Sunday, August 20, 2017

Arts Committee Resigns. Time To Get Some Trump Supporters On It


Entire Committee Resigns To Protest Trump

"Dear Mr. President..."
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An entire presidential committee has resigned after disagreeing with President Donald Trump’s response Tuesday to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia Saturday.
Sixteen members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities resigned Friday morning in protest, The Washington Post reported.
“We cannot sit idly by, the way that your West Wing advisors have, without speaking out against your words and actions,” the members wrote to the president in a joint letter.

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“Ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions.”
Like other critics of the president this week, members of the PCAH believe Trump did not go far enough in his condemnation of white supremacists involved in the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend.
Created in 1982 under the Reagan Administration, the PCAH serves as an advisory committee to the White House on cultural issues. Members use art programs as a form of economic revitalization and cultural diplomacy. They recently met with artists and entertainers in Cuba.
First Lady Melania Trump serves as the Committee’s honorary chair.
President Trump’s 17-member committee was made up of well-known names such as Kal Penn, Chuck Close, Vicki Kennedy and others.
Many members of the PCAH openly endorsed, campaigned or fundraised for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election.
The departure of the PCAH follows resignations of people serving in the White House’s Manufacturing Jobs Initiative and Strategy & Policy Forum.

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But unlike these other advisory groups, the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities is an official agency, making this the first White House department to resign.
It does appear, however, that their opposition to the president goes beyond Charlottesville. Other grievances were listed in their resignation letter.
“You released a budget which eliminates arts and culture agencies. You have threatened nuclear war while gutting diplomacy funding. The administration pulled out of the Paris agreement, filed an amicus brief undermining the Civil Rights Act and attacked our brave trans service members. You have subverted equal protections, and are committed to banning Muslims and refugee women & children from our great country,” the members write. “This does not unify the nation we all love.”
Every member within the committee are hold-overs from the previous administration, having been appointed by President Barack Obama. The PCAH has not met under the Trump White House.
What do you think?

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