Plea for the Arts

Soon our San Diego City Council will have to distribute its meager funds according to our pressing social and economic needs.

And, if history repeats itself, the arts will receive but a few precious dollars because we--the citizens--don’t see how absolutely vital the arts are to our well being.

We look at the arts as mere frills but, if we looked closely at music, at poetry, at paintings, at sculpture, at theatre--and the like--we’d see how art opens our minds to grand possibilities. We’d feel how art hones our perceptions, enabling us to get to the truths in our existence.

Vaclav Havel, the president of Czechoslovakia, an artist, a playwright of some renown, has said: “Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being.”

Well, nothing develops human consciousness like the arts. We, and our City Council, should consider, seriously, ways to keep the arts alive and thriving in San Diego.

ERNIE McCRAY

San Diego