CPB and federal agencies and departments.
Like PBS, NPR gets fees from public radio stations who run their content, and that's a majority of their funding, so any cuts to the stations themselves (which are largely locally funded) would have secondary effect on the NPR organization itself, likely one large than the 1% in grants from CPB.
This is such a brilliant response, but I expected nothing less from you guys.
Libertarian Republican here. Big fan of cutting waste. The NEA and NEH needs to be funded. This is our art our culture as a western nation. Have already called my reps. I am sure this will get full funding.
This is a website that will show you who to contact and provides a script for what to say. Makes it super easy!
Oh boy an advocacy campaign. I know about these, I've helped run them and been on the receiving end of them.
Here are some tips:
Be polite: the offices of elected officials get a ton of communication, much of it nasty, hateful and mean. The fastest way to get ignored by an elected official is to be one of the folks being rude to their staff. They'll just write you off as someone to be ignored.
Be clear about what you want: Senators/Representatives get a lot of constituent (and advocate) contact on a lot of issues. It is easy for the details of who wants what to be confused. To that end one of the first things you should say, should be something along the lines of: “I'm calling to ask the Senator/Representative to support funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.”
Say it slowly and clearly so the person you are speaking with has time to write it all down. I'd recommend you say it again at the end of the phone call.
Be clear about why you want it: The best argument for a program, is to tell them why it matters to you. The more personal the better. Maybe the NEA sponsored a great art instillation in your city, maybe the National Endowment for Humanities put on a great program you went to. The point is to humanize these programs, these offices hear about an alphabet soup of programs and are drowning in data, the more you can make a program's value clear in immediate human terms, the better.
Ask for a response: Most of the time the person you talk to will be an intern or a staff assistant, they won't be able to give you a clear answer on the office's policy. Asking for a follow up ensures that your message will move up the food chain or at least force the office to actually have to deal with your ask.
More advanced tip: Look to see if your representative/senator serves on the Appropriations Committee in either chamber. The Appropriations Committee is the one that makes the decisions about funding. If your representative/senator serves on the committee, it is even more important to contact their offices. If they aren't ask them to contact their fellow representatives/senators who are.
The House Appropriations roster: http://appropriations.house.gov/about/members/
The Senate Appropriations roster: https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/about/members
Also more advanced tip: the most effective way to get a message to an elected official is by personally asking them. Most representatives/senators hold either electronic or physical town halls. Attending one of these and asking your representative/senator personally, is the best way to get them to support your programs.
FAQ on the appropriations process for FY 2017 and 2018:
Question: Just what is the President's Budget and why does it matter?
Answer: The president is required by law to submit a budget of his recommendations for the federal budget to Congress. Congress is not required to act on them, and often goes to great lengths to tell everyone how little they care about what the president thinks. However, like Gertrude in Hamlet they protest too much.
While dramatic programmatic changes and topline numbers in the president's budget often don't make it past the committee room, the president's budget also contains a ton of recommendations on what departments and agencies would like for their budgets. Those recommendations often do end up mattering.
It's worth noting that there is also a political element to this. The current President is a Republican, so Congress may end up spending more time considering what he has to say than they did the previous president.
Q: Wait, above there you listed both FY 2017 and 2018 up there. What gives?
A: Usually Congress handles only one year's worth of appropriations at a time. However, the Fiscal Year 2017 appropriation was never finished, so although we are like a third of the way through FY 2017 (FY's run from October 1st to September 30th), Congress still needs to finish the FY 2017 appropriations.
Q: Yeah, about. Just how the hell does this all work?
A: I am so very sorry you asked. Basically annually Congress passes (or attempts to pass) 12 appropriations bills. Each funding a different set of agencies in the government. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees each have 12 subcommittees, each of which is responsible for one of the 12 bills. These bills are supposed to be passed annually before the fiscal year ends.
Q: So where do these programs fit in?
A: the funding for NEA/NEH is controlled by the House and Senate Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittees funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are controlled by the House and Senate Subcommittees on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. If you are fortunate to have a member on either subcommittee, it is vital that you reach out to them to ask that they support these programs. You can find out who is on the relevant appropriations subcommittees on the House and Senate Appropriations Committee websites.
