Charles Coe

Concord Cultural Council & Massachusetts Cultural Council—Free Speech in Peril!

Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.
—Chief Justice William O Douglas

Kathleen Kennedy The selector begins, ideally, with a presumption in favor of liberty of thought; the censor does not. The aim of the selector is to promote reading not to inhibit it; to multiply the points of view which will find expression, not limit them; to be a channel for communication, not a bar against it.
—Lester Asheim, “Not Censorship but Selection” (Wilson Library Bulletin, 1953)

All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of all censorships. There is the whole case against censorships in a nutshell.
—George Bernard Shaw

The Cultural Council: Slap in the Face of Democracy, Pat on the Back

Of the Chamber of Commerce, Bourgeois in Nature, Cliques and Cronyism

It is surprising to what extent the world is ruled by cliques. They who constitute, or at least lead, New England or N. York society in the eyes of the world are but a clique. A few “men of the age” & of the town, who work best in the harness provided for them. The institutions of almost all kinds are thus of a sectarian or party character. Newspapers, magazines, colleges, & all forms of government & religion express the superficial activity of a few, the mass either conforming or not attending.
—Henry David Thoreau, 9 August 1858
In cultured circles art for artsaking extended practically to a worship of the meaningless. Literature was to consist solely of the manipulation of words. To judge a book by its subject matter was the unforgiveable sin and even to be aware of its subject matter was looked on as a lapse of taste.
—George Orwell

As a citizen, I feel both furious and helpless, yet shall still not “go gentle into that good night,” but rather continue to “rage, rage, rage against the dying light.” Perhaps one day, few citizens, if any at all, would heed Dylan Thomas’ advice, as the nation continues its drift into the world of 1984 doublespeak and happy-face groupthink.
          This essay, rejected by a number of literary journals, initially constituted a request that the Concord Cultural Council, local annex of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, reconsider its rejection of my grant proposal, which purportedly contravened its ban on projects deemed to be of a “political nature” (see document below). The essay also constituted a protest against the current and past modus operandi of the Council, which awarded grants year after year to the very same organizations, including Alcott School, Thoreau School, Willard School, and Concord Carlisle Regional High School. Would it be surprising if members of the Council were friends of employees of those institutions? After all, wasn’t that how it worked in Massachusetts and America today?
          In any case, the Council arbitrarily deemed that the public monies at its disposal be distributed exclusively to projects not apt to question and challenge the local pillars of the community, Council members included. Such a policy and such projects were, however, in themselves clearly of a “political nature.” George Orwell, who unlike the Council members, had a keenly discerning mind and argued intelligently that “the opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.”
          In vain, I tried to interest various freedom-of-expression organizations regarding the Council’s viewpoint-based bias. PEN New England, “defending freedom of expression in New England,” simply refused to respond. Karen Wulf, its director, was after all housed at Lesley University, where the director of the Concord Poetry Center Joan Houlihan taught (see my criticism of her Center). Not only had I been critical of universities, but I’d also been critical of Houlihan. Therefore, as far as PEN was concerned, my freedom of expression was not worth defending at all. For other criticism of PEN, consult http://penpetition.blogspot.com, where Karl "King" Wenclas of the Underground Literary Movement (Philadelphia, PA) noted:
PEN was created as an organization to protect and defend dissenting, outcast, and marginalized writers. PEN American Center makes this its mission-- except in America itself! In these economic hard times, impoverished writers shut out by the moneyed academies and conglomerates are in worse shape than since the 1930s. Democratizing PEN's board will aid the hope that as a designated charity, PEN's concerns and financial largesse not go to already successful authors like Philip Roth, but to talented writers facing real hardship.
          As for Teresa Koberstein of the National Coalition Against Censorship, she wrote the following:
With regards to the Concord Cultural Council: if they [sic] have created a viewpoint-based policy then we are interested in objecting. I will try to research this further, and thank you for the insight!
          As the months went by, I contacted the Coalition several different times, but always received silence in response. One could assume that Joan Bertin, the Coalition's director, was friendly with Karen Wulf or even Houlihan. Or perhaps organizations like PEN and the Coalition simply had a strong PC-bias and were run by liberals of a largely bourgeois bent. In vain, I also tried to interest the Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, soon to be business-as-usual-in-the-Commonwealth Senator Coakley. She also chose silence as a response.
          No reason whatsoever, with the exception of equating culture with inoffensive pap, could be put forth in support of the Concord Cultural Council's regulation that “programs in music, dance, visual arts, poetry, literature, drama, the humanities and scientific interpretation for all age groups will be considered, but not those of a political nature.”   Because the Council failed to define “political nature,” it could and obviously would apply the regulation arbitrarily to deny some citizens the right to equal opportunity, which was precisely what co-chairs Kathleen Kennedy and Elizabeth Harvey had been doing with my regard. To support my contention that arbitrariness would be the decisive factor, two projects of a “political nature” were in fact accorded grants in 2008. The Concord Carlisle Human Rights Council, for its “Black Heritage and Abolitionist Walk Project,” received $500. How could one possibly conceive of abolitionism as apolitical, even if historical? Friends of the Performing Arts of Concord, for its “Concord Messiah Sing,” received $150. How could one possibly conceive according public monies to religious song events as apolitical? In fact, it was perhaps unconstitutional! Ah, but our soon-to-be Democrat-party Senator Coakley didn't give a damn!
          What Kennedy and Harvey sought to do was eradicate accountability and citizen criticism of the Council and its members. My project did not, after all, seek to back a political candidate or embrace any particular political party or system of government. Why, therefore, was it denied on the grounds of “political nature”? Likely, it was thus deemed because it actually dared criticize the Council itself. Indeed, I’d made a request for a paltry $20 to be used to purchase a one-year subscription to The American Dissident, a 501(c)3 nonprofit journal created in the very spirit of Thoreau and Emerson, published in Concord since 1998, and devoted to literature, democracy, and dissidence. The proposal was to circulate the subscription amongst members of the Council in an effort to help educate them as to the importance of dissidence in a thriving democracy. For the past decade, my applications for grants had been rejected one after the next. Moreover, I filled out an application four years ago at Town Hall to serve on the Council. The Selectmen arbitrarily chose from the applicants. I had a doctoral degree. Did any of those whom they’d chosen to be on the current Council possess one of those or did current members simply have great political connections with the Selectmen? How did choosing members become so undemocratic? Never was I chosen or even contacted!
          One must wonder if Council members even had college educations, for how could educated persons adopt a policy against “political nature” here in the Town of Concord, home of revolutionary patriots and dissident writers Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Alcott? To say the least, theirs was a direct slap in the very faces of those patriots and writers! Theirs was a slap in the face of democracy itself, while a pat on the back of the Concord Chamber of Commerce, which refused to even permit me to place flyers for The American Dissident in its Concord Visitors Center.               Moreover, why should “political nature” necessarily be bad and not permitted equal opportunity for funding by a public funding organization? Culture needed to be meaningful and engaged! It shouldn't be exclusively defined as that which lulled people to sleep or made them chuckle or pray. The Council’s policy stunk of arbitrariness and bourgeois complacency! Was that what Concord’s Revolutionary Patriots had fought and died for? How sad indeed! Did the Council actually have a legal, constitutional right to exclude public projects arbitrarily deemed to be of a “political nature,” that is, not of the correct “political nature”? In vain, I contacted Congresswoman Cory Atkins, Town Manager Chris Whalen, and the Concord Journal. No response was ever received.
          Clearly, Council members decided to exclude me from funding because of my open criticism of them and other Concord institutions. Was that democracy? Could this really be Concord? Or had Concord become a shell of its former self, of its former glory, thanks to people like co-chairs Kennedy and Harvey? The “political nature” provision served to eliminate any future attempts whatsoever on my part to apply for a grant because all my art and writing would ineluctably be deemed by the Council to be of a “political nature.” It was a purposefully exclusionary provision that would have normally been illicit in a thriving democracy. Evidently, ours was not thriving. That very provision would have excluded projects proposed by Thoreau and Emerson themselves. Let the Thoreau School be aware of that! Or had that school so diluted Thoreau that he could easily fit within the bourgeois confines of the community today? Was the Council provision created as a direct response to my direct criticism of the Council and its politically-appointed members? Likely, it was, for who else had it ever rejected on the basis of “political nature”?
          Council members should read Orwell’s “The Prevention of Literature” and step down from their high horses to engage in an open discussion of the issues evoked here and over the past decade. For the sake of democracy, culture must be more than “Poetry in Motion,” “Swing Trio-Swing in Spring,” “Entertainmetn [sic] Visits for Seniors,” and “Family Concert” (projects receiving grants). However, as long as the Town continued to permit Council members to operate autocratically and without citizen accountability, they would avoid such engagement. Laura Bush once stated, no doubt to the joy of Concord Cultural Council members: “There’s nothing political about American literature.” Tell me about it, baby, or rather co-babies.
          Co-chairs Kennedy and Harvey never did respond to this essay. Thus, I decided to attend a Council meeting. Prior to it, I examined the Council’s minutes at Town Hall. But the debate that hopefully ensued during Council meetings regarding the selection of winners and the adoption of the “political nature” provision was conspicuously absent. In the cold and dark, I waited outside in front of Town Hall until the 7 pm clock gong for the scheduled meeting. But the light remained out in the second floor meeting room. Why? Nobody showed up. Thus, I wrote a letter to the Council asking why nobody showed up and for it to please inform me what had happened. Not one of the eleven members contacted deigned to respond, let alone apologize for the inconvenience. I’d cc’d a copy to Ruth Lauer, who served as liaison to the town selectmen, who did not normally meet with citizens, unless I suspected they had plenty of cash. Lauer did respond and informed me the time of the meeting had been changed.
          Another meeting was thus scheduled several weeks later, so I decided I would attend it. I sent the following email to the eleven Council members and cc’d it to Lauer and the Concord Journal:
Dear Concord Cultural Council Members:
Not one of you deigned to respond to my citizen email query sent some two weeks ago, let alone apologize for the inconvenience you caused me! Is that what they call UNresponsive democracy? Is that what Concord has to offer today? Well, at least, Ruth Lauer responded and informed me why nobody showed up at the Council meeting scheduled for 7 pm as noted on the website several Mondays ago. I shall attempt to show up this Tuesday for your 7:30 scheduled meeting. The following are questions or information I would like to pose and obtain… as a citizen of Concord. I could not find the response to any of the them in your file at Town Hall. Will you keep the answers secret? If so, why would you wish to do that in a democracy? 1. Why (and when) precisely was discussion initiated around the question of culture having a “political nature”?
2. Who initiated it?
3. Was it initiated because of my futile attempts over the past decade to obtain funding, as well as my overt criticism of your Council? In other words, was it initiated to eliminate citizen criticism of the Council?
4. What is your precise definition of “political nature”? In the absence of a definition, the term remains completely nebulous and can be used to designate anything and anyone you do not like.
5. What relationships exist between Council members and funded organizations that receive grants year after year from the Council?
6. What relationships exist between Council members and selectmen who choose them?
7. Does the Council have a conflict-of-interest policy?
8. What is the criteria selectmen use to choose Cultural Council members?
9. As for your minutes, they are scanty, to say the least. Why are there no details at all regarding your discussions on individual projects? How might I obtain such details? Are they simply unavailable and secret? Why the lack of transparency?
10. How might I contest the lack of equal representation by males on your committee?

