I am appalled by the notion of cultural wars.

The arts and humanities are vastly more important in troubled times.

If you read literature, you put yourself in somebody else's shoes. You learn from great figures in literature.

America is very decentralized in how it supports the humanities, unlike European countries where virtually everything stems from the central government.

Public decision-making does not lend itself to certitude.

America somehow thinks that leadership relates to governance, and it certainly does. But society is much bigger than governance, and some of the truly great leadership of our society is outside the governance arena.

The majority of U.S. high school students don't know within 50 years when the Civil War occurred.