Put your TrumpBux to work

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. . . helping the arts groups left out of hist-rillion-dollar bailout plan.

A few days ago I strongly criticized hawking performing arts subscriptions yearly to tide the withering organizations from bankruptcy. Here’s a way to help them out that doesn’t require robbing the 2021 season to pay for 2020’s.

Just between us: do you really need your $1,200 share of the federal largess? Many do. But I’ll bet that there are tens of thousands of families in King County alone for whom $1,200 is . . .pardon my Yiddish … bupkis. And $1,200 times just 10,000 is 12 megabucks.

Don’t look on this as an opportunity to throw little bunches of bills in all directions. Live large: put the whole bundle on the your favorite bunch of (now literally) starving artists, whether large (the Symphony, Opera, Ballet) or modest (Pacific Music Works, Seattle Shakespeare, Spectrum Dance). $1,200 is enough to get you noticed; enough to give you a place at the table when times lurch back toward normal and we can all together start looking for a way to make the arts a rooted part of the national economy.

But what about public health, education, the social safety net? They’re already set to get help, though not enough and too late to help avoid serious damage. But if the arts establishment takes a dive, it’s probably not coming back. Now is your time, Arthur Pewtie. Forward into the breach!

Roger Downey
Roger Downey
Born in Canada moved to Peru's altiplano at the age of six; came to the U.S. at 10 to discover that you don't use your feet to dribble the ball. Learned from the git-go that "America" is an idea, not a place.

4 COMMENTS

  1. I certainly can understand the idea of using some or all of your Trumpbux to support a sector of the economy which, among others, has been particularly hard hit by the Coronavirus. There are many worthwhile things that money could be used for if you don’t need it for food or rent. But I have a different idea for my money. Given what we have seen of Trump over the last few months, the need to stop him from getting a second term becomes all the more imperative. So you may want to consider donating all or a portion of your money to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. Getting Trump out of office is, to me, the most important thing we can do now.

    • That was my first reaction, Bob, though I planned to send a note to the White House about what I’d done. I came down the other side of the line, though.

  2. Thanks for this, Roger. 40 years in local theatre, and, not to lessen the impact on so many areas, but I’ve never experienced anything that has come close to this threatening for our whole arts and culture community. Good to have your continued championship of our local arts scene. It’s very appreciated.

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