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J.W. Eberle

J.W. Eberle

Tag Archives: politics

Why We Must Protect Funding for the Arts

25 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by Jonny Eberle in News, Rants, Writing

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America, art education, arts, arts funding, budget proposal, Childe Hassam, civilization, culture, cutting arts funding, federal budget, federal spending, full recognition of the place of the artist, getting political, John F. Kennedy, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, NEA, news, politics, Rain on the Avenue, rant, save our arts, save the NEA, Trump, why arts funding matters

800px-the_avenue_in_the_rain_frederick_childe_hassam_1917

The Avenue in the Rain (1917) by Childe Hassam. Part of the White House’s permanent art collection.

“I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.” – John F. Kennedy

The National Endowment for the Arts (along with its sibling agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities) was established by Congress 1965 as the fulfillment of a Kennedy-era dream to support and encourage the development of American art. It also set out to correct inequity in access for the arts in low income and African American communities and bring the arts out of the ivory towers and to all Americans.

More than 50 years later, though hobbled by decreased funding and dogged by political attacks, the NEA still provides an essential service to our nation. Today, the vast majority of audiences for plays, symphonies, readings and exhibitions are middle/upper class, middle-aged, white, and living in affluent urban communities. And though private funding keeps these cultural meccas alive, struggling artists in rural towns, young people, and minorities are far less likely to have access to money from foundations and wealthy donors to make arts programming possible.

The NEA steps in to level the playing field. In 2016, the NEA helped to provide 23,000 grants in 5,000 communities, which reached every congressional district in the United States. That funding turned into 30,000 concerts, readings, performances and exhibitions that were seen by a staggering 20 million people. The NEA also supports arts education in our schools, with 50% of its education projects located in low income neighborhoods.

The president’s proposed budget aims to eviscerate this important work by completely eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. These cuts are proposed as a way of reigning in a bloated federal government, but these programs are only a drop in the bucket. The NEA accounts for only $148 million, or 0.012% of the total $3.65 trillion federal budget. By contrast, he is calling for a $50 billion increase in defense spending. Cutting the NEA is purely symbolic and does nothing to balance the federal budget.

Even from a purely economic point of view, funding the arts makes sense. The arts industry creates jobs (4.7 million people are employed in the arts) and contributes $698 billion to the U.S. economy (4.3% of GDP). That’s more than the construction, transportation, or warehousing industries and is an excellent investment of our tax dollars.

We must protect our federal arts funding. And we must fight to preserve it from those who see more value in a fighter jet than a one-act play. We must declare loudly that the arts matter and we must do it now, before it is too late.

“I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft. I look forward to an America which will steadily raise the standards of artistic accomplishment and which will steadily enlarge cultural opportunities for all of our citizens. And I look forward to an America which commands respect throughout the world not only for its strength but for its civilization as well.” – John F. Kennedy.

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Jonny Eberle is a writer, photographer, filmmaker and arts advocate. Call your congressional representatives and tell them not to defund the NEA: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/. You can find more rants on Twitter or subscribe to the email newsletter.

 

Write Like Hell

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by Jonny Eberle in Rants, Writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

1st Amendment, am writing, America, amwriting, art, art and politics, Asli Erdogan, coffee shop democracy, Doctor Zhivago, First Amendment, free expression, free speech, freedom, pen is mightier than the sword, political art, politics, protest, protest songs, Soviet Union, speaking truth to power, Trump, truth, write like hell, writing, Writing Life

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Photo used under Creative Commons 2.0 license courtesy of Liz West.

The last few weeks have been tumultuous in this country, in my circle of friends, in my own life. After a major political upset on Election Night, many are worried about the direction we’re headed in — and rightly so. We’ve elected a man with disturbing authoritarian leanings; who believes dissent should be punished and advocates for limits on our First Amendment rights to free speech, religious exercise, peaceful assembly, and the press.

As an artist, I am deeply troubled by these remarks, however off-hand they may seem. Even a veiled or vague threat against free expression is a threat to be taken seriously. What are creative people supposed to do when a person who makes those kinds of threats assumes the highest office in the land?

Write like hell.

Whatever your medium, use it. Write stories, poems, protest songs. Scupt, paint, dance, blog, or tweet. Art has always been there to challenge structures of power.

  • In 1945, Boris Pasternak started writing Doctor Zhivago on paper that was sent to him by the widow of a friend who had been executed by the Soviet Union for his poetry. Pasternak’s novel dared to question the bloodshed of the revolution and his manuscript had to be smuggled out of the country to be published (it was later smuggled back in by the CIA).
  • In the 1960s and ’70s, musicians wrote songs protesting the Vietnam War and highlighting its many injustices, like Creedance Clearwater Revival’s Fortnate Son, a song about how the rich and well-connected were able to keep their sons from going to war.
  • This year, 130 writers and journalists were jailed after an attempted coup in Turkey, including novelist Aslı Erdoğan, whose novels, stories, and articles deal with human rights, violence against women and Kurdish rights.

