The Arts, Rough Patches and Politics
August 30th, 2007I became a “Liberal Democrat,” real quick, when I became a single mother. (That was a couple of decades ago.)
It was a no brainer.
Democrats “seem to” or are “supposed to” have some empathy for those who are going through a “rough patch.”
The Harbor School for Girls is my neighbor.
People asked me, “How could you do that?”
Easy. So far (one decade later) they’ve been great neighbors. And two, I know, under different circumstances, I would have welcomed to be welcomed in a place like “that.”
I hate the phrase “but for the grace of god go I” (like what about the other folks, no “grace” for them??), but how many times have I said to myself, “but for the grace of god go I.” I can tell you a whole LOT of times I’ve said “but for the grace of god go I,” during the last 2 decades.
And, just as a btw, if we had had a Democrat for president for the last 6+ years, I bet there would be a whole lot more money for cities and towns across America for things like education and other important municipal stuff.
And we, Newburyport, MA, along with a whole lot of other cities and towns might NOT be in the fiscal crisis we are now. There might be some sort of balance between national security and making sure that while we were taking care of national security, financially, cities and towns across the USA weren’t slowly or fastly drowning.
And, Liberal Democrats seem to like the “arts” more. (I am a artist/painter) It seems as if they do NOT want to slash the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
It appears that they realize that artists are good for the economy.
When artists “discover” a community and embrace it whole heartedly, miraculously other people think it’s “cool” too, and that community or place gets a “rebirth.” Witness, the Village, Soho and Chelsea in NYC (my home town), and yes, even Newburyport and now Amesbury in good old Massachusetts.
Seems artists have a good “eye” for real estate, before most of them promptly get “priced out” of the market that they created. Only to move on like nomads in search of yet other “suitable space.”
And, I like the idea of living within one’s budget and paying one’s bills on time, and not being terrifyingly in debt. (We now have a gargantuan national debt.) This is called being a “fiscal conservative.” One can be a social Democrat and a fiscal conservative. It seems as if the fiscal conservative thing has been a bit of an “enigma” to the Republican regime that is in power, at the moment. (Even some Republicans think this.)
I have no idea why I decided to blog on this topic(s) today, but I did. It’s been percolating in my brain for quite a while, so there it is.
Mary Eaton
Newburyport