The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 14, 1997 Page: 4 of 22
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high, it is be- '
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•nsive cuts of 1
BKEF from page 2
"people food." The
cattle spends most ofti
inn, not eating corn and w'
grain consumption is high,
cause grain production is
not because the grain is
dered to produce expensive cuts
meat.
For those who are worried about
global hunger and U.S. grain pro-
duction, be aware that the United
States has been the largest exporter-
<;f edible grains in the world for the
past 20 years, thereby providing food
for developing countries. Far from
being a nation of wasteful food glut-
tons, the United States is the world's
breadbasket. Grazing allows the uti-
lization f all of America's grain crop
and all of its land. That is hardly
wasteful. American farmers and
ranchers, likewise, are the original
environmentalists. If they misuse
their land, they starve and so
does ihe world.
Because of I he circulation of mis-
iii fori rial ion, thefar-too-oft-maligned
meat producing industries may
needlessly become as passe as the
tobacco industry. Spreading misin-
formation about agricultural prod-
ucts has consequences beyond huge
monetary losses to farmers and
ranchers. *"
The Disparagement of Food Act,
for example, is a recent statute
passed in response to the Alar scare,
in which apples were alleged by the
media to be saturated with toxic Alar
I he hype caused huge losses to
apple growers.
Soon, this precedent may be ap-
plied to the beef industry. Paul
Fngler and Cactus Feeders. Inc. has
filed suit against media superstar
()prah Winfrey
Winfrey badmouthed beef on the
air. probably causing many of her
viewers to give it up, during the
bovine encephalitis, or "mad cow
disease," si are. and others followed
m her footsteps during the E coli
■a are (l! /■'. coli is your concern,
blame Hudson Beef and other irre
■■■ponsibie packing companies, not
tin b' 'ei it self.'There are simple steps
dii consumer can take to ward off
ativ food borne .illness, such as
proper handling and cooking.)
Winh e\ may b< found to be in viola-
tion the Disparagement of Food
Vt When industries are falsely ae
i used of producing harmful prod
nets, pru es tali, causing them losses
in the miilionsof dollars and hurting
the I \S. economy as a whole — and
thus the world economy.
Going vegetarian may have it-s
health Ik in Ot s. but if you have given
up heel because you want to feed
thu world, you have been "sorely
misled RSVP's intent in observing
Hunger and Homelessness Aware-
ness Month and sponsoring the
Hunger Banquet is noble, but the
group, like the media at large, should
be responsible in all ot its
endeavors.
Marty Heard
Brown senior
> ■ ■"
1 the Oct. 31 letter to
Jt Hip-HopAwareness
>ay ("Hip-Hop Awareness Day
opens student's eyes,") J thought 1
should clarify and add to Gordon
Wittick's comments. Hip-Hop
Awareness Day 1997 was an event
sponsored by the Fresh Rice Break
ers, the^ official breakdancing and
hip-hopclub of Rice. Hip-Hop Aware
ness Day's purpose was to bring to
the eyes, ears and ruinds of Rice a bit
of & culture that is not, to say the
least, prevalent on campus: hip*hop
culture.
Hip-hop is a street culture that
came of age in the late part of the
1970s in both New York City and
part s of southern California. Strictly
speaking, hip-hop has four major
elements: DJing (the mixing of mu-
sic, which involves the percussive
use of record scratching): B-Boying
(street dancing, which includes the
styles of popping, locking, electro-
Some of Rice is more
aware of hip-hop
culture and how to
become involved in it
as a result of Hip-Hop
Awareness Day 1997.
boogie, breaking and new school):
MCing, or rap; and graffiti A com-
mon misconception is that hip-hop
and rap are the same thing. Rap is an
element of hip-hop, not hip-hop it
self. The other three elements of
hip hop have been largely over
looked in recent years, Despite that.
these other elements are alive and
well in many places around the
world, including here in Houston.
When Wit tick asks the question,
"llaveyou ,711 y idea how graffiti can
fit into a musical genre?"you can say
in return that the question is "a bit
misguided " You might add a "yo"
lor emphasis to show the true power
of street knowledge. Apparently
Wittick was given some not entirely
accurate knowledge by a certain man
called "J." J will be corrected.
In any event, we of the Fresh
Rice Breakers feel that some of Rice
is more aware ofhiphop culture and
how to become involved in it as a
result of Hip-Hop Awareness Day
1997. We know that bringing a true
awareness to the entire campus
would be a hU*ge undertaking, but
we feel we have made our first step
in taking on* this gargantuan task.
