OK...it happened. To the disbelief of a majority of Americans, Donald Trump is officially the President of the United States of America. And, now...the great dismantling of iconic institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is set to commence.
But I see opportunities in these Presidential proclamations. Let's say that government gets out of the arts and culture game (which, let me be clear, I think is boneheaded as hell). Will this result in corporate America stepping up to fill the void?
The annual budget of the NEA is roughly $150 million. Apple and Bill Gates together could double that tomorrow without breaking a sweat. Imagine if the members of the Fortune 500 club each contributed $1 million to arts in our schools. The NEA would look positively cute by comparison.
Have we, as a society, allowed government to operate in such a way that the private sector has been able to shrug off its responsibility to the greater good? We're about to see.
On another angle, this video from ESPN's Stephen A. Smith sums it up perfectly.
The hand has been dealt. How we all play it is up to us.
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