Thank you for your attention. If you’d prefer not to see me Tuesday evening (and I really have no desire at all to see any of you), you could answer these questions by email. Evidently, I shall expect silence.
Again, only Lauer responded… to inform me that the meeting had been canceled indefinitely. Weeks later the two Co-Chairs finally responded, though in the unsurprising manner of state-cultural apparatchiks, that is, avoiding most of issues evoked.

Dear Mr. Slone:
The following information is offered in an effort to address the issues you raised in your most recent communication.
Regarding our practice to decline funding projects of a "political nature", each local cultural council is responsible for determining its own funding priorities within the parameters set forth by the Massachusetts Cultural Council in its guidelines. The members of the Concord Cultural Council think it is important to support activities that offer, in the opinion of our members, the broadest public benefit as opposed to those that benefit any private individual or group that seeks to advance a specific belief, be that a religious belief or a political belief. We feel that our local policy not to fund projects of a political nature fits within the parameters of the state guidelines and, indeed, it is included in a set of local guidelines submitted to the state council, and duly approved and adopted.
With respect to your questions on member conduct and eligibility, council members are selected, and their conduct governed, according to state and local laws and regulations. LCC members are subject to the provisions of Massachusetts Conflict of Interest Law (M.G.L. 268A) and we feel that our members follow the policies and procedures as written. The committee selection process is set forth in the Town of Concord Committee Handbook , Section IV, and any questions you have in that regard should be directed to the Office of the Selectmen. Minutes of committee meetings are also discussed in the Committee Handbook (Records Management Procedures) which mandates that minutes must include the date, time and place of the meeting, members present, votes taken, and statement of topics discussed. In addition, Massachusetts State Open Meeting Law states that committees must maintain accurate records of its meetings/'setting forth the date, time, place, members present or absent and action taken at each meeting". The council members consider that we have met our record keeping requirements.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Kennedy and Elizabeth Harvey, Co-chairs

NB: A year after writing this essay, the Concord Cultural Council eliminated the “political nature” provision. Evidently, it had done so because of my active contestation of that provision. Of course, the Council did not inform me of its decision. I found out by chance by reading the new rejection form. Unfortunately, the members who enacted the infamous provision were still firmly entrenched in the Council and would continue withholding funding for any project it arbitrarily deemed to be of an undesirable "political nature."

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Notes from Previous Conflict with the Concord Cultural Council and Massachusetts Cultural Council
The Concord Cultural Council and Massachusetts Cultural Council operate as modern-day LITERARY CENSORING ORGANIZATIONS akin to the Catholic Church of yesteryear which put together the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Democracy continues its downward spiral thanks in part to the democracy-indifferent literary and censoring managers of those cultural councils.

Strange, diminutive, careerist creatures have moved into the nooks and crannies of American culture and literature. They are the groupthinking, teamplaying, networking apparatchiks who, like their careerist academic homologues, rarely if ever question or challenge anything with the exception of their paychecks, benefits, and social status. They work side by side with Chambers of Commerce to keep democracy at bay by funding diversionary art and literature. For insight into the functionary mindset of these creatures, read the editor's correspondence with cultural-apparatchik poet Charles Coe below (way at the end). Also, read the long footnote at the end of my NEA essay, which, amongst other things, questions the public funding of wealthy literary journals like Agni, published at Boston University, which has an endowment in excess of one-billion dollars. The MCC refuses to explain its aberrant rule that to apply for funds, a literary journal must have a minimum annual budget of $10,000. The American Dissident spends less than $1,000, thus is ineligible to even apply. As for the Concord Cultural Council, its strange, diminutive apparatchiks, as a direct reaction to my futile attempts at instigating vigorous debate, cornerstone of democracy, was to create and adopt a regulation that “programs in music, dance, visual arts, poetry, literature, drama, the humanities and scientific interpretation for all age groups will be considered, but not those of a political nature.” Thus, The American Dissident was cleverly rendered no longer even eligible for a local grant. Also, the determination of "political nature" was entirely subjective. In other words, PC-projects of an evident "political nature" were not to be considered of a "political nature." In vain, I brought my concerns regarding democracy, or rather the lack thereof, to the attention of the Concord Cultural Council and its mother, the Massachusetts Cultural Council. In vain, I've also contacted PEN New England, the National Coalition against Censorship, and the Massachusetts Attorney General.
Below is a summary of research effected by the editor in 2004 and the editor's correspondence with diverse functionaries of the Massachusetts Cultural Council and Concord Cultural Council. Members of the Concord Cultural Council at the time included Carol Haines, Jennifer Jacoby, Elizabeth Berk, Kate Bird, Patsy Eickelberg, Jennifer Gillespy, Nancy Joroff, Charlotte Wright, and Craig Dunn. Kathleen Kennedy and Elizabeth Harvey are the current co-chairs who pushed the "political nature" proscription.
The report underscores favoritism and bias towards socio-politically disengaged grant proposals of a diversionary nature.

