Arts, Culture and Religion

I support:

  • Generous subsidies for arts and cultural events for city residents
  • Discounted tickets to Kennedy Center and other high culture venues
  • Promoting a firmly secular society and form of government

I believe that part of life-long education includes access to high culture. Therefore, I would propose generous subsidies for the arts including discounted tickets to Kennedy Center performances. I am generally critical of popular culture and believe that it has had a negative effect on human wellbeing and attitudes – especially amongst the youth. Though we cannot put the genie back in the bottle, we can nonetheless encourage people to improve their tastes and expand their horizons via increased access to high culture for all people regardless of income.

I support religious tolerance but believe that the state should be firmly secular. I am opposed to the privileging of any one religion over another by the state and believe that children should be taught about all the major world religions as well as atheism and the secular tradition at school. I staunchly oppose any public money going to religious institutions or religious non-profits. The state should not be subsidizing organizations that have spent their long and checkered existence spreading superstition and, moreover, causing great harm to humankind via countless religious wars, sectarian pogroms, and repression of dissenters.