The American Dissident: Literature, Democracy & Dissidence
Arts Foundation of Cape Cod
Open Letter to Executive Director Julie Wake, Arts Foundation of Cape Cod,
And to Cape Cod Safe-Artiste Supreme Richard Neal
Silence will be your likely response to this letter and attached watercolor, both critical of you and posted on the internet.
Silence is always the likely response of those at the helm when questioned and challenged by unconnected, common citizens. Silence is the response of those who do NOT believe in the fundamental cornerstones of democracy: freedom of speech and vigorous debate.
“HAC[K] Staffer Julie Wake Appointed as Arts Foundation Executive Director” provoked me to create the watercolor. Of course, the Cape Cod Times didn’t have the brains to realize what “HAC Staffer” could imply. So, I added the K.
Both this letter and watercolor will also appear in next issue of The American Dissident. Fear not, however! The journal has been banned by the Clams Library System of Cape Cod. In fact, I’d even offered a free subscription to Lucy Loomis, director of Sturgis Library, my neighborhood library. Loomis not only rejected it, but ended up deciding to permanently ban me “for the safety of the staff and public” and all the writing by other poets and writers published in the journal, whom one must also assume to be potential dangers to the staff and public. Do you care? Well, we both already know the answer to that.
Now, imagine if you actually possessed the unusual democratic openness to permit satire of the local Cape Cod arts and literary scene into the gates of your new Arts Foundation fiefdom? Well, if that were the case, I suppose I’d be out of “business,” as a local critic. Over the past six years, I’ve been testing the waters of the art and literary scene on Cape Cod. Sadly, those waters have proven to be 100% murky (i.e., absolutely safe for political hacks, cultural marms, educrats, and other PC-bottle feeding adults. Art on Cape Cod has become 100% commercially-acceptable, and that is the very crux of the problem confronting art today: innocuousness okay/criticism not okay. Period.
When it comes to the ARTS, few journalists, if any at all, ever question and challenge the iron-grip of commerce and the PC-mentality keeping the Arts innocuously safe. Instead, they simply publish vacuous statements like “To further the Arts Foundation’s mission to strengthen and promote Cape Cod’s arts and culture, Wake spends every day connecting with members and donors, reviewing marketing and business development opportunities, and finding innovative ways to share and promote the arts and culture scene on Cape Cod.”
Unsurprisingly, you, Julie Wake, stated: “I’ve always been committed to working in creative environments, and marketing and business development have filled that professional need.” And your anointed prize-winner Richard Neal concluded: “Winning the inaugural Arts Foundation of Cape Cod Artist Fellowship was a wonderful event for me. In practical terms, the grant money paid most of my studio rent for the year. The award helped even more in peripheral ways—I had an exhibition at the Cape Cod Museum of Art and through that show and the media many more people became aware of my art and what I do. Please support the Arts Foundation which does so much to raise cultural awareness and strengthen the Arts on Cape Cod.”
Finally, I am not a hater. I am not a violent man. I have no police record. I NEVER make threats. I am not an Islamist. I am not a Trump fan, though definitely not a fan of congenital liar Hillary either. YET, “for the safety of the staff and public,” my very civil rights are being denied here on Cape Cod because I am not permitted to attend any cultural or political events held at my neighborhood library, though I am forced to pay taxes that help support it. In essence, I dared question and challenge a local autocrat, something upsetting to Cape Cod autocrats in general, thus “for the safety of the staff and public.” Nice ploy, n'est-ce pas?
[No response was ever received from the Foundation]