The research underscores that culture is being defined by state cultural councils, hopefully not all of them, as entertainment. Not one project of a critical nature was funded that year or the previous year. One must wonder if such a project has ever been funded by the council. Nearly all projects funded were of a sing-along or storytelling variety. Most of the same recipients of the previous year were awarded grants for the subsequent year.

Might council members and recipients be friends with each other? In Massachusetts, such corruption of course would not be unusual at all. Do regulations exist to prevent such cronyism between grantors and grantees? As far as the editor knows, no such regulations exist.

Council members need to be educated with regards the nefarious effects on democracy of favoritism and cronyism. They also need to understand democracy depends on criticism, thrives on criticism, and can only exist with criticism... whereas oligarchy, or rule by a wealthy elite, depends on cronyism, favoritism, happy-face positivism, and absence of criticism.

The research exposes the files of grant recipients and non-recipients deposited at Town Hall in Concord, Massachusetts. It was sent to Boston Review, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and Concord Journal. Not one of them deigned to respond. As mentioned, Concord Cultural Council members have also proven to be entirely indifferent and have not bothered to address any of the concerns raised by the report. The Massachusetts Cultural Council and Concord Cultural Council have shamefully dismissed the editor's arguments or simply ignored them altogether and continue
defining “culture” worthy of state and town support as safe, sufficiently infantilized, inoffensive, happy-face, diversionary, and entertaining, as opposed to writing and art that might question and challenge the status quo (including that of the cultural councils themselves) and in so-doing reinvigorate the foundering democracy.
Let culture offend, let it shake people up, and let it make them think, rather than fall asleep! Let it question and challenge our unjust society, ever drifting away from democracy, irrevocably entrenching itself into a sad state of three-car garage war-mongering plutocracy.
Just as the mission of the nation’s political institutions, as well as its myriad universities and colleges now so very infected by the corporate bug, needs to be rethought, so must that of its diverse cultural councils. Evidently, the prime mission of state cultural councils, as well as national organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, given the political appointment of council members, has been to promote business as usual, that is, art and writing apt to support, or at least not question and challenge, the status quo of the nation’s various institutions, including the cultural councils themselves. The status quo mission of the latter, consciously or not, backs the deepening trend in America of the institutional elimination of free thought, indignation and criticism amongst the citizenry.

If we, the people, are to move toward rendering reality more in line with what we seek to be, that is, a land of the free, justice for all, attainable pursuit of life, liberty and happiness for all, and perhaps most of all a nation where all citizens may express themselves openly with impunity, that is, without losing their jobs or, in the case of writers, grants and publications, then we must, amongst many other things, rethink the state cultural councils. The latter must be redefined, at least in part, to help finance art and writing that questions and challenges the nation’s current de facto values and seeming general direction toward full-scale hypocrisy. Currently, the cultural councils, perhaps most of them, perhaps all of them, certainly the one in Massachusetts, where I reside, exist not to support such art and writing, but rather to support anything sufficiently disengaged from criticizing the nation’s diverse institutions.

How beneficial it would be for the citizenry, if college and university students--perhaps even high school students--were taught by their professors and teachers to question, challenge, and effect research into the nation’s diverse public organizations, including the state cultural council and state colleges and universities. The first thing they’d learn regarding the latter, at least in Massachusetts, is that all public college and university personnel, grievance and arbitration records are closed to public scrutiny because, on the one hand, the state has chosen not to adopt state freedom of information legislation and, on the other, professors are quite content with that policy of secrecy. Massachusetts News, which was going to do a story on the editor's whistle-blowing on state college corruption, for example, ended up not running the story for the simple reason that it could not confirm the editor's allegations, that is, it could not access public documents.

If we are to believe Nobel laureate José Saramago (see quote above), globalization is resulting in, amongst other things, global mentality of not thinking, not acting, and not criticizing. The nation’s students are becoming the most egregious victims of this scourge of mind. Indeed, The Washington Post (3/13/00) reported: “Even worse, many students now coming to college have almost no desire to learn, to know and understand things outside their narrow vocational interest. According to a UCLA survey, "40 percent of each freshman class is ‘disengaged’ from educational values and pursuits.” Unfortunately, a similar study was not effected regarding professors.

The Massachusetts Cultural Council and its local branch, the Concord Cultural Council, serve to illustrate that censorial function exists in the name of status quo. First, note that members are politically appointed. The most egregious example is William Bulger, former state house senate leader and current president of the University of Massachusetts, who, by the way, has a brother on the FBI’s most wanted list for serial murders committed in the state during William's tenure as state house leader. Clearly, William Bulger will censor, that is, refuse grant monies for, any art and writing critical of the state university and college system, as well as that critical of the crony-appointed members of the state cultural council itself, which distributes taxpayer monies to artists and writers supposedly in need of such funding. Any one doubting this assertion might wish to recall Bulger’s prohibiting of candidate Ralph Nader from participating in the presidential debate held at his university.

One would think that such monies, or at least a part of such monies, would best benefit the citizenry, as opposed to hack politicians, if spent on writers and artists whose work actively questions and challenges the state’s diverse institutions. For evident reasons, that is, maintaining the status quo, grants are not normally accorded to such writers and artists. Clearly, state cultural council members need to be educated regarding the importance of engaged writing and art. They need to read James Baldwin’s “The Creative Process,” for example, in which the writer states:
“I am really trying to make clear the nature of the artist’s responsibility to his society. The peculiar nature of this responsibility is that he must never cease warring with it, for its sake and for his own.”
In any case, the editor requested information for a grant to help purchase advertising space in Poets & Writers and the Concord Journal, an ISBN, and even hire a magazine and periodical distribution service. The chairperson of the Concord Cultural Council called him on the phone, noting he shouldn’t expect much but would probably be given a couple hundred dollars to at least help finance an issue of The American Dissident. Encouraged, the editor filled out the application and sent a copy of the journal with it. Several months later he received a flat out rejection: “We favored grants that would have a wider audience in Concord. You seem to be looking for a wider audience and can get some funding from subscriptions. We wish you well with your journal.” That was all that was written.

Needless to say, the editor suspected the rejection to have been a purely political one, considering the title and scope of the literary journal, thus demanded, as a citizen, somewhat outraged indeed, that he be permitted to review the files of grant recipients. The editor was angered because the chairperson had wasted his time leading him to believe if he filled out an application, he’d most likely receive some funding. What Concord and Massachusetts need more than anything else is a journal like The American Dissident, which seeks to publish writing in Spanish, French and English (minorities encouraged!), as well as artistic illustrations, that expose, amongst other things, hypocrisy and corruption in the state’s institutions.

The editor was outraged by the arbitrariness of the chairperson’s implication that somehow The American Dissident wouldn’t have a “wider audience in Concord.” The seven female members of the cultural council seemed to have designated themselves as community spokespersons determining in capricious manner, that is, without vote or professional polling survey, what the community likes and what it doesn’t like. Besides, what the community likes should not be sole determinant of what art and writing should be accorded public funding. What the community needs would be much more beneficial to the community than what it likes.

The Concord Free Public Library is a subscriber of The American Dissident, thus certainly understands that point. Moreover, a free subscription was offered to the Concord Academy, which refused it. The Concord Bookshop and Shop at Walden Pond boutique (Thoreau Society) refuse to stock the journal and the Concord Journal refuses to interview the editor as Concord citizen, despite his varied requests. Is there any surprise that perhaps The American Dissident may have a somewhat restricted audience in the town of Concord?

