I don’t understand why they didn’t just print Katrina’s whole letter.
I assume it’s because the AL editorial staff has some hidden agenda to suppress dissent and criticism.
Here is Kat’s piece in it’s entirety.
Governor Rounds set goals in the 2010 Initiative to double visitor spending and develop SD’s quality of life as one of the best in the nation.   Without the foundation of the South Dakota Arts Council, how will these goals be met? Cultural tourism revenues and the creation and development of vibrant, creative, economically progressive communities is a residual effect of government support of the arts.Â
Â
I was one of those Gen-Xers that wanted to get away from the rural life of South Dakota as soon as I graduated from SDSU. That was, until I discovered that I could find a career in the arts here.Â
Â
I’ve worked for a non-profit arts organization for the last eight years that receives a grant from the South Dakota Arts Council. Each time my organization produces an event our patrons and vendors positively impact the state through sales tax revenues.Â
Â
A report from Americans for the Arts shows that as of January 2008, South Dakota is home to 1,287 arts-related businesses that employ 6,368 people and it is estimated that these businesses and arts workers create a local economic impact of $48 million. Â
Â
The foundation that the SD Arts Council provides my organization keeps one more young person in this state to pay taxes, buy a home and start a family.
Â
My life is a microcosm of the trickle-down effect of how funding the SD Arts Council benefits our communities.
Â
I’m tired of the argument that funding the arts is frivolous and meaningless. Ideas like this are millions of miles away from the reality of how government funding of the arts truly does benefit us all, not only intrinsically, but in regard to our economy.
l3wis
They have only done that ONCE to me. They purposely edited out the name of a former Board President of the Pavilion in a letter I wrote, it changed the entire context of the letter by placing blame on the director instead of her, where it belonged. I wrote former voices editor Chuck Baldwin a very nasty, nasty letter about it – it ended there.
Trying to explain the importance of the arts to the meat-and-potatoes bass-ackwards pols we have in SD is like trying to teach my dog how to do algebra.
On second thought, teaching my dog to do algebra would probably be easier.
Why don’t they just print it as is? Even if it had typos and was worded poorly, which it wasn’t, why not just print the damn thing?
I notice they try to edit out personal phrases like they did with Katrina’s. I appreciate they check spelling (not always though) and fix run-on sentences, but I think it is bogus when they delete entire lines, that is uncalled for. Like I said in my letter to Baldwin “My name is on the letter, it reflects on me when it is not printed in it’s entirety, not the Argus Leader.”