We want Access not Excellence

I have been thinking a great deal about access. This is better than excellence. The term itself implies that something is bad in order for something to be great. We live in a country with excellent healthcare options, but the access is limited and controlled by insurance companies. Even with the Affordable Healthcare Act, which is a step in the right direction, individuals and families continue to literally die waiting for approvals and the green light for necessary life-saving services and procedures. Artists know the threat of living without coverage since we are only eligible through Actors Equity after working at least 20 weeks or more in order to gain a few months of coverage. This is close to impossible to achieve when most regional theaters (that employ over 80% of current working actors) only do shows that last 9 to 10 weeks a piece. And let us not even start with SAG-AFTRA, which provides coverage based on weeks of work. Most of us get co-star roles, which only tape for a day or two.

Imagine living in a country that valued all of its citizens enough to provide access to decent housing, healthcare, healthy and affordable food options, and a living wage. Imagine if this country valued its artists and visionaries enough to provide the time and space for creativity without the stress of homelessness, sickness, or worry. Imagine a country that did not make you always choose between just existing and actually living. This has been on my mind because poverty and affluence continue to exist side by side in most of America. We always hear about what other countries are doing and we constantly wonder why it never happens here. There are many reasons but all of them come right back to race and gender. We have created a class system and an economic dependence on some being kept at the bottom and some being at the top with the majority squeezed in the middle aspiring to get to the top eventually. It is a cycle that is not based on kindness or goodwill. And the funny thing is that it affects all of us at the end. Remember how the war on drugs was geared towards the ghetto when all of a sudden the drug problem arrived at the front door of suburban white America? Well this idea and concept of access has and will do the same.

A country will always be remembered for how it treated its artists and innovators. We are the wind beneath the wings of the madness. Our music, writing, film, poetry, visual art, photography, theatre, dance, and more shine a great light on the ills of our great country. Art brightens the way when the darkness can almost seem too much or too bleak, Art has survived to tell the truth about our past when no one else dared to speak. It tells a story about the present and shines a beacon into the future. It is the reason that it is being stripped from public education. It represents the truth and it empowers our youth to share their truth and it develops adults who are courageous to fight when everyone else is too exhausted to soldier on.

When the world is dust there will only be art left to tell our story. What do we want it to say? Because if we are not careful only silence will be left if we continue to forget that access is always more important than excellence. In fact, without access we only can achieve mediocrity, in this lies the great paradox.