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Presidential Arts And Humanities Committee Disbands Over Trump's Charlottesville Response

AUG 18, 2017 @ 11:44 AM Madeline Berg , FORBES STAFF
https://www.forbes.com/

The 17 members of President Donald Trump's Committee on the Arts and Humanities resigned Friday morning in response to Trump's reaction to the violence and protests in Charlottesville, which have included the equivocation of the white supremacists to counter-protesters, as well as Robert E. Lee to George Washington.

"We cannot sit idly by, the way that your West Wing advisors have, without speaking out against your words and actions," the members wrote in a joint letter to the President. "Ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions. We took a patriotic oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

At the end of the letter, the members call on Trump to resign if his values do not align against white "supremacy, discrimination and vitriol".

This follows the disbandment of Trump's business advisory--which includes the Strategy and Policy Forum and the Manufacturing Council--earlier this week as the CEOs of many of the country's largest businesses protested Trump's remarks during a Tuesday press conference that seemed to express sympathy for the neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville. Unlike those councils, the arts and humanities council is an official White House agency.

The arts panel has existed since 1982 when President Ronald Reagan created it to advise the White House on cultural issues, including investment in arts education, public-private arts projects, and the preservation of historical and cultural landmarks and artifacts. The first lady, currently Melania Trump, serves as the Committee's honorary chair.

The current council was chosen by President Barack Obama, as Trump has not yet appointed new members, and includes Kal Penn, Paula Boggs, Chuck Close, Richard Cohen, Fred Goldring, Howard L. Gottlieb, Vicki Kennedy, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anne Luzzatto, Thom Mayne, Eric Ortner, Ken Solomon, Caroline Taylor, Jill Cooper Udall, Andrew Weinstein, George Wolfe and John Lloyd Young?.

Dear @realDonaldTrump, attached is our letter of resignation from the President's Committee on the Arts & the Humanities @PCAH_gov pic.twitter.com/eQI2HBTgXs

— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) August 18, 2017

The full text of the committee's letter is below.

Dear Mr. President:

Reproach and censure in the strongest possible terms are necessary following your support of the hate groups and terrorists who killed and injured fellow Americans in Charlottesville. The false equivalencies you push cannot stand. The Administration’s refusal to quickly and unequivocally condemn the cancer of hatred only further emboldens those who wish America ill. We cannot sit idly by, the way that your West Wing advisors have, without speaking out against your words and actions. We are members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH). The Committee was created in 1982 under President Reagan to advise the White House on cultural issues. We were hopeful that continuing to serve in the PCAH would allow us to focus on the important work the committee does with your federal partners and the private sector to address, initiate, and support key policies and programs in the arts and humanities for all Americans. Effective immediately, please accept our resignation from the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

Elevating any group that threatens and discriminates on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, disability, orientation, background, or identity is un-American. We have fought slavery, segregation, and internment. We must learn from our rich and often painful history. The unified fabric of America is made by patriotic individuals from backgrounds as vast as the nation is strong. In our service to the American people, we have experienced this first-hand as we traveled and built the Turnaround Arts education program, now in many urban and rural schools across the country from Florida to Wisconsin.

Speaking truth to power is never easy, Mr. President. But it is our role as commissioners on the PCAH to do so. Art is about inclusion. The Humanities include a vibrant free press. You have attacked both. 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. This does not unify the nation we all love. We know the importance of open and free dialogue through our work in the cultural diplomacy realm, most recently with the first-ever US Government arts and culture delegation to Cuba, a country without the same First Amendment protections we enjoy here. Your words and actions push us all further away from the freedoms we are guaranteed.

Ignoring your hateful rhetoric would have made us complicit in your words and actions. We took a patriotic oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Supremacy, discrimination, and vitriol are not American values. Your values are not American values. We must be better than this. We are better than this. If this is not clear to you, then we call on you to resign your office, too.



For the latest on the entertainment industry, follow me on Twitter @MadelinePBerg.

https://www.forbes.com/


Members of White House presidential arts committee resigning to protest Trump’s comments
By Ed O'Keefe August 18 at 9:12 PM

Here’s a copy of the resignation letter from committee members. Several readers have noticed that the first letters of each paragraph spell out the word, “RESIST” — a common refrain among Trump’s critics.

Members of the President’s Commission on Arts & Humanities resignation
letter to President Trump on Scribd
...
https://www.scribd.com/document/356620864/Members-of-the-President-s-Commission-on-Arts-Humanities-resignation-letter-to-President-Trump#from_embed
...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/08/18/members-of-white-house-presidential-arts-commission-resign-to-protest-trumps-comments/?utm_term=.59fa3106a3d5