There are few things I remember from the parts of my childhood I spent in Longview, Washington. I remember living in a little blue house in a dreary neighborhood, the creek in our backyard that would occasionally overflow, and the bearded bus driver that took me to school each day, Ernie. From many rainy rides in our family's minivans, one blurb from the radio was burned into my brain.
"From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is 'Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!', the NPR news quiz."
Sure when I was that young, I never remembered the program as anything more than the funny talk show that sometimes would be on during road trips. But the show stuck with me until I was old enough to recognize what it was and understand more of its humor and charm.
It wasn't just 'Wait Wait' either. Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Marketplace had big impacts on my information appetite in my adolescence. When I visited Washington State University for the last time before becoming a student here and was as lost as I could be on trying to figure out what I wanted to study, it was another blurb that came to mind as my tour group walked past Murrow Hall.
"You're listening to Northwest Public Radio, a service of the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University."
I took these branches of inspiration and ran with them, declared myself a communication major and shortly after freshman year picked up political science as a second major. Today, close to the end of my junior year, I couldn't love what I study more.
Recently, rumors began to surface regarding the federal government's support of NPR via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Rumors stated that the new administration would be severing funding to CPB along with the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. Recently, these rumors were given grounding evidence when the White House Budget Office named these programs as 3 of the 9 that are on the chopping block to lose federal funding.
For perspective, these 3 make up for .016% of the federal budget; around $750 million out of the almost $4 trillion budget. That amount of money is nothing to shirk off but it goes to a good cause. In 2015, the NEA raised over $600 million through matched grants to give to artists, creative fellowships, and performance programs around the nation. The NEH awarded $121 million between 822 humanities programs around the country in 2015, aiding education and public access to information.
And NPR?
National Public Radio is listened to by almost 40 million unique individuals a month, more than the number of people who watch NBC Nightly News each month.
So if you're like me and don't mind less than a percent of your tax dollars going to fund programs that help keep our nation hungry for information, news, and art contact your representatives in congress and let them know how important these programs are to you.
