If don’t care to keep up with the Kardashians or can’t stand the fighting Housewives, I highly recommend the new Victoria series on PBS Sunday nights. If you’ve seen the film Young Victoria with Emily Blunt or follow history, you will be familiar with the story. An 18 year old girl becomes Queen in 1837 after the death of her uncle and learns how to rule while navigating those who want to rule her and falls in love. As with any Masterpiece production, the sets and costumes are fit for a queen and should definitely fill the void left by Downton Abbey.

The second episode airs this Sunday night but if you missed the first episode, you can watch it online.

It’s also been widely reported in the last few days that the new administration will eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and privatize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These three entities had a total budget of $741 million for 2016, “according to published documents, or .016 per cent of the $4.6 trillion U.S. budget.”

The NEA is “an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.”

The NEH “serves and strengthens our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities and conveying the lessons of history to all Americans. The Endowment accomplishes this mission by awarding grants for top-rated proposals examined by panels of independent, external reviewers.”

When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favor of the war effort, he simply asked, “then what are we fighting for?”

Please consider making a tax deductible donation to PBS, NEA, and NEH to keep these important institutions running.