All we can do now is to hope for the
best and keep it real.
Roy Keyes
President, Fresh Rice Breakers
Sid sophomore
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/vis>i detractors construct argument oasea on mytns,
compositions, (namely
To the editor
As a freshman music major
from New York City, appreciation
and access to the arts have been
major parts of my life. I have par-
ticipated in many music programs
(such as the Lincoln Center Cham-
ber Music Society program) and
gone to a music school every Sat-
urday for the past 13 years/largely
due to endowments and scholar-
ships provided for by the National
Endowment for the Arts. It has
been sUeh a positive'force in my
life that 1 have come to think that
everyone shares my view. Sadly,
Todd Makse's article in last week's
77 m/ier ("NEA unconstitutionally
wastes our money." Nov. 7) only
served to remind me that many
people do not understand exactly
how the National Endowment of
the Arts works. Allow me to dispel
some common misconceptions:
MYTH: The NEA is an expen-
sive burden for American taxpay-
ers to bear.
REALITY: The entire cost of
N EA funding comes out to approxi-
mately 38 cents per American. In
Canada and France, citizens pay
$32 per capita in taxes to support
the arts. In Germany, the number
is even higher. In fact, the United
States pays far less for the arts
than most of our major allies.
MYTH: Most of "the people"
support cutting back funding or
eliminating the NEA altogether.
REALITY: 61 percent of Ameri-
cans said they would be willing to
pay $5 extra in taxes to support
federal efforts in the arts,
MYTH: The NEA gives most of
its money to middle-to-upper class
starving artists.
REALITY: The primary func-
tion of NEA funds may be to sup-
port individual grants, but only 5
percent of its budget goes to indi-
viduals. 'Hie remaining 95 percent
goes to educational programs and
concert expenses. The Educa-
tional Broadcasting Corporation
receives' $800,000 from the NEA
to support the production of Great
Performances. NEA money also
supports programs such as 1 )ance
on-Tour, which enables" dance
companies to reach new audi-
ences. The NEA also s-uyports the
ck Maria Film and Video Festi-
5, which exhibit a variety of
Black I
vals,
independent film and video. Also,
programs to support summer and
year-round internships are com-
monly funded by the NEA.
MYTH: The loss of the NEA
will be made up for by private
donations.
REALITY: Unfortunately, Mr.
Makse doesn't understand that the
main reason we even receive pri-
vate donations is due to the NEA!
Each endowment the NEA gives
must be matched at least on a 1:1
ratio and up to 3:1. with private or
locall spending. Without this dona-
tion match, not-for-profit organi-
zations could not exist, along with
most of the major syrriphonies,
dance groups, museumsand other
artistic foundations that are in dire
need of financial support. Sym-
phony orchestras (such as the
Houston Symphony) must raise
an average of $26 over t icket prices
per seat per performance just to
break even. Student-priced tick-
ets to the opera and symphony
would be obsolete. This would only
be the beginning of a vicious cycle,
where only an elite few would be
exposed to most of the arts.
What angered me about
Makse's statements regarding
"laws of the market" and the fed-
eral government telling the people
what is important, is that he obvi-
ously does not comprehend the
fact that exposure to the arts and
"the people's" ability to decide
what they want go hand in hand. If
people are not exposed to a variety
of different things, then their lack
of choice obviously dictates what
they choose to listen to. If we let
the market decide what people
want to listen to, soon most con-
certs will feature only Eine Kleine
Nachtmusik, Pachelbel's Canon
and other crowd pleasers, because
in order for performers to be able
to sustain a living, they will have to
play "what the people want." And
yet, how can people make an edu-
cated choice about whaUliey want
if they are only exposed to such a
limited amount of music and art?
Less than KM) years ago, if you had
asked many established musicians
what they thought of Stravinsky's
11, a
te of
Spring") they would have labeled
his music as "noise.- Now it is part
of the standard repertoire of every
major orchestra in the world.
MYTH: Since justification for
N EA spending is not in the Consti-
tution. it should not be supported
by the federal government.
REALITY: Most of the things
our government funds are not pro-
vided for in the Constitution. Aren't
many American farmers getting
federal government subsidies to
produce crops that many timCs
end up sitting in a warehouse? If
we had to pay "fair market price"
for these goods, most farmers
could not support their families or
themselves.
What a'bout the Center for Dis-
ease Control or the Food and Drug
Administration? Is Makse suggest-
ing that we abolish these neces-
sary yet constitutionally unpro-
vided-for institutions?
