Esperanza Peace & Justice Center

a n d p u b l i c f u n d i n g

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Index of Esperanza v. City of San Antonio

STATEMENT BY DAVID GREENE
September 18, 1997

National Campaign for Freedom of Expression Supports Esperanza's Effort to Promote Respect for Diverse Cultural and Political Viewpoints

The National Campaign for Freedom of Expression is the only national organization dedicated exclusively to promoting the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as applied to the support, presentation, and creation of arts in our culture. We announce our vigorous support for the Esperanza Center in its lawsuit filed against the City of San Antonio.

We support Esperanza not only because we believe that it was unconstitutionally penalized by the San Antonio City Council. This lawsuit represents a challenge to all governments in this country that, using arts funding or whatever other tools at their disposal, seek to endorse one culture over a diversity of cultures, and one political outlook to the exclusion of others.

Barely six weeks ago, the United States Supreme Court made clear that arts funding could not be used as a vehicle for discriminating against unpopular beliefs. The government cannot, the Supreme Court held in National Endowment for the Arts v. Finely, "leverage its power to award subsidies on the basis of subjective criteria into a penalty on disfavored viewpoints... [E]ven in the provision of subsidies, the Government may not 'aim at the suppression of dangerous ideas.'" The Supreme Court recognized that the arts play a vital role in exploring all facets of our national culture and in expressing the whole range of political and social ideologies. Esperanza's lawsuit is the first to follow up on the Supreme Court's admonition.

Cultural and civil liberties groups across the nation and across all disciplines recognize the significance of this lawsuit and its challenge to the institutionalization of a monolithic culture. More than twenty-five organizations, representing visual artists, musicians, writers, publishers, booksellers, dancers, filmmakers, and theater owners, spanning the complete range of artistic style from the avant garde to the traditional, from all corners of the country, and standing for artists of diverse ethnicity have announced their support for Esperanza.

This lawsuit is not about a city's ability to control how tax dollars are spent. It is about whether an entity that in every other way is highly qualified to receive a governmental benefit may be denied that benefit for the sole reason that those in power disagree with its politics and cultural outlook. Our nation's democratic heritage commands otherwise.

What do you think? E-mail us at esperanza@esperanzacenter.org.