This author must value his opinion more than anyone else's opinion. I say that because he made statements of how much money was given in grants and public funding, but sited no sources or made any comparison as to demonstrate how better the money could be spent. In my opinion, quilts are a good example of how to recycle material. Quilts are works of art, the same as pottery, paintings, music, and photography. I think that he worries about the money spent for a museum to house our art, but did he mention the joy that a child feels when a quilt is given them at the scene of a fire, a soldier recovering in a veterans hospital, or the old veteran, or the joy a family feels when the quilt of a loved one is given to them at their passing at a hospice house. Irrelevant, tell those thousands who receive free quilts from quilters whose only payments is the joy it gives them to know they made a difference, ahhh! I feel better. Thank you.