99Seats Has His Howard Beale Moment

And you can read it here. I'm pretty steamed about the Yosi move, the Glenn Beck assault on the arts (and on administration "Czars" in general) and the people who purport to support the arts who fell for it.  

I've been pretty preoccupied with MilkMilkLemonade over the past two weeks and it's been hard for me to focus on this, but I guess my thought is this: On some level, it's never going to be worth it to an American administration to stick up for the arts.  There's always going to be "something more important" that we need to "move beyond this issue to address". This is going to be particularly true with the Obama administration because Obama has made it extremely clear that he's a very ambitious President w/r/t public policy.  In one year, he was hoping to tackle a bailout, financial regulations, cap and trade, a stimulus package and health care reform. Two of those big ticket issues (the regulations and cap and trade) have been moved at least until next year and probably won't get taken up until after the mid-term elections.  

This state of affairs w/r/t the arts is upsetting to me, and disappointing. And like 99, I'm pretty fucking pissed off.  But being from the "Don't mourn, organize" school of thinking, my mind immediately goes to: It's going to take a lot work on our part to make sure the arts aren't just a convenient and controversial horse to trade. Or if they are, if that's going to be the arts' role in the legislative process, we need to get something out of it in return.  

In the meantime, if this issue pisses you off, write a letter. A real one. You probably know the address already, but in case you don't it's:

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

Wasington, D.C. 20500

According to the website, they want you to include your e-mail address with your letter.

Comments

[99]

Snail mail? For the Mac President? Puh-leese.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

[isaac]

Don't ever send e-mails to politicians. They don't pay attention to them because they don't take effort to send. The calculus (this is according to Clay Shirky anyway) is that every snail mail letter send represents 1000 people who feel similarly. An e-mail is just an e-mail.

[kelsi]

While good public policy can lead to a more vigorous and well-funded art world, you're right - a country which has a government based on puritanical values is never going to grant the arts the credence they deserve in terms of quality of life issues.
That being said - dudes, write a letter *and* an email. There really is no such thing as too much, in terms of getting our voices heard.

[99]

Good points all.