[859] in libertarians
LP Release: National Conversation
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (William Winter)
Fri Mar 31 18:18:48 1995
Date: 31 Mar 95 18:05:56 EST
From: William Winter <73163.3063@compuserve.com>
To: *Matthew Platte <73150.470@compuserve.com>,
Kay Shiel <74633.614@compuserve.com>,
*Randy Langhenry <71610.3614@compuserve.com>,
Roger Erickson <RogErick@aol.com>, *Tom Edwards <tedwards@wam.umd.edu>,
Gail Lightfoot <sufficit@aol.com>,
Wayne Parker <75024.3345@compuserve.com>,
"J. Miranda" <j.miranda3@genie.geis.com>,
LP of Arizona <safe@indirect.com>,
"\"G. Thomas Rush\"" <thomasr@cpqhou.compaq.com>,
David Nolan <73303.1612@compuserve.com>,
*Don Henson <Don_Henson@delphi.com>,
NH Politics Online <71233.255@compuserve.com>,
"*John T. Paff" <j.paff1@genie.geis.com>,
Larry Phillips <larry.phillips@esbbs.com>,
Angel Prouty <angel@dash.com>, *Jim Merritt <presbyte@aol.com>,
*Jim Conk <jim.conk@theorem.com>,
"Alachua Co. LP" <libparty@freenet2.freenet.ufl.edu>,
Michael Brinkman <brinkma1@student.msu.edu>,
*Jim Solomon <solomon@comm.mot.com>,
Vernon Imrich <libertarians@MIT.EDU>
-----------------------------------------
NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
1528 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
Washington DC 20003
-----------------------------------------
For immediate release: March 31, 1995
For additional information:
Bill Winter, Director of Communications
(202) 543-1988
-----------------------------------------
Federal government's National Conversation
is $1.6 million "boondoggle for blabbermouths"
WASHINGTON, DC -- The federal government doesn't think Americans talk
enough.
So the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) gave away $1.6
million of taxpayer's money yesterday as part of a new program to encourage a
"National Conversation."
"Only in America!" marveled Libertarian Party spokesman Bill Winter.
"Only in America would the government pay people $1.6 million to talk more. I
mean, this is the nation of Rush Limbaugh, New York cab drivers, and Bill
Clinton's State of the Union speeches! Insufficient chatter is not generally
perceived to be one of America's most pressing problems."
The National Conversation program is designed to get "Americans to
think and talk about themselves" and stimulate discussion "about what the
American people are as a nation," according to news reports. The money was
distributed in grants around the country to "creative people," communities,
and civic groups.
NEH spokesman Gary Krull said the $1.6 million will be spent on
"guidelines, moderators, and meeting rooms" for the National Conversation.
"I'm not a government bureaucrat, so maybe I'm missing something, but
Americans seem to have no problem finding places to chat -- on talk radio, in
coffee shops, on the street, and on the telephone," said Winter. "And we seem
to manage our conversations quite nicely, thank you, without federally
subsidized moderators and guidelines."
"Americans used to believe in free speech. Now NEH bureaucrats believe
in expensive speech -- expensive, tax-subsidized speech. Here's the
Libertarian Party's two cents worth of conversation: Abolish this preposterous
program. End this boondoggle for blabbermouths," said Winter.
# # #
