Thank you Barry Szczesry for sending along your alert. NPR yesterday
morning had reported that the markup hearing would be occuring and I spent
the entire day TRYING to get information. Finally someone sent me a copy
of a FAX that the American Symphony Orchestra League had sent out ON JUNE
10.  All I can say is that I had wished that I too could have been privy
to the info in your alert BEFORE it was a done deal. I am a direct
constituent of one of the Subcommittee Members, and a Precinct President
in that leader's party as well. Furthermore I operate arts advocacy
listservs reaching more than 1000 including those in districts of all
other subcommittee members. I use this post to urge members of this list
to share such important information as it becomes known rather than after
it is a fait accompli. Further I urge all on the list to encourage
national arts organizations to see beyond their strategy of limiting
troups in our declared "culture war" to only Generals!  There are MILLIONS
of people EAGER to fully advocate for the cause of our cultural
institutions. What has been missing though has been  (1) the invitation
for them to join in battle and (2) the timely distribution of the
information it would take to empower them. One needs both infantry AND
munitions to wage an effective battle.

So sorry for the FLAME and thank you again Barry for at least sharing what
you had learned after the fact.

Richard Finkelstein, Arts-Alert-USA List Manager