Escaping water's injury;
The scars are not the wounds.
It is hoped that Senator Helms remarks are not seen as representative of Scottish Rite Masons. I am also a Mason and join in the ancient spirit of integrity, openmindedness, and exploration of the mysteries whose symbols we have received from the unconscious. It is almost unnecessary to write anything to refute this article. The assumption that the arts which have been funded by the NEA are the same as what is sold as pornography is entirely false, although I believe that those who create pornography may have many suitable words for their own defense. It is bizarre to me that a respected Senator can lump pornographers, gays, lesbians, and artists who have been chosen by a respected panel of other artists for the NEA together as the cause of the most heinous crimes in America.
435-436
The heart is overawed, overawed;
The foot wears a golden slipper.
There is no ambition;
The ditch becomes a raging torrent.
Wrangles and division;
Alexi de Toqueville also praised our judicial system.1 This judicial system has served to protect our rights an has helped better define the difference between obscenity and art. According to the Supreme Court something would have to meet all of the following criteria in order to be legally obscene:
1) It must be prurient in nature
2) It must be completely devoid of scientific, political, educational, or social value
3) It must violate the local community standards
If someone's work has been approved by the carefully chosen artist panel of the NEA, it must have some some "scientific, political, educational, or social value" in it.
1 Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America; n.d.; rpt. 1945; Vintage Books.