Regarding the wider audience criteria, note the pertinent comments of French writer Anatole France: “If you have a fresh view or an original idea, if you present men [and women!] things from an unexpected point of view, you will surprise the reader. And the reader does not like being surprised. He never looks in a history for anything but the stupidities that he knows already. If you try to instruct him, you only humiliate him and make him angry. Do not try to enlighten him: he will only cry out that you insult his beliefs.”

Needless to say, not one of the 14 grant recipients presented anything from “an unexpected point of view.” Granted for children and teens, there was the Alcott School that received $400 for the Little Theater of Deaf Dragon Stories performance and the 50-minute Project Concern hip-hop dance performance proposal that received $300. But why was the Concord Cultural Council giving a grant to an organization, Project Concern, located in Quincy? Another grant ($170) was awarded to enable 12 high school students to travel to see a play. Now, how does that help enrich the community? Where is the wide audience there? Again, it is evident that council decisions are politically biased, hardly based on logic at all.

Besides, that particular grant was in clear violation of the Local Cultural Council Program Regulations and Guidelines, which stipulate that proposals “contribute to the cultural vitality of the community as a whole, rather than benefiting any private individual or group.”

The bulk of grants went to those proposing politically-disengaged music events, including Susan McDermott who received $500 for her proposed “nature songs concert” for the elderly and who self-advocated: “My music is soothing, cathartic and essentially makes listeners feel good.” The Concord Council of Aging in one of the many blurbs included on her application noted: “Susan is a respected and highly popular entertainer who is well known for providing wonderful engaging performances which would appeal to the populace we serve.”

MUSE (Music Serving Elders), who gave concerts by “classically trained vocal soloists” to “institutionalized elders,” requested a grant to help pay “competitive wage to our singers.” It got $400. Of the eight MUSE performers, five were church/temple soloists. The other two were college faculty members, who evidently did not need to earn an extra competitive wage. Evidently, grants are not going to people that necessarily need the money. Regarding the church, the Concord Chamber Music Society, which obtains private and public contributions, received $200 to make and distribute a thousand flyers for its proposed concert at Trinity Episcopal Church. The group it was sponsoring is the world renowned Muir String Quartet, featured in extenso in The New Yorker, CBS Sunday Morning and PBS “In Performance at the White House for President and Mrs. Reagan.”

Denise Doucette, who received $450 to present four musical programs in which she would “play the guitar, sing and dance along to her own pre-recorded background” to the Cooperative of Elder Services, declared she would “provide both social interaction and mental stimulation.” She is a professional entertainer. One must ask why she doesn’t simply volunteer for the elderly. She requested to be paid a $900 salary. The curiosity with Ms. Doucette is that she was awarded a second grant of $300 to perform a 1½ hour musical program of “broadway musicals, sing-a-longs and country and traditional standards” for Senior Citizens of Concord. Now who might she know on the cultural council? Two grants for essentially the same sing-a-long type of feel-good thing! Well, when we see performers at nursing homes, Alzheimer's centers and adult day care facilities, let’s not automatically assume they’re volunteers. Clearly the Concord Cultural Council has decided without poll of the citizenry that the town’s elderly doesn’t want to be intellectually stimulated… just lulled with soft music into death. Perhaps instead the elderly would better serve the Nation and her children if they were to contemplate Dylan Thomas, as in “Do not go gentle into that good night rage, rage, rage against the dying light.”

It also appears that the Concord Cultural Council wants the town’s children to be lulled with chuckling into an unquestioning and unchallenging fit-in adulthood. Indian Hill Music Center received $150 for an event featuring the children’s music duo Gemini. “The result is a show full of laughter and grins, boisterous fun, and the magic of hushed singing.” Interestingly, no less than 25 grant requests were made by this group to local cultural councils throughout the state to perform just one concert in which 6000 tickets had already been sold for an undisclosed amount. Well, there would also be a “petting zoo.”

The Concord Orchestra, Incorporated, which received $500, despite its annual budget of $66,000 obtained from the Concord and Massachusetts Cultural Councils ($4360) and individual contributions, proposed one concert in which it would be selling tickets for an unspecified amount. “This year our family concert will feature ‘Tubby the Tuba’… we expect sellout performances.” They wanted the grant so they could “donate tickets to 40 people.” But wouldn’t that be a donation from the cultural council, rather than from the orchestra corporation?

Only one grant was given to a proposal that would have any lasting benefit for the community at all, a photo exhibit to be held and donated at the Concord Free Public Library, though of turn-of-the-century photos, nothing politically engaged at all. Interestingly, the recipient Renee Garrelick, who got $300, was “selected in 1991 as Concord’s honored citizen with her husband Pat.” Was she politically connected? Of course she was.

It appears that another grant, besides that accorded the 12 girls noted above, violated at least the spirit of the state cultural council regulations. The Concord Art Association with an annual revenue of $150,000 was awarded $650 to “make invitations and provide refreshments” for an exhibit of art for sale created by Concord High School students. Interestingly, if the exhibit were held at the high school, regulations would have outright prohibited awarding a grant. “Funds must not substitute for or replace other public funding of programs in the arts, humanities or interpretive sciences. Specifically, this applies to proposals from public institutions, such as schools and libraries, which are already or should be, an integral part of a community’s budget.” Just the same there appears to be a patent violation of the regulations that stipulate “1. Refreshments: Local Council funds may not be used to purchase food.”

For a community that prides itself on being the birthplace of American literature with the likes of Thoreau, Emerson, Hawthorne, and the Alcott's, is it not bizarre that the cultural council chose not to give a grant to the only applicant whose proposal was a literary project of a dissident nature, one in direct line with Thoreau and Emerson? One final grant of $300 was accorded nonetheless to the Concord Festival of Authors, which receives donations and “in-kind contributions” from over 40 businesses. The Festival provides a platform for “celebrated authors and new and emerging authors of merit.” (I must, of course, wonder if I will be considered “of merit” when my book decrying corruption in a national blue ribbon Massachusetts high school is published next year.)

It is troubling that some of the authors being pushed thanks to cultural council funding were millionaires, including ex-governor Weld, who wrote a mystery novel, Harvard lawyer Alan Dershowitz and Doris Kearns Goodwin, all published by publishing houses of great wealth. If Weld’s little mystery novel should have a “wider audience” than The American Dissident, ignorance and the structures of citizen education that perpetuates it are responsible. But should a state cultural council be propagating ignorance and citizen interest in the celebrity mystery novel, as opposed to a publication that encourages the citizenry to stand up and speak the rude truth a la Emerson and Thoreau? This is the crux of the question.

Needless to say and despite the Concord Cultural Council chairperson’s contention in a second letter that “I think we are following the application and review procedures”--nothing like self-accountability!--, I protested the council’s decision despite its Regulations, and Guidelines, Local Cultural Council Programs, which stipulates as noted in the chairperson’s letter: “An applicant may request reconsideration of a local council decision on its application only if the applicant can demonstrate that the LCC failed to follow published application and review procedures. Such requests must be submitted in writing within 15 days of notification. No reconsideration may be requested due to a decision about the merits of a proposal or dissatisfaction with the award amount.” These regulations essentially stipulate autocratically that nobody can protest the council’s decision."

Indignation pushed the editor to request becoming a member of the Concord Cultural Council. The chairperson informed in that second letter that “Any Concord citizen can express an interest in any town committee by filling out a ‘green card’ in the selectmen’s office. It is from these cards that the selectmen nominate and appoint citizens to town committees.” When examining the grant-recipient files at Town Hall, I asked about this and was handed a green card, which I filled out. Three years later I have still heard nothing.

Interestingly, the secretary to the Town Manager informed that the Concord Cultural Council also submits recommendations for new members. So, who will the Democrat and Republican town selectpersons choose: the recommendees of the cultural council or the editor of The American Dissident, an independent citizen with an independent point of view, neither a political fund raiser, donor or campaigner? Clearly, the fact that all members on the council are politically appointed indicates that all members need to be educated as to how such appointment affects public funding of art and writing, how it serves to eliminate public funding for art and writing that might challenge the socio-political status quo, and how it serves to limit what art and writing the public is apt to be exposed to.

