THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 19, 1995 TAG: 9503170142
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
New society makes weapons available to all of its young men.
Old society never made weapons available to its young men until it taught them to dance or sing or make music or drum.
- Melidoma Some and Michael Meade
Maury Cooke has been quoting that to me that for years now.
And his nonprofit organization, Portsmouth Community Development, has been working on projects to enlarge the lives of young people through arts.
The steel drum project that began last summer and a dance program that is planned for the 600 block of High Street this year are among the activities they hope to use to broaden the scope of Portsmouth youth.
Anybody who knows what good music is - and enjoys it - understands the importance of the arts in life - anybody's life, not just the lives of the so-called elite.
That's why it is so bothersome when politicians start budget-cutting. The first thing to get the ax often is something related to the arts.
The great national brouhaha right now is aiming at public broadcasting, television and radio. The new regime in Washington has it on the hit list.
In the course of doing today's story on the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs, I heard my first radio talk show host in person.
One of his major targets on that particular day was public broadcasting.
The country doesn't need public broadcasting enough for the government to appropriate seed money for it, he said. Anything good on public television and radio would be done anyway, he claimed.
That just isn't so.
One Kiwanian cited the Civil War mini-series, which now is a viable commercial production, available on tapes and scheduled for broadcast on a commercial channel. Initially, nobody would touch the production except public broadcasting. Now, after the overwhelming public success, everybody wants a piece of it.
The chances taken by public broadcasting probably have made a difference in commercial broadcasting, but only when there's money to be made as in the case of the Civil War series.
Public television/radio broadcasts of operas is the perfect example of something I believe would not be aired commercially. For me that would be a real loss.
Just about everything I consider worth looking at on television probably would be nixed by commercial television.
Commercial FM radio in this area definitely would not and could not limit itself to classical music as does WHRO, the local public broadcasting station. For people unable, physically or financially, to attend performances or to buy new recordings, the station is a godsend.
A lot of people need public broadcasting because they can't stand what's on commercial stations, including the noise that is called music and the incessant talk shows.
The talk show host at Kiwanis, Pat Murphy, criticized public broadcasting's expenditures. Maybe there are places where the belt could be tightened, but if that is a criterion to be used in cutting the budget, we probably could get the national deficit down to nothing in a hurry.
Public broadcasting is not frivolous. That it is important in the lives of people in the community is emphasized over and over during the years when fund-raising activities are going on. An amazing number of people call in to contribute an amazing amount of money.
But for every one person who contributes, another 11 are watching public television. The proportion of donors to listeners on the radio is even lower, I suspect.
Tax money must help make up the difference for public broadcasting and for other arts projects. That's the only way we can be sure the arts are available to young people who otherwise might be going in another direction. MEMO: Agree? Disagree? The Currents would like to hear from you. Send your
thoughts to The Currents, 307 County St., Suite 100, Portsmouth, Va.,
23704-3702, or fax us at 446-2607.
by CNB