Rep. Obey: ‘We Have An Obligation To Salvage As Many Jobs As We Can’
Rep. Obey: ‘We Have An Obligation To Salvage As Many Jobs As We Can’
Conservatives have been selecting one small provision after another to justify their opposition to the proposed economic stimulus package; one of the latest is a measure sending $50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts. On the House floor today, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) defended the provision. He noted that it represents a small sliver of the stimulus, which will keep local organizations and artists working, and that “we have an obligation to salvage as many jobs as we can” regardless of field:
People in the arts field are losing their jobs just like anybody else. You have local arts agencies, you have local orchestras, local symphonies, local arts groups of all kinds who are shutting down, laying people off and in a number of instances going bankrupt. This is a small, tiny effort to keep some of those people employed over the next two years. I make no apology for it. We have an obligation to salvage as many jobs as we can, regardless of the fields in which people work.
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3 Responses to “Rep. Obey: ‘We Have An Obligation To Salvage As Many Jobs As We Can’”
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Thank goodness, Obey is a voice of reason, reminding us that artists work! So often artists are expected to give their talents to communities and campaigns to add emphasis and meaning to events. Imagine the Civil Rights Movement without the song “We Shall Overcome.” Think of the recent inauguration ceremony without singer Aretha Franklin and cellist Yo Yo Ma, among the many other performers. As we hunker down economically, the arts have the power to galvanize communities and inspire us to move out of this recession. Artists deserve to be paid to work, too!
January 29th, 2009 at 5:56 pmIt is nice to have someone speak up for us.
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:39 pmThe Republicans don’t seem to feel quality
of life matters. I’m so glad most of them are
gone!
Right on man! But what can we do. For many of us our sales started to trickled off years ago. We watched galleries close and sales at art shows disappear.
February 8th, 2009 at 11:45 amHow would the business community get along without us if all arists went underground. No more hip galleries sprouting up in the depressed part of towns. Those galleries always show up before the hip coffee shop, resturants, and then the rents get so high the gallery has to move out.
How about no more entertaining commercials during the TV foot ball games. No cartoons or graffic ads for newspapers and magazines. No paintings to hang on your wall to show how classy you are.
Oh my god no tattoos. No jewlery or crafts. No more clothing designing? What the hell will you wear in spring?
No more gallery nights! Where else can you show off your designer eye glasses? Oh right you won’t have any. You can always make them yourselves and wear them to church along with what you sewed together on your singer.
But we artists will in secret build out sculptures, and mix our paints in our underground and not share any of it with the non artists. We’ll start an artist cult. And when an artist dies we distroy the art they made over their live times and only other artists will have ever seen it. We’ll show them! Right? Hey? Where are you all going? Hey come back! Come back? You know I’m right!!! Gark K.