DEAR EDITOR:

Our Republican-led Congress, acting on orders from 47, voted to rescind previously allocated funds that supported public media.

They at least dropped the

facade that this cut had anything to do with limiting spending, as the money saved by the cut amounted to a little less than ½ of 1% of the federal budget. Sen. Ted Cruz called PBS and NPR broadcasts “left-wing propaganda.”

Our Ohio senators, Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno, and our representative, Michael Rulli, obediently followed their master’s command, ignoring the wishes of the citizens they supposedly represent, and voted in favor of the rescission bill.

But what they actually voted for, in effect, was the subversion of free speech, a “self-evident” freedom guaranteed by the Bill of Rights amendments to our Constitution.

We are free to watch hard-core pornography on our televisions and computers, we can make hate speeches on soapboxes in our public squares, we can tune in to podcasters slandering any and every ethnic group or religion, we’re free to express whatever opinion we wish to anyone who is willing to listen, we can tune in to Fox News to listen to their “right-wing propaganda” but, God Forbid, we should have the right to listen to any broadcast that might expose 47 in an unfavorable light.

These are dark days, indeed.

THOMAS M. BRENT

Struthers