It seems that Makse needs to
be updated on some fairly recent
scientificdiscoveries pertaining to
the benefits of music education in
a child's life. Children who learned
a musical instrument at a young
age had significantly higher cog-
nitive skills, as well as much bet-
ter mathematical understanding,
than other children. Makse's
school choice plan seems to make
light of these discoveries. What if
I felt that my child didn't need
math or science? Don't I still need
to pay for another child's expo-
sure to it? Even if it means an extra
40 cents per capita? Especially
since people are discovering that
exposure to classical mtisie is not
only important for a well-rounded
society, but vital to how a child
later processes even non-musical
information.
Lastly, many Pulitzer Prize.
Academy, Tony and Emmy award
winners have all received grants
from the NEA. In fact, Alfred Uhry
said of his Pulitsfer Prize winning
play Driving Miss Daisy, "Without
the help of the National Endow-
ment for the Arts, it would never
have gotten out of my garage and
onto the stage."
Christine Grossman
Sid freshman
Conservative opponents of art funding undermine their own positions
7u the editor:
I found it interesting that last
week's counterpoint concerning
National Endowment for the Arts
funding ("NEAunconstitutionally
wastes our money," Nov. 7) con-
tained ample evidence against the
author's argument. While it may
be true that the NEA has funded a
few egregious artisitic endeavors
(which conservatives love to turn
into blanket examples for every-
thing that the agency does), the
vast majority of its work is worth-
while, and above all, necessary in
our society. Todd Makse and many
other conservatives would have
us believe that "there is no consti-
tutional justification for such
spending." This literalistic view, if
followed to its logical end, would
turn our nation into a dinosaur,
unable to adapt to changing times
— or, worse yet, unable to define
them. For Makse's information,
there are a lot of things funded by
the government that are not "con-
stitutionally justified" in his terms.
Would he also remove funding for
the National Science Foundation,
college loans and the space pro-
gram? Would he end the tax breaks
that have allowed the middle class
in this country to grow and be-
come homeowners? None of this
is called for in the Constitution —
would he consider it a part of the
evil "welfare state?"
Makse states that he is not op-
able parts of learning." Yet when
confronted with his own
argument's end of forcing school
boards to choose between low
taxes and more art spending, he
blithely assumes that the school
boards would "replace that fund-
ing with local tax dollars." I would
personally challenge Makse to
come to the school board meeting
in my county in Florida, where tax
rates practically define^ school
board policy, and make such a
statement. Furthermore. I would
challenge him to make such a state-
ment in any other county in
Florida, Texas or California, where
the state education systems face
massive budget shortfalls. Does
he not believe that raising prop-
erty taxes and other school taxes
would cause voter revolt at the
polls, particularly in less urban
communities that have smaller tax
bases? Are these children to be
deprived of these "valuable parts
of learning" simply because they
do not live in a big city &here
wealthy patrons can help support
the arts?
Even though the author thinks
that art and music education is a
good thing for all students, he is
contept to let "parents who be-
lieve that arts education is impor-
tant" determine their child's des-
tiny. In doing so, he is forced into
desperate overtures concerning
school choice, which he believes
posed to art and music education would solve aUth**problems. Some
in schools and that "they are valu- questions: One, what would hap-
pen if a student didn't live near a
city with a art-curriculum school?
Two, if a school board ruled that
money was more important, what
would keep them from slashing
the rest of the budgets for art (and...
spofts and clubs and music), as
many already have? Makse seems
to deny the fact that NEAfunding
keeps thousands of small commu-
nities' art budgets afloat, or even
in existence, amidst tight fiscal
situations, lastly, if political con-
ditions in some communities fa-
vored a "School choice" of low
taxes over extracurriculars, how
many hundreds of thousands of
students would go through their,
academic careers without any ex-
posure to art? How could this pos-
sibly fit into his view that art and
music "are valuable parts of learn-
ing"? What the conservatives are
really saying here is "yes, art and
music are valuable... if you go to a
prep school or live in a posh sub-
urb and can afford it." So much for
the liberals being the elitists.
In closing, Makse states that
we should "give control of the art
world back to the free market." I
would simply like to ask: Since
when has art been a capitalistic
enterprise and not a reflection of a
culture or a society? Conservatives
of this nation, please, stop getting
your ideas about the NEA from
Rush Limbaugh, and plug into re-
ality.
Brian RietrmmmM
0 Jones freshman
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Hardi, Joel & Siy, Angelique. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 11, Ed. 1 Friday, November 14, 1997, newspaper, November 14, 1997; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth246607/m1/4/?rotate=90: accessed June 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.