Hey,

The American government needs to take some of the money we'll no longer be needing for the Iraq war, and direct it toward programs working for the preservation of art and education in our society. Art in present-day American culture is in serious trouble. After having experienced decades of diminished assistance from the government, the arts and education programs in this country are all but dead. What's worse is that in order to remain on life support, gasping for its dying breaths, the the arts, and consequently the culture in this country have taken a dramatic turn towards marketing and consumerism. The brilliant minds of my generation, sadly, are not painters or musicians, scientists or mathematicians, philosophers or even philanthropists. My generation is full of advertisers and television stars, sociopaths all, vying for a place at the top, in a world where "the top" is becoming increasingly crowded.

I fear that our country has focused so singularly for so long on one narrow-sighted goal, which was keeping us safe from our enemies, that we've forgotten what it is we were working so hard to save in the first place. In the heat of the tempers over the last decade, we've burned all the ideas and beliefs we were so afraid would be corrupted by "outsiders". What we've found is that corruption comes from within as well as without.

What we as a united nation need to do is reestablish the importance we once held for the education of our youth and ourselves. We must reclaim the unbridled celebration for the arts we once had. We must realize that the only way to fix our situation is to look to our past for guidance, and to dream the solutions for the future.