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S.E. Wood Here I go again At the risk of being considered an "old
grump," here I go again! My wife and I had the occasion
to recently drive from Cookeville to Bristol. Beautiful weather.
Trees in all their splendor. Delightful trip. But I couldn't help noticing at most every
intersection, and some spots in-between, there was the Tennessee
Department of Transportation, carefully, and expensively fumigating
and cultivating acres and acres of right-of-way, presumably in
preparation for the planting of spring wildflowers. (If they are "wild" flowers, why
do they need such expert soil preparation anyhow? But we'll save
that for another day.) I am sure by next spring, God willing, these
areas will, indeed, be beautiful. Then in the paper there was an announcement
by Richard Boyd, chairman of the Tennessee Arts Commission, that
delays in state funding had "forced another grant deadline
and panel review process for the financing of art in the Upper
Cumberland region." This artistic region includes the counties
of Cannon, Clay, Cumberland, DeKalb, Fentress, Jackson, Macon,
Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Smith, Van Buren, Warren and White.
The application deadline for taxpayer-funded
artistic grants was rescheduled for Oct. 29. The stated purpose
of these financial grants is to "build communities by nurturing
artists, arts organizations, and art supporters in each of Tennessee's
95 counties." So again, I say, please don't get me wrong:
I love wildflowers. And I love objects of artistic endeavor.
But the news also brought calls for a special session of the
state legislature to again consider increased taxation in order
to support the state's "bare-boned budget." Now I ask,
do either of the above-mentioned items sound "bare-boned"
to you? Can you think of a better way to build communities
than by "nurturing artists, arts organizations and art supporters?"
How about reopening the brand-new $27 million firefighters training
center? How about sufficient law enforcement to eliminate the
meth labs now showing up throughout our communities? How about
finding jobs for the unemployed? How about educating our children?
Sorry, but if our state is in the financial peril our legislators claim, they have a funny way of showing it. · · · |