In conclusion, what the editor sought to determine in examining the files was whether any grant recipients were able to make money from their writing and art, one of the reasons the council rejected the editor's request for a grant. The answer was definitely yes. The editor also sought to determine if all other recipients necessarily had a wider audience in Concord than The American Dissident. The answer was not clear at all. Just the same, it was evident that The American Dissident would have a lasting audience as opposed to the large majority of recipients, whose audiences were basically present for a couple of hours.

The editor also sought to determine if there were any rules violations. The answer, given the state’s lengthy tradition of cronyism and patronage, was an unsurprising yes. Clearly, the egregious bias of the Concord Cultural Council for “feel good,” disengaged art and writing, as well as rules violations, points to the dire need to rethink the institution and to effect critical changes in how it operates for it to better serve the citizenry, as opposed to the socio-political status quo and those who benefit from that business as usual. Its mission must not continue to be that of cultural censor. Also, given the small scale of the Concord Cultural Council illustration, imagine the violations and political cronyism that one would probably uncover in a much larger scale study.

Correspondence with Concord and Massachusetts Cultural Councils

Subj: Criticism, the very cornerstone of democracy... even here in Concord
Date: 1/6/05
From: Enmarge
To: CWright12

Hi Charlotte.
I have updated my criticism of your cultural council on my web site (see Cultural Council). Please ask the members of your council to examine it and respond to it. The Concord Journal will not publish my letter to the editor critical of your council. Do you not agree that such one-sided journalism is shameful for a town of Concord's renown? Do you not find it Pravda (Soviet) in style? Do you not believe that dissident views should also be aired in the local press? I look forward to reading your response, as well as those from co-members of the Concord Cultural Council.
Best,
G. Tod Slone, Ed. (enmarge@aol.com)
The American Dissident (www.geocities.com/enmarge)
A Literary Journal in the Samizdat Tradition of Engaged Writing
Providing a forum for Examining the Dark Side of the Academic/Literary Industrial Complex et al
“Truth, Wisdom, and Protest in Poetry and Writing in the Spirit of Revolutionary Patriots”
1837 Main St.
Concord, MA 01742

Subj: Cultural Council grants
Date: 9/16/03
From: CWright12
To: Enmarge
Hi,
   Applications for grants and the guidelines for the grants will soon be available at the 2 town libraries and the Town House.   In addition we'll have an article in the Concord Journal. The article will probably come out in next week's ( Sept. 24th) edition. Applications can also be found on the Mass. Cultural Council web page. Mass Cultural Council | Applications and Forms | Index. You may know that the funds have been significantly cut over the last two years and this year we have $2000 to award. The determinations will be made at public meetings held after the application deadline of the 15th of Oct. Last year we awarded partial funding to 8 applicants. If you have other questions please feel free to email me.
                 Best regards,
                 Charlotte Wright

Project: The editor/poet/citizen will lecture about dissidence and risk-taking in the local arena (see attached essay on risk and poetry), amongst others, at the Concord Public Library, Thoreau Society, and to art and writing classes at the Concord-Carlisle High School, including, of course both Thoreau and Emerson, in his discourse. He will distribute copies of the semiannual literary journal, The American Dissident, published by him in Concord, as a concrete example of a venue for dissidence, and questioning and challenging of local institutions. This lecture/publication project will serve to counterbalance the positivist projects generally funded by the state and local cultural council (see attached essay on Concord Cultural Council). It will serve to emphasize that criticizing of local institutions may be as beneficial to the local community as praising them. In these times of the Patriot Act, this project ought prove particularly pertinent.
Hopefully, what will happen will be discussion and enlightenment.
This project ought be particularly pertinent today, considering the Patriot Act. It ought benefit the citizens of this community by showing them just how important it is to question and challenge the community’s very institutions. The editor/poet/citizen will illustrate his lectures with actual examples of experiments in free speech conducted in the community. It should enlighten local citizens, for example, to the fact that expression of free speech is prohibited at Walden Pond State Reservation. The editor/poet/citizen will also be providing another venue, that is, The American Dissident, for citizens to express themselves, their indignities and challenges. It will be evaluated by the distribution of an appropriate questionnaire.
4.The project will be promoted via personal contacts and letters sent to the public library and high school. If cultural council members have any suggestions, I am fully open to them.
5.The editor/poet/citizen will be the key artist. He has a PhD, edits The American Dissident, is a professor by trade, and is an active experimenter in free speech.

Subj: Cultural Council grant
Date: 9/15/03
From: Enmarge
To CWright12

To Whom It May Concern:
Are there any specific requirements to obtain a CC grant that I should be aware of?
Thank you.
G. Tod Slone
Concord, MA 01742

Subj: Grant application
Date: 9/14/03
From: Marylcouvl
To: Enmarge
Tod Sloan,
I am no longer chair of the cultural council. Contact the town hall for the present chair. My best advice is to go to MCC online where you can find the applications, download and print the form. Actually you might be able to fill out the form online. That information should also be at the MCC site. MLCouvillon

Subj: Cultural Council
Date: 12/2/2004 5:44:15 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: Enmarge
To: CWright12

Dear Charlotte:
Please answer the following questions:

1. Why has your council deemed Concord literary journals not cultural?
2. Why have such journals been excluded from receiving public funding?
3. Why has your council determined that only events be considered cultural and thus open to funding?
4. Why do you seek to deny funding to organizations that criticize, question, and challenge the status quo cultural sector?
5. Who are the cultural council members and how did they get their positions?
6. What political connections are there between cultural council members and local politicos?
Also, please inform me where I might go to examine this year's grant recipients. I would like to determine if in fact you continue to award grants to those who do not really need them, to those who present joyous, positive-outlook proposals, and to those who otherwise dare not go against the grain.
Please examine my website, especially with regards the page devoted to the Concord Cultural Council. As you can see, I have not given up the fight, though the futility of trying to gain cause is more than evident.
If choose not to respond, I shall make an effort to publish this letter in the Concord Journal and post it on the bulletin board by the Mill Dam.
Thank you for your attention.
Best,
G. Tod Slone, Ed. (enmarge@aol.com)
The American Dissident (www.geocities.com/enmarge)
A Literary Journal in the Samizdat Tradition of Engaged Writing
Providing a forum for Examining the Dark Side
of the Academic/Literary Industrial Complex et al
"Truth, Wisdom, and Protest in Poetry and Writing in the Spirit of Revolutionary Patriots"
1837 Main St.
Concord, MA 01742

Subj: PS
Date: 12/2/2004 5:59:29 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: Enmarge
To CWright12

PS: Would it not be better for the citizens of Concord to be exposed to against-the-grain culture that actually dares question and challenge the status quo, that perhaps might even provoke them think, as opposed to positive, happy-face pabulum culture that will only make them superficially feel-good and chuckle? These times are rife with corporate corruption, political cronyism and patronage (the Big Dig!), rampant literary/academic incest, and outright bloody wars... in case you haven't noticed.

James Baldwin, a well-known black writer in case you've never heard of him, was on target when he stated: "I am really trying to make clear the nature of the artist's responsibility to his society. The peculiar nature of this responsibility is that he must never cease warring with it, for its sake and for his own."

It is shameful for you and others in your council to simply close your eyes and pretend the likes of me in your community do not exist. Perhaps your blissful ignorance is indirectly responsible for the gross hypocrisies spouted continually by the nation's president. Sure, you might be Democrats, but so what?

G. Tod Slone, Ed. (enmarge@aol.com)
The American Dissident (www.geocities.com/enmarge)
A Literary Journal in the Samizdat Tradition of Engaged Writing
Providing a forum for Examining the Dark Side
of the Academic/Literary Industrial Complex et al
"Truth, Wisdom, and Protest in Poetry and Writing in the Spirit of Revolutionary Patriots"
1837 Main St.
Concord, MA 01742

PPS: Your cultural council would not even grant me a measley $15 for a subscription to my Concord literary journal!

