I don't know where you stand on the whole health care debate going on in the US. But there is a lesson in it for all of us.
Let's look at the public option in health care. Again, doesn't matter if you are for or against such things. What is relevant is that the public option was something a lot of people wanted, but a lot of very powerful folks were opposed to.
Because of this, there was a lot noise.
Noise on the blogs.
Noise on the cable news channels.
Every day there was a new report about who was winning and losing.
It was all very interesting, very juicy, very exciting.
But behind the scenes, in much less interesting settings, actual work was happening.
People organizing, people calling their senators and representatives. Any positive impacts the ultimate health care bill has will come because of that work.
Any skilled activist will tell you that it's this sort of work that makes change happen.
And that same activist will tell you that it's hard to get actual change because work is a bit of drag, but noise is fun as hell.
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As artists, particularly those of us in the performing arts, we are in the change business.
We have perception problems, image problems, we need to fix that.
But all that involves work.
So the question is, does your organization know the difference between noise and work?
Does it know where the line is between making noise on blogs, Facebook and Twitter and the actual work that makes art part of the fabric of a community?
Or does your organization think noise is work?
Have you fooled yourself into thinking that 3 hours on Facebook and 3 hours on the ground in the community you serve is the same thing?
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