Senate: https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/
House: http://appropriations.house.gov/
Q: Do you have a source for the stuff you just said?
A: Of course, this is still /r/askhistorians
Check out the CRS report on this here: https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/98-721.pdf
I'm not sure if this is the proper place to ask this but I think it's important that I ask somewhere
I'm an immigrant to the US and after 10 long years of effort, I'll finally be able to apply for my citizenship later this year. I now want to do what I never had the opportunity to do back in my home country: speak out and have a non-zero chance of being heard
There are a number of things I've wanted to speak up about but this post has been the tipping point for me. I'm educating myself on the proper way to contact my representative but I wanted advice from the more experienced among us on the best possible way so here are my questions:
When I hear contact my congressman, does that mean I should contact my Representative, or Senator, or both?
Am I even eligible to contact my representative? I'm a permanent resident but as I mentioned there will still be some time before I can apply for citizenship. Should I wait? Should I mention my status on call?
What is the best possible way of ensuring that you get heard? Online sources say email but this post says phone. Both?
If I contact by phone, I face a new set of challanges. English is not my first language and although I'm pretty comfortable with it, I do notice I get stuck explaining myself properly in speech. I'm also pretty introverted by nature and I know that will make things difficult as well. I don't want to just read a prepared statement if I have to but any advice regarding length and depth of my call would be very helpful
Can I call/email repeatedly and regularly? I wouldn't want to get blacklisted or anything?
CANADA SUPPORTS YOU!!!
It only took like a minute to voice my concerns to the staffer on the line, but man it feels so good to do that.
I see a lot of arguments put forth for the NEH, but where are the arguments for the NEA?
What sorts of metrics are used to measure the efficiency of organizations that receive this funding? I think one of the problems people have (when giving only a quick glance to such programs) is that there are no tangible end-items. I realize this isn't the case much of the time, but if I were auditing a beneficiary what would I be looking for? Am I racking their progress up against their stated goals?
And in that same vein, how are organizations chosen to receive funding? Are there boxes that need to be checked, like public benefit, something along those lines? Who is the "decider?"
To be clear, I absolutely am not in favor of cutting these programs. The amount of money is trivial in the grand scheme of things and the cultural importance is invaluable. However, I don't think questioning government use of taxpayer funds should be anathema in any instance, ever. The amount of downvotes a handful of comments in this thread received seem to indicate some people would rather not have that type of conversation and I think that's a shame. Especially when you look at the stellar responses to many of those questions and realize what an opportunity it is to educate.
I wish you all the best. I no doubt that us here across the pond (UK) will have our own issues like this in the near future when people start to realise how much cultural and historical funding came from the EU.
I really hope the cut gets overturned as these services you are trying to save are great and the work you guys do here is amazing.
What can I do if I live in a "Blue" house and senate district whose representatives will vote against it?
Just placed a couple calls. If nothing else, TIL how messed up Maryland's Congressional districts are.
Woooow, I read the whole thing and I was seriously, to my mistake, expecting it to be an anti trump campaign and I'm so happy it wasn't. Not the point though! I agree with this cause even being a Trump Supporter, meaning I disagree with the Trump Administration's plan for taking away these things. Let's get our voices out there and give our opinions as the American people love it!
Just called Senator Shelby (Alabama) to inform him someone in Southwest Alabama cares about NEA/NEH funding.
For those interested in advocacy work, I would point you in the direction of the National Coalition for History, which already has lobbying underway for this and other history-related initiatives (although I would expect the FY18 budget fight to take precedence). They also have information on asking your congressional representatives to join the Congressional History Caucus, and if you work for a history org you can ask your organization to become a member of the coalition or to endorse their values statement.
Their website also contains some really valuable information about what our next steps should be and a more detailed analysis of what's at stake: http://historycoalition.org/2017/03/16/trump-fy-18-budget-proposes-devastating-cuts-to-federal-history-humanties-funding/
Note especially that this proposed budget does not reveal the full scope of the Trump White House's plans for other federal history programs and institutions like the Smithsonian, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Library of Congress, and the National Park Service. It's good to find a source like the NCH or the National Humanities Alliance to plug into for updates on some less-publicized proposed cuts that may be ahead.