Subj: Questions for the council...
Date: 12/4/2004 2:22:55 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: Enmarge
To: concord@mass-culture.org

Dear Carol Haines, Concord Cultural Council:
Why not some real dissident writing in your Concord Magazine? Anyhow, please answer the following questions:

1. Why has your council deemed Concord literary journals not cultural?
2. Why have such journals been excluded from receiving public funding?
3. Why has your council determined that only events be considered cultural and thus open to funding?
4. Why do you seek to deny funding to organizations that criticize, question, and challenge the status quo cultural sector?
5. Who are the cultural council members and how did they get their positions?
6. What political connections are there between cultural council members and local politicos.

Also, please inform me where I might go to examine this year's grant recipients. I would like to determine if in fact you continue to award grants to those who do not really need them, to those who present joyous, positive-outlook proposals, and to those who otherwise dare not go against the grain.

Please examine my website, especially with regards the page devoted to the Concord Cultural Council. As you can see, I have not given up the fight, though the futility of trying to gain cause is more than evident.

If choose not to respond, I shall make an effort to publish this letter in the Concord Journal and post it on the bulletin board by the Mill Dam.

Thank you for your attention.
Best,

James Baldwin, a well-known black writer in case you've never heard of him, was on target when he stated: "I am really trying to make clear the nature of the artist's responsibility to his society. The peculiar nature of this responsibility is that he must never cease warring with it, for its sake and for his own."

It is shameful for you and others in your council to simply close your eyes and pretend the likes of me in your community do not exist. Perhaps your blissful ignorance is indirectly responsible for the gross hypocrisies spouted continually by the nation's president. Sure, you might be Democrats, but so what?

PPS: It looks like your organization is made up of almost all women! Now, that's not right at all. Please inform Elizabeth Berk, Kate Bird, Craig Dunn, Jennifer Gillespie, Carol Haines, Jennifer Jacoby, Nancy Joroff and Charlotte Wright that I want to be on the Concord Cultural Council, as a trilingual MAN with a PhD, and with a highly dissident spirit in the Thoreauan and Emersonian sense! Let your life be a counterfriction to STOP THE MACHINE! That is my life. It is time that culture stop being dumb downed and diversionary entertainemtn. It is time that Emerson and Thoreau admirers stop diluting those greats with statements and behavior of banality. Yes, I am a contrarian, not a teamplayer, not a teamthinker, not a teamprevaricator. I await your response.

Subj: Cultural Council information
Date: 12/6/2004 5:12:13 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: CWright12
To: enmarge

Dear Mr. Slone:
     I received your email of December 2. The responses to your questions as found below are my own as an individual board member. First and most importantly, I can assure you that the Concord Cultural Council is comprised of a group of very dedicated, conscientious volunteers.
     Your questions (in bold) and my responses are as follows:
1. Why has your council deemed Concord literary journals not cultural?
      We haven't. We consider literary journals to be cultural and eligible for funding.
2. Why have such journals been excluded from receiving public funding?
     They have not been excluded. The committee reviews each grant application very
     carefully. This year there were 28 applications. We had $2000 to award. We
     partially funded 9 applications that, in our opinion, benefited our community
     the most.
3. Why has your council determined that only events be considered cultural
     and thus open to funding?
     The council hasn't determined that only events are open to funding.
4. Why do you seek to deny funding to organizations that criticize, question,
     and challenge the status quo cultural sector?
     We do not seek to deny funding of this sort.
5. Who are the cultural council members and how did they get their
     positions?
     The Cultural Council Board is comprised of volunteers who fill out interest cards
     at the Town House indicating an interest in serving on the Cultural Council. As
     vacancies occur on the Council, nominations are taken from this list of interested
     citizens and presented to the Board of Selectmen for approval.
6. What political connections are there between cultural council members
     and local politicos?
     None that I'm aware of.

Information regarding grants:
It is my understanding that records of grant recipients are kept on file at the Town House for 3 years and then they are housed in the library archives. Recipients are announced in the Concord Journal and a committee report is placed in the Town's annual report. This year's grant recipients will soon be announced in the Concord Journal.

Sincerely,
Charlotte Wright

Subj: On the Concord Cultural Council's very narrow definition of culture
Date: 12/6/2004 7:26:29 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: enmarge
To: CWright12

Dear Charlotte Wright, Concord Cultural Council:
Clearly, you are not talking truth with regards your committee's essential defining of culture as happy-face event. The LCC application statement "Describe who is the target audience; what will happen; when and where it will occur" clearly implies an event! That statement ought to be rewritten, if in fact culture is to include non events, to plainly indicate that projects need not be events. By the way, all seven Concord Cultural Council awards last year were accorded to events! On another note, the "event" implication in that application statement would seem to eliminate funding for any project of a dissident nature… for what community organization in the Town of Concord would wish to sponsor a critical event, one that might actually question and challenge Concord pillars of the community? …certainly not the Concord Poetry Center or Emerson Umbrella for the Arts, both organizations disdain dissidence. Community-friendly does not necessarily mean cultural. Yet that seems to be precisely how your cultural council is and has been defining it. The application statement "How this project will reach and benefit the citizens of this community" also implies making citizens feel good and happy. Indeed, all seven grants awarded last year unmistakably fall into that category.

Making citizens think, question and challenge the status quo would not be a good project in your committee's eyes. It has turned down grant requests from The American Dissident, the only such project in recent history that falls into that category, on three occasions. When did you ever award funds to such a project? You'd have to do plenty of research to answer that question, wouldn't you? Your committee seems to be intellectually restricted in paradigmatic paralysis. You need to think about that. You need to rethink culture. But you, of course, will not… because of paradigmatic paralysis.

Why has your committee remained silent with regards the Web page I've authored with its regard? Why does it shun hardcore debate on this matter? Why not invite me to speak and present my case?

Why do you favor awarding grants to parties who evidently do not need them? Last year, for example, four of the seven grants were awarded to the Alcott School, the Concord Middle School, the Discovery Museum, and Minute Man Arc for Human Services.

With regards my question, What political connections are there between cultural council members and local politicos?, you state "None that I'm aware of." Yet you answered that question without even realizing it: "nominations are taken from this list of interested citizens and presented to the Board of Selectmen for approval." Indeed, would the Board of Selectmen be apt to approve a citizen who questions and challenges… them? You need to open your eyes and step out of your societal-friendly paradigm. You need to heed James Baldwin: "I am really trying to make clear the nature of the artist's responsibility to his society. The peculiar nature of this responsibility is that he must never cease warring with it, for its sake and for his own." You need to heed Thoreau: "Let your life be a counterfriction to stop the machine." You also need to heed Emerson: "I ought to go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways." That is what culture should be, not what your committee has deemed it to be: conformist feel-good events, including Tubby the Tuba and marionettes. Your committee shames both Thoreau and Emerson, the latter, as you probably know, also stated: "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." Evidently, I am wholly disgusted with the council and its narrow vision. The futility of fighting that outlook is more than evident. Yet I am compelled by inner Socratic daemon to continue my denunciation. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
G. Tod Slone, Ed. (enmarge@aol.com)
The American Dissident (www.geocities.com/enmarge)
A Literary Journal in the Samizdat Tradition of Engaged Writing
Providing a forum for Examining the Dark Side
of the Academic/Literary Industrial Complex et al
"Truth, Wisdom, and Protest in Poetry and Writing in the Spirit of Revolutionary Patriots"
1837 Main St.
Concord, MA 01742

Subj: Re: I want to be on the cultural council!!!
Date: 12/10/2004 5:06:44 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: LCCConcord@mail.massculturalcouncil.org
To: enmarge

Dear Mr. Slone:
We received your emails through the Massachusetts Cultural Council website and are writing in response.

The Concord Cultural Council is comprised of Concord citizens who fill out volunteer interest cards at the Town House indicating a desire to serve on the Cultural Council. As vacancies occur on the Council, the elected Board of Selectmen name new volunteer members from this list of interested citizens.

