This morning's mail (actually, this weekend's mail) included a copy of the paperback edition of "American Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA when FDR Put the Nation to Work," by Nick Taylor.
Taylor writes of the legacy of the WPA, pointing out the WPA programs, in addition to building thousands of miles of roads, bridges and buildings, and served millions of meals to school children, it also was the reason for the creation of nearly 500,000 works of art, 225,000 concerts attended by 150 million people; plays, vaudeville acts, circuses and the like that entertainment 30 million more; and produced more than 270 full-length books and 700 pamphlets, most of them on American history and the current society.
Sunday's front page feature in the Tulsa World was about how President Barack Obama's proposed stimulus package could spawn a number of "New Deal"-like projects in and around Tulsa.
And a number of artists I know sent me a bunch of frantic emails, about Sen. Tom Coburn's amendment to the package (#175, if you're counting), demanding that:
"None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, arts center, or highway beautification project, including renovation, remodeling, construction, salaries, furniture, zero-gravity chairs, big screen televisions, beautification, rotating pastel lights, and dry heat saunas."
This passed the Senate, 74-23.
And to be honest, I'm not surprised.
Sen. Coburn's amendment is really quite cleverly worded to make one think it's not something all that serious -- almost a joke amendment, in a way.
And we know what a coven of cut-ups the U.S. Senate is.
But consider: The amendment starts out in a sternly official tone, but the first few items in the list of things for which Sen. Coburn wants no money spent are "well, of course!" things. "Casinos make gobs of money," the reader is sure to opine. "Of course they need nothing more from the federal government."
And that's all well and good. So one reads on and comes across "other gambling establishments, aquarium, zoo, swimming pool..." and -- as if right on cue -- the eyes kind of glaze over, and one is tempted to skip to the end of the amendment to see how things are wrapped up.
That is where you read about the "zero-gravity chairs, big screen televisions, beautification, rotating pastel lights, and dry heat saunas."
And these things you laugh at. I mean, isn't "dry heat sauna" something of an oxymoron? (I realize that there are such things, but typically when you hear the word "sauna" you think steam)
So you miss the fact that the list includes the words "museum, theater, arts center."
Establishments that, based on the wording of Sen. Coburn's amendment, should be grouped with such socially and morally suspect businesses as casinos, or be considered as nonsensical and frivolous as zero-gravity chairs and rotating pastel lights (didn't those go out with aluminum Christmas trees?) and dry heat saunas.
But the arts are not a joke. They are -- and could be even more so -- an extremely important American industry, one of the few that enrich the soul as much as filling the coffers.
Check out this:
Read the story: Stimulate the Arts and Keep America Strong
