2.17.2009

We need a new WPA

Why aren't writers included in the stimulus bill? As this NPR report reminds us, during the last Depression da gub-mint used to pay writers to run around the country capturing the "stories of America." So why not now? What, we've run out of them?

Apparently 4 out of the first 10 winners of the National Book Award were connected to the WPA project, which ran from 1935-1939, when conservatives managed to kill it, claiming it was infested with Commies. Hey, at least writers are good at coming up with new ideas -- unlike some automakers I could mention.

1 comment:

cfp said...

There was something like $50 million to the NEA but it got taken out as part of the indiscriminate compromising. Or maybe it wasn't so indiscriminate. We're easy targets for the GOP, if only because we never vote for them.

Obama's platform did include an idea on sending artists into schools along the lines of Americorps but I haven't seen anything about it since the election.