Whom do I call if I'm military stationed out of my state of residence? I assume it's my state of residence rep, but just making sure.
I called Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio but got directed to voicemail on Nelson after being on hold for ten minutes and the option to leave a message on Rubio's, which I took. Is this sufficient? Do you think someone will listen to the message and mark down two votes (respectively) for supporting these three programs, or do I need to call back until I get somebody?
Can I request someone make this information available in a way that is easily shareable on social media? I know that might be a lot to ask, maybe just some of the vital components could be in their own images so we can saturate social media. It's very important information, and social media is one of the big battlegrounds for information.
My apologies if this kind of request isn't allowed.
Called both my senators, although in Ca they are both seriously against these cuts.
Thanks for the post!
Thank you for bringing this to light. I've been apolitical much of my adult life. The past eight years or so I have taken a more involved role. I've left both my senators a message. Thanks again.
Serious question:
Can these organizations exist without federal funding? Do they receive enough money from private donors to be able to operate without federal funds?
Just called Senator Reed for Rhode Islanders. He just spoke out against Trump's defunding efforts so I'm sure he'll be receptive to some support.
Calls matter, but voting matters even more. Vote in every election at every level for a candidate who supports public funding for good causes.
So if this passes, you guys will all be out of a job and get to spend even more time sharing awesome knowledge on Reddit?!
All kidding aside it's sad to see such brutal and sweeping cuts without seemingly any public engagement or debate. Who do they think they work for?
This is NOT wasted money, this enriches people's lives, directly improves public education, and benefits our culture.
i wish you luck on this one my friends, not living in america but can relate to your struggles.
I will of course be in contact with my representatives, but since I am in Utah and with the likes of Hatch, Chaffetz, and Lee I don't see it going anywhere on my front sadly.
I salute you guys, honestly. This post is going to cause some degree of controversy, but I know that this is the right call.
Wonderful post, keep up the pressure! As one of them foreigners I will once again make sure that my American friends, acquaintances and enemies (don't know of any....yet) know about this. To the social media machine!
I made the call and tried to keep it short and sweet. I sincerely hope it helps.
Hi, im not a historian or even directly affected by a defunding of American institutions since im european, but the way I see it this can have a huge knock on effect for the rest of us as well. If the humanities and arts get defunded now the question is what's next? Anyone who relies on grants even partially could be the next target if budgets are cut again. So for those of us who rely on grants in other fields, for me it will hopefully be support for my PhD in law, give it a thought because not only can you support something you are interest in (or else you wouldn't be here) but also potentially support the future of your own line of work.
Just texted my Congressman because he gives his cell phone number out to anyone at his meetings. He also has his office in the public library downtown and definitely supports the NEA and NEH but hopefully more of us being involved will encourage him to be more outspoken on the matter and in congress.
Done! I voiced my opinion on all three issues. I gained my love of history and science from PBS, and am working towards being a science teacher in a Title I school. These programs are absolutely necessary for students without access to preschool, and expand everyone's knowledge.
Thank you for this.
This post and the comments underneath are restoring my faith in the beauty that is WITHIN the US and honestly around the world. Especially hearing other countries giving us support and knowing we don't stand for many of the divisive statements of our government.
Could I suggest that we could make a point to cross post this with the guys in one of the art reddits for them to also make a second call for the History grants and visa versa. Make 2 calls, double the calls.
Upvoting as a Canadian, not sure if I have much of a say in effecting your politics, but I sure hope that those critical services stay in effect rather than building a stupid wall.
Being in a country under dictatorship, I always envy your American way of participation in politics. You can call to your representatives and state your opinion on the matter affecting you, which we have none, all we can do here is pray that those dictatorial board have our best interest at heart. Yep, tough luck.
So, yeah, exercise all your right while you can. If you don't it would be such a shame I would recommend you to come and live under the rock here with us.
I'm trying to organize a letter/petition to be sent from my college. Does anyone know the deadline/voting on this and when it needs to be in by? I have to get this by a board and they'll want that kind of info, especially since this'll probably have to be a fast tracked deal.
If you go through my post history you will see that I am not very active on this sub since my field of study is niche and often never gets asked about.
But I have the following questions for the moderation team since this thread seems to be open season.
