Jesse Helms

Senator Helms wants to cut federal art funding. He wants to ban government funding of art that depicts what he thinks is obscene or indecent, including "sadomasochism, homeroticism, exploitation of children, or individuals engaged in sex acts." The actions were sparked by an exhibit of Robert Mappelthorpe photographs. Ok, so maybe the government shouldn't be funding art in the first place, but the National Endowment for the Arts was founded in the atmosphere of 1960's idealism, when people thought the government's job wasn't telling us what to think.