Dear Mr. President…

Dear Mr. President…….. First, let me tell you how delighted I am to be able to say those words.

It has been a horrible 8 years for this country for a lot of reasons.  I won’t go into the political, social, economic, moral, ethical, religious, or psychological reasons as they will, each and every one of them, require the combined efforts of the publishing industry for the next 10 years to chronicle.  I will stick with the artistic, and that has been bad enough.  The artistic policy of the USA lately has  reminded me of this classic scene from The Blues Brothers:

I know there are a lot of things wrong right now, and that there are a lot of industries that are clamoring for a bailout and some personal attention from the Commander-in-Chief.  I am very sure that someone in the Arts is going to suggest that we need a bailout ourselves, or that funding for the NEA should increase by 500%, etc.   I am going to advocate that you ignore those recommendations.  Instead I have two ideas that I think would have much more of an impact on the Arts world and the greater society which is the USA.

#1 – Increase the tax deduction allowance for donations to 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations to 150% of the donation amount.

In other words, if I donate $100 to the Upper Podunk Festival Orchestra please allow me to take a tax deduction of $150.  God help me for stealing a page from the Republican playbook but as the old saying goes “even a broken clock is right twice a day.”  The government is not the most efficient way of promulgating many of the services provided by non-profit orgs, whether that be something like the Red Cross or the aforementioned orchestra.  An increase in the deduction amount would encourage people to donate to non-profits and it would help to foster a sense of ownership and responsibility in the general public.  It would be something of a matching grant – help fund your favorite org and you will get even more back at the end of the year.

#2 – Real reform of the US Educational system.

Honestly, Mr. President, the are large swathes of the secondary scholastic system in this country that are a complete embarrassment.  First of all, there’s this ridiculous over-emphasis on standardized tests.  They teach how to take tests, something almost irrelevant in today’s world.  We should be focused on teaching children how to think linearly, not on memorizing dates.  For example – “2 + 2 = 4” is NOT math.  That is addition.  It is part of math.  “Why does 2 + 2 = 4?” – THAT’s math.

If we teach our children to think linearly we are pushing them to be more creative, to make connections between ideas that might not be immediately obvious.  This is the type of thinking that leads to great advances in our society, creative new ideas, bold new understandings of how we can make our society better.  What better way of encouraging this methodology than by teaching the creative and performing Arts?  How many more studies that prove the link between Arts education and improved scholastic results do we need before we realize that this would be a great long-term investment for our country?  We need fundamental changes to our education system, and the return to a true Liberal Arts Education program will be critical for our future.  Hey, it was good enough for Thomas Jefferson, perhaps it should be good enough for the rest of us.

There, Mr. President.  Two ideas – one short term, and I think (relatively) easily done via the tax code.  One long term which would require a lot of hard work.  But, Mr. President, we are up to it.  All you have to do is issue the challenge.  My response, and the response of millions of my fellow Americans will be:

“Yes we can.”

Most Respectfully,