The Massachusetts Cultural Council is the governing organization from which Concord’s funds are derived. Its mission is “to promote excellence, access, education, and diversity in the arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences in order to improve the quality of life for all Massachusetts residents and to contribute to the economic vitality of our communities.” The Commonwealth has guidelines to which the local communities must adhere. Complete official state LCC Program Guidelines and Regulations are available online at www.massculturalcouncil.org. Concord’s guidelines are additional to the Commonwealth’s and are also available online at the MCC website. These guidelines do not exclude literary journals from funding and specifically include literature and the humanities as appropriate topics for grant requests.

The volunteer Council reviews each grant application on its own merit and in comparison with others. This year there were 28 applications asking for $15,324. We had $2000 to award. We partially funded 9 applications that, in our opinion and in accordance with our guidelines, benefited a wide range of audiences in the Concord community. Grant recipients are announced in the Concord Journal and a report appears in the Town’s annual report. It is our understanding that past grant applications are on file at the Town House for three years and then housed in the Town Archives.

Thank you for your input.

Sincerely,
The Concord Cultural Council
Jennifer Jacoby and Carol Haines, co-chairs

Subj: Stupid White Women... in charge
Date: 12/11/2004 8:27:40 AM Pacific Standard Time
From: enmarge
To: LCCConcord@mail.massculturalcouncil.org

The crank is the part of the machine which creates revolution and it is very small. I am a small revolutionary.
-E. F. Schumacher, economist

Dear Jennifer Jacoby and Carol Haines, co-chairs, Concord Cultural Council:
Thank you for your bureaucratic response to my letters. Despite the guidelines cited, clearly, you and your council will not fund a literary journal with the critical outlook of The American Dissident. Why not be honest, "go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways," and simply come out and say so? Why blow the hot air of functionary jargon? Clearly, you and your council will not fund any Concord artist/writer/poet who "goes upright and vital, and speaks the rude truth in all ways" (Emerson) and lets his life "be a counterfriction to stop the machine" (Thoreau). That is your travesty. That is the travesty of Concord pillars of the community, always flaunting Emerson and Thoreau, yet adulterating their radical essence wherever and whenever possible. That is the travesty of Thoreau Institute, Thoreau Society, and the state police who guard Walden Pond State Reservation. One must wonder if the headmasters of the Thoreau School have ever uttered "let your life be a counterfriction to stop the machine" in front of pupils. One must also wonder if the directors of the Emerson Umbrella Center for the Arts have ever uttered "go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways" in front of art students.

You need to step out of your paradigm of cultural functionalism, crawl out from behind your politically-correct indoctrination, and rethink the role of the Concord Cultural Council, which should not be the funding of proposals considered "safe," sufficiently infantilized, inoffensive, diversionary, and entertaining. Let culture offend, let it shake people up, let it make them think, rather than fall asleep! Let it question and challenge our very unjust society, ever drifting from democracy, irrevocably embedding itself into state of plutocracy and war-mongering empire. "That America like the historical republics must accept corruption and empire has been known for years," remarked Robinson Jeffers over sixty years ago.

Next week, I shall go into town, fill out a request to become a cultural council member. Hopefully, the politicians of the Board of Selectmen will not refuse my request. I shall also request my second Open Letter to Henry David Thoreau be posted on the community bulletin board by the Mill Dam. This letter denounces you and your committee as inflexible, irreversibly indoctrinated, and otherwise behaving as STUPID WHITE WOMEN in charge.

Finally, have you examined my website with regards the page devoted to the Concord Cultural Council? Have you discussed my concerns with your committee… or do you simply ignore them as incomprehensible and crank?

PS: Why not subscribe to The American Dissident. It's only $15. The Widener Library at Harvard University is a subscriber.

Dear Concord Cultural Council (Marylcouvl@aol.com):
As indicated in my letter to the chairperson, I wish to protest your, that is, the Concord Cultural Council’s, decision not to accord a taxpayer funded grant to help fund my literary review, The American Dissident, as arbitrary and capricious. After careful examination of the files of grant recipients this past Friday at Town Hall, I believe I have uncovered at least two egregious violations of the LCC rules and guidelines. Also, it appears more than evident that your committee has acted in patent violation of my rights as a citizen of Concord not to be rejected by a public organization because of political persuasion. Attached in Word 2000 is my seven-page analysis of the grants accorded by your LCC. The essay is also a reflection on what is clearly wrong with your LCC. I am forwarding a copy of this document to the Massachusetts Cultural Council and will also be seeking a scholarly journal to publish it. Please feel free if you would like to discuss any of the issues and findings reported in my analysis. Thank you for your attention.
THE AMERICAN DISSIDENT

Dear Lisa Hergenrother, Manager of Communities:
I just received your email from Concord CC who said you were "very willing to speak" with me. Do you have a copy of my report/essay? If not, perhaps I should first send you a copy. My complaint is quite simple. I do not feel like a citizen here in Concord... at least as long as I continue to refuse playing feel-good trombone music to the elderly and dressing in clown outfit for little kids. If you read my report, I don't know how any person with a head on his/her shoulders cannot agree that the CCC acts with political bias. Also, curiously, the CCC cannot even see the evident rules violations it committed in according several grants to politically favored proposals. Look forward to hearing from you.
The American Dissident

Dear Concord Cultural Council:
Thanks for at least responding. Many public organizations simply do not respond when criticized. Just the same, the bottomline seems to be that the LCCs are not held accountable, since the Massachusetts Cultural Council is not held accountable. In other words, you can do whatever you want, violate any of the regulations in your guidelines as long as you do not step on the toes of any one “important.” You have stepped on my toes, but I am a mere citizen of Concord without money or political connections. Indeed, my de jura citizenship is not really de facto valid.
It is reprehensible that you can honestly not admit to having committed the two egregious violations underscored in my report. It is also reprehensible that you can state “we feel we have acted conscientiously and without political bias.” Clearly, there is no point in my applying for a grant in Concord, and of course you did not suggest I reapply next year, because of the highly political/critical nature of my writing and art. In other words, clearly I am not really a citizen in Concord because I do not think as you would have me think. Lisa Hergenrother, Manager of Communities, has simply not responded to my mail. Apparently, you are wrong to state: “she is very willing to speak to you.” How much time will have to pass before I ought be convinced that nobody intends responding at all to my report?
The American Dissident

Dear Tom Connors, Selectman Liaison to the Town:
Louise Couvillon told me to contact you on my complaint about the Concord Cultural Committee. Is anyone going to do anything about my documented complaint? Or is there only going to be silence, inaction, and business as usual corruption? In this town, I feel like a non-citizen citizen... having been harassed by the police for exercising First Amendment rights at Walden Pond, and being refused a CCC grant because of my proclivity to decry public corruption. We are living in strange and dangerous times in this America. Please respond. If you haven't received a copy of my complaint. Here is one attached Word 2000.
THE AMERICAN DISSIDENT

2/1/01
Dear Lisa Hergenrother of the Massachusetts Cultural Council (lisa.hergenrother@art.state.ma.us):
Do you public functionaries answer letters from citizens unhappy with your business as usual cronyism and patronage? Will you be responding to my complaint of rules violations committed by the Concord Cultural Council? What is it that makes you people tic? When do you begin lying to each other? Are you even conscious when you begin. Do you feel anything when you rationalize prevarication and misdead with denial? Do you know when you first decided that loyalty was much more important than truth and integrity?
The American Dissident

Dear Concord Cultural Council (Mary Couillon, la jefa):
As mentioned, neither of those two people you mentioned has contacted me. I have attempted to contact both of them. Can you not understand the written word?
The American Dissident

