Me, mourn the dismissal of National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Frohnmayer? Get out of my face! Artists and poets have lamented to being beggars probably forever, but those who kneel at the steps of the NEA and then expect to freely speak out against the government are pawns at best, shills at worst.

The Collegian projected Pat Buchanan and Jesse Helms as "patrolling creativity's outer limits" when they "threaten the NEA's future." Does creativity only fall from the NEA, giving America "cultural health?"

And why shouldn't Buchanan and Helms speak out against the NEA? The NEA comes out of every taxpayer's pocket, and Buchanan and Helms represent the taxpayers who don't like some of the NEA's projects (or even art).

I don't care to listen to Garth Brooks. Therefore, I do not buy his work. I like Public Enemy, so I buy their LP's. Imagine "Public Enemy -- courtesy of the U.S. government."

Because the NEA is at the mercy of Bush or any other president, it can never claim a legitimate place in the realm of free expression. The NEA only makes it more difficult for artists to bleed a little of their unique expression, those artists who believe enough of their work to stand alone behind it, and offer it to the marketplace of ideas.

In a world of many bummers and disillusionments, at least allow artists the chance to believe in their own creations. Art is not created to "contribute directly. . .to the economic health of communities."

Let us please just close down the NEA. And even if taxpayers go out and spend their "freedom of expression" dividends on trips to Opryland, United States, I'll still be happier.