Do you believe in The Arts or not?

         As in all elections, reasons for voting one way or another complicate a final decision.   But if you are in The Arts, the choice is simple: President Obama supports funding for them and Mitt Romney does not.    Silencing PBS for the pittance of money spent on it is an act of repression and aggression.    Minority opinions are expressed in some of its programs and suppressing them is an act of despotism, however cloaked the reasons for doing so may be.   He doesn't approve of minority voices.    Listen to his speeches, it's there in black and white.   Artists are minorities.   And lest we forget, the Eastern Seaboard would be financially decimated if Romney's policies were enacted: until Sandy, he publicly stated his belief that the city or state of a disaster area should be held responsible for its costs.    How many lives are worth 'creating new jobs'?    Should they come from people who are no longer around to do them?    (A joke, but not so far from his 'message' as you might think.     Shipping Mexicans back to their original country to 'open up' jobs is not so far from it.    And it's preposterous and untrue.)    So if anyone who has yet to decide reads this, vote for the man who has supported minority voices, lives, freedom.    (He's a minority himself of course)   Though I am not the first to say, I believe it to be true: a culture--and a country--is only as strong as its art.