Hartog’s Den

Gentlemen of the Council,

May I begin with the sentiment that I do not envy the decision before you. I know of no citizen that purports to be anti-arts or anti-library or anti-parks… these are all good things, which any fine upstanding citizen would wish to have in his or her community. But alas, the times being what they are, YOU are left with the awful decision of what parts of our community shall be reduced or even eliminated to best preserve the whole.

Gentlemen, I have every faith that you are all educated, logical, and well-intentioned men. I have every faith that you are men who care genuinely about the community that you represent, no doubt why you have chosen a path of public service. And I have every faith that you comprehend the import of your thinking as it pertains to the future of this community; but may I emphasize, that we as a democratic society have vested in you a profound amount of power over the quality of our lives and the lives of succeeding generations. In the coming days and weeks, you will wield this power to drastically change local public spending, and in so doing affect the quality of life of tens of thousands of your constituents.

Now, I am not a professional actor. Indeed, it is with deep pride I call myself an amateur, in the truest and most original sense of the word – from the latin amare, to love. I dabble in theatre because I love it, and because I love the people with whom I have had the pleasure of associating in the course of my time in it. And in eleven years and across three states of involvement with the performing arts, nowhere have I seen a cadre of people with more love for what they do, than in the three community theatre groups, the many arts programs, and the staff and crew that make a second home of the Palmdale Playhouse.

In our playhouse gentlemen – and I say “our” inclusive of yourselves, as indeed it belongs to all of us in the this community – in our playhouse, we certainly believe in creating art, in touching lives, in drawing out both smiles and tears in the spirit of self reflection; but most prominently, we believe in learning. I cannot quote to you the number of youth and adults in the many community arts programs at the playhouse, as I do not know those figures; and in any case, I am sure you have been pouring over such figures over the last several months besides. But the number of members of the local community who have benefited from the Playhouse’s programs, either as participants or audience, is no doubt an impressive figure would it be estimated.

I would venture to guess that in the last few weeks you have received many letters and speeches about the playhouse specifically; allow me to instead use my time to present a broader perspective. If we look to history, as great civilizations have gone through periods of decline, the first men and women to be reduced are the artists and the inventors. Yet in these visionaries, these people of ideas and self-reflection, is where we find the defining characteristic of what makes our civilization great.

In our support for arts and ideas, we express fundamentally American values. The right to think freely and reflect on who we are as a society is no less cherished a right than the right to petition one’s government, as I do even now with these words. Our arts represent a society that welcomes progress, change, innovation, and the self-analysis that allows for continuous improvement, and encourages the spiritual growth that comes with artistic expression.

And these values have given us much; consider, gentlemen, the astounding volume of innovative and creative American thought that has led our way from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of the modern world. Just as during their respective apexes, and even still today, we marvel at and learn from the architecture, sculpture, drama, and philosophy of ancient Rome and Greece, so to has the global community in the past century been dominated by American arts and culture. Regardless of whether one agrees with the individual message of a particular artistic piece, the core value of upholding the right to express ourselves freely and creatively is fundamental to every artistic endeavor.

This grand vision is not somewhere out there in the abstract nether. It lies here, in this community, in this Palmdale Playhouse, in every small community arts program across the nation. True, the Hollywoods and Broadways of the nation make more headlines, but here at the local community level is where the heart of that artistic expression is born and grown. It is here that we take an evening to enjoy the pleasures of drama or music, of dance or the visual arts, and to either get away from or celebrate our lives for a few hours. And it is here that we teach our children to be tolerant, open-minded, well-rounded, cultured citizens who appreciate the beauty — the sometimes terrible beauty — of life.

The arts seldom balance a spreadsheet. They rarely provide profit or deliver a concrete product. But the flag raised over Iwo Jima served no logical purpose either; neither does the Statue of Liberty provide any concrete benefit to anyone, besides perhaps the direct employees who work there. Yet for such things, the return on investment is as intangible as it is profound. The arts and the Playhouse are not only the spirit of the local community, they are part of a greater whole that represents who we are as a people; and this spirit, especially in the darkest of times, must not be taken from us.