Your work could be protest, but it doesn’t have to be. A friend and I are redoubling our efforts to write a how-to guide for people to have respectful political conversations. It’s nothing new or earth-shattering, but with luck, it can be a small part of the solution to the toxic partisan environment that surrounds American politics.

The world needs art. Especially art that unflinchingly holds up a mirror to us and our society. Art that nudges people to think and question and come to their own conclusions. Write about what you’re passionate about. Write with conviction. Write the truth. The pen truly is mightier than the sword.

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Jonny Eberle is a writer in Tacoma, WA. You can find him on Twitter or working on any one of a dozen writing projects. Thanks for reading.

Extremism, Compassion and Books

23 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by Jonny Eberle in Procrastination, Rants

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

books, compassion, diversity, empathy, extremism, hate, Holocaust, humanity, infinite diversity in infinite combinations, love, narrative, other, personal reflection, politics, reading, religion, slavery, society, understanding, us vs. them, violence, writing, Writing Life

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We live in a time of extremism. We are divided along fault lines of who we vote for, who we pray to (or don’t), what language we speak, who we are and who we love. In the news each day, I see people building walls and pulling triggers. We don’t even want to know the other we hate so much.

When I was in school, I remember having to read novels about the Holocaust, slavery, racism and immigration. At the time, I didn’t understand why I needed to read them. The Holocaust was in the past, as was the slave trade. I wasn’t Chicano or a woman in 17th century America. What was the point? It was more than just a history lesson; it was an exercise in encountering people and cultures that were nothing like the one I was growing up in. I realize now that our teachers were trying to instill in us an appreciation of the great diversity that exists in the world. Those books were our vehicle out of our quiet mountain town and into the lives of people we would never otherwise meet. In the process, I also gained a sense of the tragedy of the concentration camps and the plantations — and how fear and hate still eat away at the fabric of our society.

It is much harder to hate someone when you know their story. I can’t help but wonder how our world would be different if more people actively sought out stories of the other. If the heroes and heroines in our novels look and sounds like us, we are training ourselves on some level to only sympathize with people who look and sound like us. If, on the other hand, we expose ourselves to diverse protagonists representing other genders, religions, nationalities, and orientations, we give ourselves room to expand our sense of empathy to encompass all of humanity.

Walk in someone’s shoes for a few hundred pages. Seek out books, movies, and music that speaks to the immigrant, Muslim, or trans experience and you might start to understand someone who doesn’t live in your little world. Understanding breaks down barriers of “us” and “them,” of separation, of hate. If more people were willing to step out of their comfort zone to immerse themselves in their neighbor’s narrative — even if it’s only in the pages of a book — I think there would be fewer slurs, bombs, bullets and bloodshed.

Let us trade extremism for compassion. And let us begin by picking up a book.

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Jonny Eberle is a writer in Tacoma, WA. His newest short story, Inheritance, was published by Creative Colloquy this week. Follow him on Twitter or join the mailing list.

Is the NSA Spying on Me?

15 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by Jonny Eberle in News, Writing

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2013, am writing, big data, censorship, Edward Snowden, free speech, freedom of the press, government, Grey Cell, journalism, National Security Agency, news, NSA, PEN American Center, personal reflection, political thought, politics, privacy, self censorship, spy program, spying, surveillance, United States, writing, Writing Life

I was just starting to write freelance articles on foreign affairs and conflict areas when the full scope of the NSA’s domestic spying program came to light. We learned that the government is tapping into smartphone data, breaking online encryption and gathering data from emails, phone calls and financial transactions. The NSA effectively has all of us under surveillance. You never know who might be listening in on your phone call or reading your email. Each new leak gave me pause.

I worried that I might be under the microscope because of what I was writing. My articles cover the restless areas of the world that are so crucial to United States foreign policy, including detailed reports on the Syrian civil war, drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Egyptian coup and terrorism in North Africa. My articles are strictly news — not manifestos or opinions — and I stand by my words as a journalist. I report facts, using the best news sources as my guide. But even so, I couldn’t help but wonder if my work had attracted attention because of the subject matter.

We live in the age of Big Data, where the little snippets of information (from cell phone conversations, Google searches and email exchanges) add up to form a complete picture of our views, our habits and our preferences. No one can escape the net our governments are casting.

This has caused a lot of concern in the writing community. According to the PEN American Center, 73% of writing professionals surveyed said they had “never been as worried about privacy rights and freedom of the press as they are today.” Significant numbers had curtailed their activities on social media or avoided discussing certain topics on the phone or via email. Sixteen percent said they had even avoided writing or speaking about a certain topic.

When surveillance is so widespread, it is easy to fall into self-censorship. We want to fly under the radar rather than challenge the infringement on our rights. The framers of the Constitution knew how important a free press was to a democracy — so important, they protected it in the First Amendment. But now, I feel that freedom eroding away.

Censorship is subtle, beginning with the smallest of ideas: That you’re being watched. That worries me, because we need the freedom to write. We need the freedom to report the truth and encourage civil discourse on controversial issues.

I’ve started to carefully consider what I say in emails and text messages and questioned the security of my cloud storage since I heard about the Snowden leaks. I will not be deterred from writing. I hope journalists and editors everywhere will not be deterred from providing their vital service to the public. And I hope normal citizens will not be scared into silence.

