Over the course of decades in America, the one thing that has brought a divided country together has been the arts.
Eric Schaeffer – File Photo by Todd Franson
The arts are a vessel that brings ideas to life, introducing each of us to different, and sometimes challenging, points of view. They help us begin conversations and understanding about different people, different ideas and different ways of thinking altogether. They provide a safe place where no one is judged while thoughts and ideas are exchanged. Songs can move us, words can change us and music notes can stir our soul.
I hope the next four years we can use art to heal, accept different points of view and grow as a country that continues to be a melting pot of immigrants founded with the principle of free speech.
As President Kennedy said, “I see little of more importance to the future of our country and of civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist. If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.”
The opinions expressed in these letters are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations and this magazine, its staff and contributors.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has reposted a CNN clip featuring Doug Wilson, leader of the Christian evangelical movement he follows, in which the pastor calls for making gay sex illegal.
“In the late ’70s and early ’80s, sodomy was a felony in all 50 states. That America of that day was not a totalitarian hellhole,” Wilson says in the seven-minute segment, reports the Daily Beast.
Wilson goes on to say he wishes the United States would revive anti-sodomy laws, which criminalized same-sex relations -- and, in some states, even certain non-vaginal sex acts between consenting heterosexual partners.
The Desperado LGBTQ+ Film Festival, a 16-year-old annual event hosted at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, has been canceled in "direct response" to President Donald Trump's executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at federally funded schools.
The festival, held each January at the college's Center for the Performing Arts, showcased films reflecting LGBTQ experiences and most recently featured seven feature films and seven shorts.
Trump's order requires colleges to end all DEI programs or risk losing federal funding. Organizers said Paradise Valley Community College could not afford to jeopardize its funding.
"I was really into politics at a very young age," says Tim Miller, host of The Bulwark Podcast and an MSNBC political analyst. "I can't remember what they were called, but you'd get those kid magazines about politics that would come to your school, and I remember always really being drawn to them, and reading them and wanting to know more. I always knew lots of weird facts about politics and geography as a little middle school nerd."
Raised in St. Louis until fourth grade, when his family relocated to Littleton, Colorado, Miller became enmeshed in conservative politics at a young age, taking various campaign jobs throughout his career as a former Republican strategist. He jokes that his success at handicapping political races dates back to the 1992 election, when he won a $1 wager after betting his grandmother that then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton would unseat sitting president George H.W. Bush.
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