Sherron Long is one of my favorite persons of all time in any place. She's the president of the Florida Cultural Alliance and runs the Florida Professional Theatre Assn., and has the singular overview vision that virtually everyone she represents lacks. She's spent the past few months, weeks in particular, in a familiar Alamo-style defense of arts and cultural funding during Florida's legislative session.

The final-final tally is still to be reckoned but it appears budget allocations to the State Department's division of cultural affairs will be a little over $6 million. On a related front, the state's support for film industry incentives will be $5 million. And there are actually tens of millions tucked away in the appropriations budget for college and university arts facility construction and restoration. There have been significant hits, but neither culture nor commercial show business have been zeroed out for next year.

I always have mixed emotions about this. And they're amplified by the supposed conundrum that support for the arts, when rubber meets the road in governmental decision-making, tends to come from (gasp) the Republican side of the aisle. Though I've never been a member (actually a no-party-affiliate since 1968), I've felt that the arts and other benefits of advanced civilization deserve support - but I stop short of entitlement.

So, when Sherron sighs that $6 million in Florida arts appropriations is good this year, I agree. Where we both feel that government support is more important is in the philosophy. And last-minute moves will hopefully be successful in preserving a statewide requirement for arts education. That's Senate Bill 1914, with an amendment that would prevent another amendment from replacing auto mechanics and similar pursuits to music and theater as a grad requirement.

I"m a pretty good wrench myself, devotee of Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and have rebuilt a short block or two in the carport. But shop is shop and it doesn't equate with the school choir, which deserves its special place.

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