The taste of adversity to some is an unwelcome taste. It is viewed as bitter, harsh, distressful or just plain stressful. Think about the times in your life when you have been considered as an adversary, or a devil's advocate, or counterproductive because you sought clarity before coming to a resolution.
This could be particularly true if you are engaged in any type of activity that involves teamwork or civic work. You participate with a group of seemingly like-minded individuals who want to rush through some type of a proposal, or task, without due deliberation or a reasonable period of time for adequate input.
Let's take the State budgets for example. Right now (June, 2009), we have come to know and realize that the PA Senate has rushed through a bill that sorely destroys the cultural aspects of our Commonwealth, because it has stripped down any funding to the arts, cultural institutions, arts in education, impacted funding for libraries and other health and human service organizations and is tentatively wiping out the Earned Income Tax Credit.
As a citizen, we have the right to contact our legislators about said budget and why we are either in favor of it or are not. How we have been invited to participate may not be as blatant as a team meeting called for a work project. We are sometimes forced into our adversarial positions.
But the opportunity to dialogue about these types of issues is what benefits all of our civic society. The freedom that we have, as Americans, is something to be revered. And it is in that reverance, that adversity and lead itself to prosperity when and if the bitter, harsh and distressful conversations that we have bring benefit to our entire culture as a result.
I continue to flash back on an Americans for the Arts convention in the mid-1990's when playwright Tony Kushner remarked about the defunding of the National Endowment for the Arts individual artists programs. As a response to the outrage from the public funding of Maplethorpe and others like him at the time, there had been a severe restriction on continued arts programming funding.
Addressing the audience, Mr. Kuschner (Angels in America, author) stated:
"Ladies and gentlemen. The line has been drawn. You are either for the arts or you are a barbarian." Hmmm...one has cause to ponder. Are we not harkening back to the times when such adversity by elected officials saying "No, culture is NOT important to us," that we have reason to become alarmed?
If prosperity should taste so sweet, it would be on the day that in this Commonwealth, the legislators "get it" and understand the importance of public funding - for a $8 return on investment to the economy for every $1 of tax payers money that goes into the coffers.
Would that the banking or auto industry be held to the same standard!
Harsh, bittersweet, I think not.
