I'm postive you've seen them, those two diligent young men outside the Corner Room. These two gentlemen's actions exemplify a well-orchestrated grassroots effort to preserve something near and dear to their hearts. Mission: Save PBS! They weather cold fronts and snow drifts to solicit signatures and to press for donations. What an admirable thing to do. I suspected that these astute activists would be well versed in the substance and content of the ongoing debate regarding the elimination of funds to PBS. Well my suspicion was wrong.

My conclusion is based on an honest attempt to hear their side of the debate. I posed a simple non-confrontational question to the gentleman manning the signature stand. The question was simple: "Do you know where the proceeds from Barney and Big Bird merchandising licenses go?" The man stammered and spoke under his breath. Unable to hear his response I probed again, and I received what equates to a sarcastic remark. The man said the money from the proceeds from sales of PBS marketed merchandise goes to Bermuda. That drew a typical Ed McMahon laugh from the man's sidekick and proved to me that my question had left both men nonplused.

The problem with the aforementioned encounter is simple. As a society we have let special interest groups direct tax revenue to programs that further their own agenda. As hard as it is for the sidewalk solicitors and the editors of The Daily Collegian to believe, a number of people know that PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts are for the most part, "the other white meat." For example, the taxpayers' share of PBS is a so-called scant $300 million, how much money would Barney, Big Bird, Kermit, and the Cookie Monster have to make in order to settle up with the nonprofit broadcaster. You got it, $300 million! 'Fess up with the coin and there is no debate and the sideshow can pack up their petitions and go home.

Impossible is the cry from the left, we need federal dollars. Just check the numbers, Barney was the third-highest paid entertainer in 1994. The Purple Profit Eater grossed over $500 million in sales of licensed merchandise in 1994 of which $85 million went to the creators, Sheryl and Richard Leach's pocket (Forbes, Oct. 10, 1994). See now all we need is another $215 million, keeping in mind that we are still operating without those terrible commercials. So let's put the arm on Kermit, I know he is good for at least a hundred million in licensing fees. You've all seen all those Muppet movies, now I can't remember, was it free admission? I don't think it was. Think of this if you sign that petition, you will be advocating the use of public money for the sole use of making some private concern rich. Attention hypocrites the line forms on the left.

I simply don't know how to respond to the Collegian's laughable charge that "pulling funding from public television will ... promote censorship." Newt never said Barney was banned. But rather Barney should have the common decency to acknowledge and repay the taxpayers who launch him into stardom. It's the right thing to do.