Mookie's Musings

Donald Trump Proposes Eliminating National Endowment for the Arts

Donald Trump has been elected to the presidency of the United States with virtually no checks or balances. The House of Representatives and the Senate are both in Republican hands. Trump will be able to name at least one, if not more, justices to the Supreme Court. A racist, sexist demagogue will have nearly unlimited power.

So what the hell is the point of arts and entertainment?

It’s tempting at a time like this to withdraw within yourself, to shut everything out and succumb to helplessness. Watching a movie, going to the theater or listening to music feels like a futile exercise right now, an inevitably unsuccessful attempt to escape the storm clouds barreling down upon us.

But as hard as it is to believe right now, the darkest moment in modern American history, art and the artists who create it are more important than ever. They are a voice and a home for the marginalized groups of this country.

At Mic, we often parse the statistics on how well Hollywood, Broadway, the music industry and other artistic platforms are representing marginalized groups. Often, the news isn’t good. There’s tremendous work that must be done to better find and boost female and queer voices. People of color remain remarkably under-included both in front of and behind the camera. None of that work goes away because the president-elect is someone who threatens the pillar of democracy; in fact, it becomes all the more vital.

Art is a venue for speaking out against the powerful. Think of the protest anthems from throughout history: Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” for the civil rights movement, or Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” for the women’s liberation movement. Think of Jimi Hendrix’s “Machine Gun,” protesting the Vietnam War.

Films like Selma serve as megaphones for artists like Ava DuVernay to say something profound about not just the way we lived when Martin Luther King Jr. was alive, but how we do now when protests break out in places like Ferguson, Missouri. Musicals like Hamilton argue for the power and importance of immigrants at a time when Americans elected a man who wants to build a wall to keep them out.

When hate reveals itself, art counters with brilliance. Art counters with inspiration. Art counters with anger. And art counters with love.

George Saunders, “My Writing Education: A Time Line” (via newyorker)

California has eight hundred and forty miles of coastline adjoining the world’s largest ocean. At a time when drought has cost the state thousands of jobs and billions of dollars, some people believe desalination is the answer. This is the Carlsbad Desalination Project, set to convert ocean water into pure tap water—it pumps a hundred million gallons of ocean water each day.

Read more about desalination and its opposition on newyorker.com.