Add a giant bright yellow canary to the endangered species list, as Newt Gingrich and his grouch-like cronies wage war on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Big Bird, Oscar and their human friends all risk extinction in this giant step toward censorship. And that's exactly what eliminating the NEA and pulling funding from public television will do -- promote censorship.

It's not a matter of money. A three-year study revealed that the "nonprofit arts world" would bring in a $3.4 billion return in federal taxes. The NEA's budget is $167 million. But we'll still be spending $2 billion to build one B-2 bomber. It sounds like the government is more concerned about destruction than creation, although no one has mentioned who the United States might be fighting.

Grant recipients such as performance/artist Laurie Anderson, dancer Bill T. Jones, author Oscar Hijuelos and author Isaac Bashevis Singer would have been lost to a maze of corporate sponsorship and poverty without the NEA. But, they were given the dough to make their voices stronger, their statements heard louder.

Sol LeWitt, a minimalist artist, told the Village Voice, "Artists define society. We are not the lapdogs of the establishment. It's a measure of our freedom that some of us who receive grants are anti-establishment. Art is commentary -- controversial or not. To shut it down is to create a closed society." Without the NEA, culture and commentary will lose its base and its backbone. Without government support for PBS, which only gets 14 percent of its budget from federal funds, the loss of programs and stations is imminent.

Although not everyone may agree with the Mapplethorpe photographs and put "Masterpiece Theater" at the top of their viewing list, those types of art and others must not be restricted to the types of constraints that will fetter them as their producers search for funding, forced to appeal to a mainstream audience or, worse, the interests of big business.

While Newt-ites cry that those institutions are too liberal for average Americans, maybe Repubilicans shouldn't be too liberal with defense spending.

The United States cannot afford to lose the energy and power that new forms of art can have. And students, especially aspiring artists, cannot afford to sit still and watch this happen.

If you want to save the arts, you can do something about it by calling the following number to get up to date information and the opportunity to send a mailgram to your representative and senators:

-- 1-800-651-1575, Cultural Advocacy Campaign Hotline