In Defense of Public Television & Radio



James 2:26

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

As I write, I am watching a musical performance of "The Piano Guys" on PBS television. That Liberal Labrynith of Destruction according to the Mullahs of the Hard Right.

Wonder what is on the entertainment side of Fox Television right now? Well, lets go check. A NASCAR and Fox commercial promotion for a race in "Sin City." If it weren't so hypocritical of Fox, the wily predator, to promote Conservatism on its news end and an admiration for cars going around in a circle for hours in "Sin City" I could laugh. The announcer doesn't seem particularly concerned about the sin in the city. Matter of fact, it all sounds rather alluring.

Since no one could accuse me of not having Conservative cred, I am just trying to be consistent to what I believe. One would think musical performance inspiring our culture with beauty and goodness might just be given a better shake while references to Sin City could possibly inspire some ire on the Right. But, no, it is in the club. Better to attack the funding of public television and radio as a convenient straw man for the animus among the American Ayatollahs-and their adherents. Frankly, I am sick of it and I can draw this disgust into a larger debate about the public schools.

Conservatives and free marketers act as if they give a damn about poor children and want to create choice educationally. But, it is only an idealogical argument from what I can tell for most of us. We don't give a damn about poor kids as a rule. Historically, public schools came to be because there were masses of uneducated children...illiterate, and consigned to their own private hells on the factory floor or some other form of squalor. Before we yearn too much to go ahead into the brave new world of choice, let us recall why we are where we are and how we got here. Choice in the past often meant that if you had no money you had no choice, no rights, no vote. You had nothing. You say what you believe. Show me your checkbook and credit card statements and I will tell you what you believe. I fear the once we go to choice it will be only a matter of time that the cash migrates back to the powerful as it always has historically. This is not to say that I don't think the public school doesn't need a moral reformation. For too long Truth has been treated recklessley and religious thought was relegated only to Sunday morning. The acid of skepticism has eroded the foundations of our Republic. Cannot there be a more balanced middle ground where establishment and exercise are kept in tension? 

I recently gave $ 500 to public television and radio. Voluntarily. For the common good.  

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