How many of you are americans?
How many of you receive part or all of your income from grants or other funding that may be cut under the new budget proposal?
How many other (non-american) national historical societies are for or against these cuts in solidarity with the AHA or with the current United States government respectively?
My representative is Kevin McCarthy :( His office ignores us.
Is there anyway I can help from australia to help the nea and neh I donate to npr.
Hello everyone. A quick note to be made as this thread thread continues to get a lot of attention:
Edit: Someone reported for lack sources. They have been added.
[I found this great guide for reaching your local representatives.] (https://callthehallsguide.com) I only paid a dollar for it and it's very easy to follow. Yesterday was my first time ever calling and I was very nervous but I'm glad I did it. Just talking to an assistant made me feel that much closer to the president and made me realize that all the news I hear about have a serious impact.
Well I'm just going to keep my mouth shut because dissenting opinions will be removed and I don't want to be banned from this sub over politics like every other non political sub that makes a call to action about Trump.
I'll be calling my Congressman to ensure this passes. There is no legitimate reason to use tax dollars to fund these frivolous programs.
Probably should have posted a bit about why these things are important.
The NEH does all of that with just $143 million per year in federal funding. That's just 0.003 percent of the federal budget. If you make $40,000 a year and spent that much of your income, you'd be spending $1.20.
For all the NEH does, that's a good deal.
As long as you want to go down this route, fine.
In 2014, charitable giving to nonprofit organizations in the arts, culture, and humanities sector reached a total of $17.23 billion – a total of 5 percent of all donations received by charities in 2014, according to Giving USA 2015: The Annual Report on Philanthropy. When assessing charitable giving to the arts, culture, and humanities sector these past few years, we are seeing that there is a steady growth in contributions. Between the years of 2013 and 2014, giving to arts, culture, and humanities increased by 9.2 percent.
$143 million is just 0.83 percent of $17.23 billion. If we're going to pretend that these skewed comparisons are meaningful, then the NEH is a minor consideration if you're going to claim that things like the humanities are under threat without government funding.
Additionally, the 9.2% increase from one year to the next in philanthropy for the humanities, arts and cultures represents approximately $1.5 billion, approximately 10 times the amount of the NEH's funding for a year.
I'm not arguing against the NEH. I'm arguing against meaningless comparisons to bolster such arguments.
edit: It's really a shame that the Reddit reputation for groupthink permeates even a sub that values objectivity such as this one. If you handle criticism with downvotes instead of responses, you show a shallowness of principle.
What if we think there are better and more efficient ways to fund these initiatives, should we just sit quietly and not mess with status quo?
(which helps fund PBS and NPR stations).
It is less than 1% of NPR's revenue and less than 7% of PBS'
So no it doesn't help fund either of those two...
NPR relies on the corporation for less than 1 percent of its revenue, and PBS depends on the agency for less than 7 percent, according to data from 2014, the most recent year for which audited financial statements for all three entities were available.
Rest I don't care about but just from the misconstruing of the Public Broadcasting grant I am quite sure you are off base for the rest of your post.
No soapboxing, or events or politics
For a sub that is mostly empty threads because of unverified information, there is a lot of opinion in this thread. This sub was once a bastion of respectability and I just lost all my respect for it.
You do not need to take a stance to maintain integrity. Your integrity was based on being impartial, but no longer. This is not in the spirit of this sub and should have been posted in r/politics or r/esist.
Precisely because I support the humanities is why I want the NEH and other similar organizations gutted.
"Having free time to comment on Reddit" isn't a good reason to demand already strapped middle class taxpayers to pony up for this. Gobs and gobs of historical work happens regardless of these programs. And if the amounts are so tiny, then it can easily be funded through private foundations. So they are either inconsequential or entirely superfluous. I have yet to hear any kind of justification for federal funding of this type beyond "It does stuff I personally like and keeps me and people I know employed."
So thank you for the information on who to call, but I will be calling to reduce or eliminate unnecessary federal programs.
We don't get political for a particular candidate, a particular party, or a particular point of view.
You're advocating for a government program that is universally lauded by the left and despised by the right. How is that not getting political for a particular point of view?
What if you support Trump's initiatives?