Ok, ok - so it's been forever since I've posted. I've come to the conclusion that the bloggers who are able to keep up with their posts probably just have way too much time on their hands. I'll be making an effort to catch up an keep a regular posting schedule again over the next few weeks (I know - promises promises)
Speaking of promises. Charles Schumer promised to represent the needs and interests of the people of New York State, however this past week he voted in support of the Coburn Amendment, which would specifically exclude the arts from the stimulus package currently being considered by Congress. The Coburn Amendment considers the arts to be a privilege on the same level as golf courses, casinos and stadiums. The "Coburn" of the Coburn Amendment is a senator from Oklahoma. I'm going to give him some latitude here and assume that the general lack of support for the arts in Oklahoma has created a spiral effect that has wiped the state of all but the most elitist expressions of what the arts can be. That sort of elitism is not my experience or my expression of art. However I give no latitude to my own Senator, Charles Schumer. He ought to know better and he ought to be fighting tooth and nail to educate his peers in the Senate as to the overwhelmingly populist and positive effects that the arts can have on a community. What follows is a letter that I posted to Senator Schumer's website. When posting to his website, you are required to choose a topic from a list that you will presumably be addressing in your post. The arts is not among the topic selections. I encourage you all to find out how your senators voted on the Coburn Amendment and to hold them accountable, loudly and publicly, for their actions in the coming days.
"Shame on you Senator Schumer for not even including the arts as a topic for discussion on this web page! Shame on you for supporting the Coburn Amendment, which will not end the employment of the musicians of the New York Philharmonic - but it will take the legions of musicians who have decided to make New York their home OUT OF THE SCHOOLS and AWAY FROM OUR CHILDREN. They are not employees of schools - they are employees of all the organizations that the Coburn Amendment will cut off from help in these terrible times. Children who participate in the arts do better in school. Period. But public schools in our times do not have the capacity, staff or organizational mechanisms to raise the funds or provide the support necessary to implement such programs on their own. Especially schools who serve the neediest of our children. However concert halls, theater and museums do. Because they EMPLOY education specialists. They EMPLOY teaching artists. They train those teaching artists and they seek out opportunities for them to serve the children of this city in places where even the Department of Education seems to have given up. Perhaps those days are coming to an end though. Perhaps the time when the pervasive altruistic efforts of the arts community to provide peace, education and opportunity to the throw-away children of our society is finished. Perhaps Senator Charles Schumer has bargained away one of the few shining lights in the otherwise desperate lives of the poor children of New York City."
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