A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. – Martin Luther King, Jr.

On July 3rd I read an article in the Huffington Post which said that in three days: “Nearly 65,000 Democratic supporters have contributed an average of $35. . .”  I took out my calculator.  That is $2,275,000.  $1,000,000 of which was raised in 24 hours.  On a Saturday.

And I had to think: ‘what is wrong with our nation?’

We are turning our backs on our arts. . . our culture. . . for ‘lack of funding’ but when there is a political battle to be waged, we fill the war chests and face each other from across the aisle wearing our blue and red t-shirts and crying our support and love for this great nation.

So I read what Martin Luther King said.  And, although he is referring to our military, as our parties amass their enormous accounts so that they can destroy the opposition in order to win, I am beginning to see no difference in the potential outcome.

Just following September 11, 2001 I read a book by the Nobel Prize winner, Elias Canetti, called ‘Crowds and Power.’  In this book Canetti demonstrates how we move from individual thinkers to non-individualized beings.  He shows the various ways in which we lose our personal power and join our energy to a crowd energy.  He explains this as a product of the ‘human condition’ and gives many examples of how very quickly it can occur.

It seems to me that we have all agreed we are a country in economic crisis that simply must allow the ‘extras,’ which enhance the quality of life and expand our potential as human beings, to be pushed aside and buried as unnecessary ‘luxuries’ during this time.   And then the political machine goes into gear…. and we, with our ‘average of $35’ contributions, follow.  Writing our checks and scanning our credit cards with passionate enthusiasm for our vision of ‘the future’ embodied in a candidate we likely will never meet who will not fulfill all our dreams of an utopian United States of America no matter how hard he or she attempts to fulfill their campaign promises.

I simply wonder what would happen if we didn’t.  Could you imagine what would happen in this country, in your town, your city if that $1,000,000 raised on that Saturday had gone to support the arts and arts education?

Who are the victims of this war?  In my mind, the victims include our communities, our children, our future.  When over two million dollars appears in less than a week to support our passion for taking sides and overcoming the opponent (who, by the way, are our neighbors and family and friends), but theatre companies, museums and dance companies are closing, children are losing their exposure to arts programming and educational support for their creative development, and therefore the future of our society is being eliminated. . . I think the victims are clear.

We, as a nation, have found more interest in the power of politics than in the true daily occurrences in our own lives and the lives of our neighbors.  When the campaign is over and the television networks, who are major ‘winners’ in this fight, announce who is elected, or re-elected to the various offices we can look at the most costly and expensive race for power in the history of our country and know who the true losers are.  Ourselves.

We can choose differently, if our priorities as a nation were different.  It is possible that we can awaken from this ‘crowd mentality’ to realign our focus toward the values which can reflect the truth of who we are.  A nation of individual cooperative people, a generous nation, a nation which reflects the world as a prism through the individuals found in our schools, our parks, our stadiums, and our theatres.  A nation which values what we create and, yes, this likely requires we insist the money flows from supporting campaigns in the hundreds of millions of dollars to creating tangibles in our communities we can benefit from and be proud of.

The Global Theatre Project, and so many organizations in this truly great nation, are your neighbors and friends who are working to make our country, and our world a more holistic and communal place.  If there should be money raised with vigor and passion it should be for those organizations and individuals who are working to bring us all together through positive creative and socially impacting work.

I must admit I am appalled by the amount of money pouring into this campaign.  We are not at our best when we move into a mode of automatic response to the war of Democrats versus Republicans.  I believe we then reach the precipice of ‘spiritual doom’ that Martin Luther King identifies.  But, like Mr. King, I have a dream.  My dream is that one day very soon we will wake up from our slumber, see the waste of these resources, how appalling it is and choose a different path.   I propose a campaign for finance of our arts and education. . . what if, this Saturday, we simply raised $1,000,000 for support of the arts.  Obviously, it’s not really such a difficult thing to do.

Bari

As Artistic Director and President of the Board, I would be remiss if I didn’t suggest a donation of $35 or more would be put to good use by The Global Theatre Project.  You can click here to learn more. And feel free to tell 65,999 of your friends and colleagues!