Painting ourselves into a corner...

It seems to me that the attitude America has about the arts is getting kind of... sick.

After all, the arts are pretty much the foundation of culture and civilization. Don't believe me? Well, grab something... anything... out of today's world, and I can guarantee that I can trace it directly back to art.

If it needs a design, a jingle, paint, coordination, a write up, or any one of a thousand things, then someone, somewhere, has to utilize his, or her, art training to make it happen. In fact, we know so much about our past thanks to art. It was painters, sculptors, musicians, and poets that recorded our past; preserving it for future generations to argue over, later.

There isn't any aspect of modern life that doesn't owe something to the arts. And, through artistic expression, we form the foundations of interpersonal relations with each other as society across genders, races, and classes.

So, you can imagine my dismay when, again, I've heard that the school arts budget has been slashed in half. And not just at the college, either. In every academic setting, the arts are getting cut back, or cut out, first and foremost. Music, literature programs, and the fine arts are all on the chopping block to save money just to keep schools going.

In most cases, I don't blame administrators. They're doing what they have to to keep the doors open and kids at desks. No, I can look to legislature and government for the lion's share of the blame; policies and economics that have devalued some of the most fundamentally important things to a healthy society for the quick fix to band aid issues they let happen in the first place in the name of selfish greed.

The precedent is quite clear, in history, for what I'm talking about. Most scholars can point to a culture's changing, or disintegrating art - like Rome, or late kingdom Egypt - and show the parallels as that society fell apart. Maybe, in today's disposable American culture, where every attention whore needs to be a star, and entertainment is just a euphemism for cash cow, it's a little more difficult to see. But, the signs are there.

And, soon, it could be too late.

Peace and grace be with you; go out and save the arts... and save us all.