Nicholas Kristof<\/a>\u00a0MARCH 30, 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n CreditMark Lennihan\/Associated Press<\/p>\n So what if President Trump wants to deport Big Bird? \u00a0We\u2019re struggling with terrorism, refugees, addiction, and grizzlies besieging schools. Isn\u2019t it snobbish to fuss over Trump\u2019s plans to eliminate all funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting?<\/p>\n Let me argue the reverse: Perhaps Trump\u2019s election is actually a reminder that we need the humanities more than ever to counter nationalism and demagoguery. Civilization is built not just on microchips, but also on arts, ideas and the humanities. And the arts are a bargain: The N.E.A. budget is $148 million a year, or less than 0.004 percent of the federal budget. The per-capita cost for Americans is roughly the cost of a postage stamp. \u00a0The humanities may seem squishy and irrelevant. We have a new president who doesn\u2019t read books and who celebrates raw power. It would be easy to interpret Trump as proof of the irrelevance of the humanities.<\/p>\n Yet the humanities are far more powerful than most people believe. The world has been transformed over the last 250 years by what might be called a revolution of empathy driven by the humanities. Previously, almost everyone (except Quakers) accepted slavery and even genocide. Thomas Jefferson justified the \u201cextermination\u201d of Native Americans; whippings continued in American prisons in the 20th century; and at least 15,000 people turned up to watch the\u00a0last public hanging<\/a>\u00a0in the United States, in 1936. \u00a0What tamed us was, in part, books. Harriet Beecher Stowe\u2019s \u201cUncle Tom\u2019s Cabin\u201d famously contributed to the abolitionist movement, and \u201cBlack Beauty<\/a>\u201d helped change the way we treat animals. Steven Pinker of Harvard argues that a surge of literacy and an explosion of reading \u2014 novels in particular \u2014 \u201ccontributed to the humanitarian revolution,\u201d by helping people see other viewpoints. There is also modern\u00a0experimental evidence<\/a>\u00a0that reading literary fiction promotes empathy.<\/p>\n The humanities have even reshaped our diet. In 1971, a few philosophy students, including an Australian named Peter Singer, gathered on a street in Oxford, England, to protest the sale of eggs from hens raised in small cages. This was an unknown issue back then, and passers-by smiled at the students\u2019 idealism but told them they\u2019d never change the food industry.. na\u00efve? Today, keeping hens in small cages is illegal in Britain, in the rest of the European Union and in parts of the United States. McDonald\u2019s, Burger King, General Mills and Walmart are all moving toward exclusively\u00a0cage-free eggs<\/a>, because consumers demanded it. \u00a0Singer, now a Princeton University professor, is a wisp of a man who defeated an agribusiness army with the power of his ideas and the muscle of the humanities. (Singer has a terrific recent book, \u201cEthics in the Real World<\/a>,\u201d that wrestles with how much we should donate to charity, and whether wearing a $10,000 watch is a sign of good taste, or of shallow narcissism.)<\/p>\n In short, the humanities encourage us to reflect on what is important, to set priorities. For example, do we get more value as taxpayers from Big Bird and art or music programs, or from the roughly $30 million Trump\u2019s trips to his Mar-a-Lago golf resort will cost us when he\u2019s tallied nine visits in office (he\u2019s already more than halfway there)? That\u2019s also more than the\u00a0cost of salaries and expenses\u00a0to run the National Endowment for the Humanities, not including the grants it hands out. \u00a0 Do we get more value from billions of dollars spent on deportations? Or from tiny sums to support\u00a0art therapy\u00a0for wounded veterans? \u00a0 Then there\u2019s our favorite bird. The Onion humor website\u00a0reported<\/a>: \u201cGaunt, Hollow-Eyed Big Bird Enters Sixth Day Of Hunger Strike Against Proposed Trump Budget.\u201d In fact, Big Bird will survive, but some local public television stations will close without federal support \u2014 meaning that children in some parts of the country may not be able to see \u201cSesame Street\u201d on their local channel.<\/p>\n In 2017, with the world a mess, I\u2019d say we need not only drones but also Big Bird, and poetry and philosophy. Indeed, our new defense secretary, Jim Mattis, apparently shares that view: He carried Marcus Aurelius\u2019s \u201cMeditations\u201d to Iraq with him. \u00a0It\u2019d be nice to see Mattis drop off \u201cMeditations\u201d for the new commander in chief. And maybe present the first lady a copy of \u201cLysistrata.\u201d \u00a0 Look, I know it sounds elitist to hail the humanities. But I\u2019ve seen people die for ideas. At Tiananmen Square in China in 1989, I watched protesters sacrifice their lives for democracy. In Congo, I saw a tiny Polish nun stand up to a warlord because of her faith and values.<\/p>\n The humanities do not immunize a society from cruelty and overreaction; early-20th-century Germany proves that. But on balance, the arts humanize us and promote empathy. We need that now more than ever. \u00a0Jamaal May\u2019s contemplation of our city brings a strong poem to bear on what Nicholas Kristof writes in the form of a wise essay.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s Post: \u00a0 \u201cThere are birds here\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>By\u00a0Jamaal May<\/p>\n For Detroit Jamaal May, \u201cThere Are Birds Here\u201d from\u00a0The Big Book of Exit Strategies<\/em>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Monday, March 2, 2020 I happened upon Nicholas Kristof\u2019s March 30 column about the importance of art and the humanities. \u00a0 In the process, he\u2019s written a strong explanation for why the \u201cWork Day in a Hard Time\u201d poetry list … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2016\/11\/Header6.jpg\")
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\n<\/em>There are birds here,
\nso many birds here
\nis what I was trying to say
\nwhen they said those birds were metaphors
\nfor what is trapped
\nbetween buildings
\nand buildings. No.
\nThe birds are here
\nto root around for bread
\nthe girl\u2019s hands tear
\nand toss like confetti. No,
\nI don\u2019t mean the bread is torn like cotton,
\nI said confetti, and no
\nnot the confetti
\na tank can make of a building.
\nI mean the confetti
\na boy can\u2019t stop smiling about
\nand no his smile isn\u2019t much
\nlike a skeleton at all. And no
\nhis neighborhood is not like a war zone.
\nI am trying to say
\nhis neighborhood
\nis as tattered and feathered
\nas anything else,
\nas shadow pierced by sun
\nand light parted
\nby shadow-dance as anything else,
\nbut they won\u2019t stop saying
\nhow lovely the ruins,
\nhow ruined the lovely
\nchildren must be in that birdless city.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2016\/09\/JamaalMay.jpg\")
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\nCopyright \u00a9 2016 by Jamaal May. Reprinted by permission of Alice James Books.<\/p>\n