We need to change the discussion on the "culture of life"

[kerrygoddess]

Last night Teresa Heinz Kerry gifted $4 million to the Andy Warhol Museum. The Republicans have skewed the "culture of life" to be nothing more than a morality issue. However, the "culture of life" is so much more!

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Teresa Heinz Kerry is in the news once again as she continues her work as a philanthropist and environmentalist. Sandy recently posted a piece about Teresa addressing 250 doctors and scientists on the impact of environmental problems on human health, at a conference at the Herberman Conference Center in Pittsburgh.

Teresa is one of our country’s leading environmentalists. “In September 2003, she was presented with the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism for her work protecting the environment, promoting health care and education and uplifting women and children throughout the world.”

Last night, Teresa announced “a gift of $4 million to the endowment that helps fortify Pittsburgh's lively, provocative hub of contemporary art and popular culture” at the “Spike-a-Delic Gala, dinner and dance party held at the South Side Works, a new development created by Warhol board member Damian Soffer.”

She said that the museum's founders had hoped it to "add to Pittsburgh's stature as a center for the arts" and it has succeeded in accomplishing that goal.

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Thanks to Teresa and others dedicated to the arts, museums like the Andy Warhol Museum can still thrive in today’s bleak economy that is more focused on corporate profit than education and culture. We hear a lot these days about the “culture of life,” however that buzz phrase seems to be somewhat skewed, for surely the arts are one the great gifts of the true “culture of life.”

We need to talk about this “culture of life” in the terms of what is missing and what is being left behind, in this effort to bill it as simply a morality issue.

A true “culture of life” embraces our society in all its diversity. It honors the many paths to enlightenment celebrated in by our nation’s separation of church and state. It enhances education and enrichment, and encourages the advancement of the arts and sciences for the betterment of all and the improvement our society, which is the life’s blood of our very existence and the soul of our purpose on this planet.

More - http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=691