Humanities encompass our traditions, our exchange of ideas, our shared histories and how those things are passed on to future generations, says Maggie Coval, executive director of Colorado Humanities. “We firmly believe that humanities belong to everyone,” she adds, “and everyone should have the ability to participate in what the humanities bring to democratic society and the richness in life overall.” Unfortunately, participating in “democratic society” itself is getting more difficult by the day. The National Endowment for the Humanities, which was established with the National Endowment for the Arts and passed by Congress in 1965, has been providing federal grants for humanities projects in Colorado for nearly sixty years and operating grants for Colorado Humanities since its founding in 1974, two years after Congress amended the statute to create state humanities councils. Instead of receiving promised funds this year, though, many NEA and NEH grant winners received a vague emai...