|
Volume XVII, Issue 7 - February 12 - February 18, 2009
|
|
Columns Reviews |
We welcome your opinions and letters – with name and address. We will edit when necessary. Include your name, address and phone number for verification. Mail them to Bay Weekly, 1629 Forest Drive, Annapolis, MD 21403 •
E-mail them to [email protected]. or submit your letters on line, click here
Let’s Get Some New Thinking on the Bay
Dear Bay Weekly:
Re.: Burton’s Bay Report Card of Jan. 15:
As President Obama has said, “What is required is new thinking.”
This statement is so true when it comes to restoring the Bay’s health in Bill Burton’s and my lifetime (I’m 70 and have lived on the Bay for 30 years.)
Our politicians just don’t get it. Nor do they care. Perhaps, may I suggest, the new way of thinking be to prosecute the Bay’s polluters. This will ruffle many feathers and undoubtedly anger the chicken farmers and their lobbyists and all the other lobbyists who don’t give a damn whether the Bay dies or lives as long as they pick up a paycheck each week.
–Cliff Dean, Annapolis
Reaching Across Oceans
Dear Bay Weekly:
I have stumbled on an article in your newspaper (or magazine, please forgive me, as I’m not sure which it is) while undertaking a Google search for information relating to my family.
I would be most grateful if you could forward this email if at all possible to a Mr. Rick Meatyard of Tall Timbers Marina, St. Mary’s County, as it is just possible from his brief description of a restored 1940 Matthews yacht in Dock of the Bay (Aug 2-8, 2001) that the vessel named Valmara may well have belonged to a relative of mine who had it built and was therefore its first owner.
With many thanks in advance,
–James Lucas, London
Editor’s note: Mr. Lucas’ letter has been forwarded to [email protected]. Do any readers know anything more to help in his search?
Stimulate the Arts
Dear Bay Weekly:
As Congress reconciles the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the arts and culture sector must be included. The arts are essential to the health and vitality of our communities. They enhance community development; spur urban renewal; attract new businesses; draw tourism dollars; and create an environment that attracts skilled, educated workers and builds a robust 21st century workforce.
Nonprofit arts organizations are proud members of the business community — employing people locally, purchasing goods and services within the community and involved in the marketing and promotion of their cities. In fact, there are more full-time jobs supported by the nonprofit arts than are in accounting, public safety officers, even lawyers and just slightly fewer than elementary school teachers.
There are approximately 100,000 nonprofit arts organizations, which spend $63.1 billion annually. Without an economic stimulus for the nonprofit arts industry, experts expect about 10 percent of these organizations (ranging from large arts institutions like museums and orchestras to small community-based organizations in suburban, urban and rural areas) to shut their doors in 2009: a loss of 260,000 jobs.
In a report released in mid-January, the National Governor’s Association stated, “Arts and culture are important to state economies. Arts and culture-related industries, also known as “creative industries,” provide direct economic benefits to states and communities: They create jobs, attract investments, generate tax revenues, and stimulate local economies through tourism and consumer purchases.”