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Jonny Eberle is a writer in Tacoma, WA. He writes on foreign relations for Grey Cell. You can follow him on Twitter, but kindly requests that you don’t spy on his email correspondence.

Related Posts:
Stop the Presses: Is This The End of the Daily Newspaper?
An Examined Life: In Memory of Dr. Joel Olson
Censorship Kills: Banned Books Week

Taking a Stand

08 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by Jonny Eberle in Guatemala, Writing

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advocacy, am writing, current-events, domestic violence, equal rights, equality, femicide, gender equality, gender gap, guatemala, International Women's Day, machismo, Nuevos Horizontes, politics, victims of domestic violence, violence against women, wage equality, women, women's advocacy, women's rights, writing, Writing Life, Xela

It was almost a year ago that I got my “This is what a feminist looks like” button. It got it from my friend and carsick buddy Olivia when we were traveling through the Western Highlands of Guatemala. We were in the town of Xela on a brisk spring morning, waiting to meet with Neuvos Horizontes (New Horizons), a women’s advocacy group that works with victims of domestic violence.

The building where they worked was simple. A corrugated plastic roof let sunlight filter into the anteroom, where wooden benches stood on dark red tile. Posters on the walls painted a picture of the scale of violence and femicide that still plagues Guatemala and offered hope of change. I remember one in particular that showed a man unlocking a door and read (in translation): “I will no longer be afraid at the sound of his keys.”

Every year, hundreds of women are killed by their husbands in Guatemala. Many more are beaten or sold into the sex trade. No one knows how many sex slaves are transported along the Pan-American highway system that runs from Argentina to Alaska.

Things are bad for women in Guatemala. The machismo culture keeps women subservient to men; second class citizens in their own country. But there are glimmers of hope. Groups like Nuevos Horizontes provide transitional housing and vocational training for women. Women, not men, are in charge of the health clinic in the rural village of Pachaj. When I was there, Guatemala had even elected a female vice president.

Progress is slow, but on the way.

Still, it is easy to criticize the developing world for being slow to protect women’s rights. It is easy to point the finger, but we must also remember that the United States is not free of gender inequality. Women in our country are still beaten and still raped. Women still do not have wage equality with men. We still have such a long way to go.

It starts with each and every one of us changing our behavior. We can all stand up against violence and discrimination in our communities, our countries and our world. I support women’s rights and I hope that someday soon, no woman will have to live in fear. Someday soon, we will all be equal.

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I’m a writer and photographer in Flagstaff, AZ. I’m proud to be an advocate of equal rights and protection for all. In honor of International Women’s Day, I hope you’ll take a moment to learn more about how you can help end violence against women and that you might consider following me on the Twitter machine: @jonnyeberle.

Related Posts:
One Month After Guatemala
Guatemala in the Rear View Mirror
Immortality and the Written Word

Through the (Indepedent) Looking Glass

07 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Jonny Eberle in News, Rants, Writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

am writing, american presidency, aristotle, current-events, democrat, election, election 2012, independent, November, obama, personal reflection, political animal, political science, politics, president, procrastination, rant, republican, romney, vote, voter, writing, Writing Life

Every four years, we make a decision. We spend months fighting over it, talking about it, posting about it on Facebook. Some weigh the pros and cons of this decision seriously; some follow the crowd. Everyone must take a side.

And then there are those pesky few of us who struggle to get excited for either candidate — the people who see that the choice is no choice at all. I try not to fill this blog with political opinions, but today I’m going to make an exception. As Aristotle put it, “man is a political animal.”

Last night, I was watching the election results trickle in with my girlfriend, my friend and her boyfriend (sounds like the set-up to a really bad joke, doesn’t it) and I was struck by a profound sense of apathy. I voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and I was excited. He was going to bring about a new era of hope and change, but he didn’t deliver. I was naive. The American presidency is not a person, but an institution and it has its own logical and behavior that doesn’t change from one administration to the next.

Studying political science left me jaded. The presidency has consolidated too much power. Congress is increasingly filling with ideologues. Extremists hold moderates hostage and the middle that everyone claims to belong to gets kicked around by parties who differ so little in their views that it doesn’t really matter who holds power.

This independent wants more choices, but we won’t get them any time soon. Our leaders will make no attempt to negotiate; our political parties will remain beholden to special (read: well-funded) interests; popularity will reign over prudence. Democrats are just as blind to the truth as Republicans and vice versa.

Nothing will change and that is the great American tragedy.

I hope I’m wrong. I really hope I’m wrong and I wish the president and Congress the best of luck as they face the challenges that await. This country is my home and I believe in its promise. I just think we’ve temporarily lost our way.

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Jonny Eberle is a writer and photographer in Flagstaff, AZ who is a registered independent with liberal social beliefs and moderate/conservative fiscal beliefs. In May, he graduated from NAU with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Political Science. He likes cold pizza, long drives and Twitter (@jonnyeberle). Next time, I’ll admit how far behind I am on my novel…

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