Posted by Joe Baker on January 31, 2003 at 10:18:19:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Houston Symphony Cutting Jobs, Salaries posted by RAYN on January 30, 2003 at 23:19:23:
"We need to have art and music and it is the governments responsibility to make sure we do."
Ray, there are a great many things that mankind needs, and I think art and music are among them. Not necessarily any PARTICULAR kind of art and music, but SOME kind. We also need food, shelter, clothing, and love -- and it isn't up to the government to give us ANY of those things. It is up to us, ourselves. It is also up to us to decide what KIND of food we want to buy and what KIND of music we want to listen to. Suppose McDonald's continues to have harder and harder times. People just aren't buying McDs like they used to. Do you want the government to keep them in business because "we need to have food, and it's the government's responsibility to make sure we do"? Of course not! The market has chosen other alternatives. I don't care for the popular music today, but I'm not asking for government subsidies for 70's art-rock or for big-band music. I'll pay for them with MY money, and someday I'm sure I'll have to be content to only hear old recordings. Will this happen with orchestras? I hope not. But it is not up to the government to decide or act, it is up to people who love that form of music.
BTW, the other guy WASN'T elected. Among counted popular votes, he got more; but (as you know) that is not how that election works. And, because it is NOT how the election works, absentee ballots -- which run overwhelmingly Republican -- were never counted in most states. We also don't know how many people - from EITHER party - stayed home because they knew their state was a lock for their candidate (or for the other guy). I don't really know or care whether a true popular vote would have come out differently, because that's not how our system works. So the other guy DIDN'T get elected.
Joe Baker, who is astonished that an ACLU member would so disregard the Constitution.