Dear American Dissident,
I have received your message regarding the Concord Cultural Committee. As a selectman I am the liaison to that committee. I have reviewed your essay and the subsequent complaint as well as the charge to the committee. I am not a member of the committee and therefore not qualified to evaluate or otherwise judge your work but I do find The Concord Cultural Council(established under Ch 790 of the Acts of 1979) acted within the guidelines as set forth in their charge(approved 3/17/80 and ammended 1/26/81 & 1/25/93) as by the Board of Selectman.
Each year The Cultural Council reviews many requests for funding and only after thoughtful evaluation and discussion awards the limited funds it has available. In 1998 35% of applicants received grants and in 1999 50% of applicants were successful. The full amount of the request is not always awarded to the applicant.
The committee charge, committee meetings and actions are all open for public attendance and review. The Town of Concord is proud to have group of volunteers of such demonstrated creativity and scholarship and wholly supports them in their service to all the citizens of Concord.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions regarding this matter or any other concerning the Town of Concord.
Thomas H. Connors, Concord Board of Selectmem (sic)

Dear Tom (Tomcon41@cs.com):
Two violations of the guidelines were clearly indicated in my essay. Could you not read them? Could you not comprehend why they were violations? If not, would you like me to spell them out in another letter? Address those violations, please. If you are not capable of doing that, who might I address? Are you the last one on the totem? Evidently, you simply refuse to address them.
You don't want to see the violations. You refuse to see the political bias. Don't give me that bullshit line about how wonderful the Cultural Council. You sound like someone supporting the Big Dig management or one of the corrupt state colleges. Indeed, you sound grotesque. Is it money that has fogged your brain? Have you ever wondered how you ended up so functionary? Do you ever think of such things? Do you think public education failed you? Do you think it gave you the tools to read an essay like mine? Why does one person get two grants if funding is so tight? Who does she know? Can't you even comprehend how biased that appears? Two grants for one person doing essentially the same feel good song and dance crap. Oh, yes, that will benefit the town of Concord! Talk about keeping the joyful ignorant, ignorant. You stupid fellow. What the hell does "public review" mean, if once reviewed the solons in charge don't listen to what the reviewer found? Public review means shit if nothing will be done about violations uncovered during the review. Can you not even comprehend that? If you can, then you are nothing but a sham. If you can't, then you must be just stupid... but with charisma. No need to flaunt those hollow words "the town of Concord is proud." I'm a thinker, not one of your blind patriot friends. Is the town of Concord proud that Walden Pond refuses exercise of the First Amendment on its grounds? I'm sure it is. Is the town of Concord so proud that it wears a mask of democracy, nothing more, nothing less. I'm sure it is. Is the town of Concord proud that its newspaper is nothing but a corporate sham that will not publish letters to the editor written by critics of Concord? I'm sure it is.
If you can believe that those cultural council volunteers have an ounce of "creativity" then you don't know what creativity is. Don't freaken tell me that the "town supports them in their service to all the citizens of Concord." Because they are not serving me, and I am a citizen of Concord, whether you like it or not. They are not serving the student population with the mindless cultural crap they accord grants to, nor are they serving the elderly by lulling them into death with feel good music. The elderly needs to be intellectually challenged, not numbed. But the cultural council members are sure serving the local oligarchs by helping to prevent me from speaking out, from criticizing the likes of you and them. They will refuse grants to me, a citizen of Concord, not because of restricted monies but because I will seek to expose you and them. Do you feel good about the phoney democracy in Concord, where the police will incarcerate anyone not behaving properly, that is, like shaven functionary? Do you feel proud about the police hiding behind corners waiting to pounce on citizens, fine them for some crap and otherwise fuck up the citizens' day? Get out and vote. But for which nitwit? For which town selectman kowtow nitwit... Tom Connors? Read TS Elliott's "The Hollow Men," if you read literature... you might learn something about yourself.
THE AMERICAN DISSIDENT
PS: I never really thought I'd get anywhere with my complaint. I simply lodged it to exercise my citizen responsibility. I have lived in Massachusetts far too long to believe I could make a little dent in the state's utterly corrupt, century's old tradition of nepotism, cronyism and patronage within the framework of the Irish controlled political structure best illustrated by William and Whitey Bulger. There is no justice here. There can be no justice in such a framework. There can be no truth in such a framework either. Concord has gone down the toilet bowl with the rest of the state. Flushhhhh. Can you hear the sound? Flushhhhh.

Dear Concord Cultural Council Member (Cwright12@aol.com):
Clearly you people don't give a damn about anything beyond the realm of your own staid ignorance. God help the Nation with the likes of you controlling the cultural councils! Here's a copy of the letter--I'm not even sure if you know how to read--I just sent off to the functionary Tom Connors. Well, I am glad I had this brief combat with you. It has been rewarding. Imagine, I can't even give a free subscription to the Concord Academy. Whatever happened to free thought, free flow of ideas, free and open debate? Whatever happened to the ideals of Emerson and Thoreau? Well, you guys helped kill it and them, that's what happened!
The American Dissident.

2/12/01

Dear American Dissident:
I am in receipt of your email dated February 1st expressing concerns about the Concord Cultural Council. I am very sorry for the delay in getting back to you. As a public agency, I want to ensure you that the Massachusetts Cultural Council does take constituent complaints very seriously. I am in the process of gathering materials from the local council to review. I have a copy of your report and other correspondence from your web site. Please be assured that responding to your concerns is a top priority for me. I plan to follow-up with you sometime later this week.
Sincerely, Lisa Hergenrother, Manager, Local Cultural Council Program, (800) 232-0960

2/15/01
Dear American Dissident,
I am responding to the complaint you filed regarding the operations of the Concord Cultural Council. With regard to local cultural councils, the role of the Massachusetts Cultural Council is one of general oversight. This agency provides a basic allocation of state funding and establishes a general set of guidelines that all councils must observe. Within those guidelines, LCCs have a fair amount of autonomy. The MCC defers to municipalities on who is appointed to a local council and how the local council determines the cultural needs of its community. The MCC believes that LCC volunteers and those in the position of appointing them have much more in-depth knowledge of their community. The MCC must rely on local council volunteers to determine the best use of the limited funds provided.

In weighing your concerns, we have examined your report and all other information from your web site, copies of all correspondence, and the application you submitted to the local council. I have also spoken with the Concord chairperson several times. While we have found no outright intentional violations of program guidelines or regulations, we have determined that there are several areas in which the council could improve its practices.

When counseling you on the phone, the chair did not intend to give you the impression you would receive funds. Decisions about which grants to fund are the purview of the entire council, not one member. She was, and is with all applicants, generally encouraging but mentioned that even successful applicants usually receive only partial funding. She did not mean to imply to you that you would receive funding.

The council's choice of wording regarding their decision not to fund your application is troubling. The council could have been much more explicit about its questions regarding your application. According to the chair, your application advanced past the first level of review into a second round. As I understand it, the main reason your grant was not funded was that the council had trouble understanding how your work would engage specifically with the citizens of Concord. The LCC guidelines specifically require a community benefit component. Simply placing a copy of your publication in the library was not enough to satisfy this requirement in their eyes. A public lecture or roundtable discussion, or a workshop about critical writing may have been more compelling examples of community engagement.

The "need" for funds is an ancillary issue. As you pointed out, this criterion was not an issue for other applicants. The MCC defers to local councils on matters of multiple applications to the same applicant or multiple grants that serve the same population. This year, the council felt that they wanted to be supportive of grants for elders. These grants also demonstrated support from the elder service providers in Concord.

I was concerned with the explanation of the documentation attached to the Concord Art Association grant. You are correct; refreshments are not to be funded with LCC funds. The chair assures me that funds were not used for this purpose. However, the documentation attached to the grant contradicts this. Better care will be taken with regard to the documentation of what expenses are being covered with LCC funding.

I completely understand your frustration with the difficulties of finding support for your work. The concerns that you have raised about the operations of the local council have been heard and acknowledged by both the MCC and the Concord council. The local council has done quite a bit of soul searching over this situation and assures me of their plans to improve their practices in the future. While these individuals are in fact public servants, they are volunteers and we believe they are trying to do the best job they can. LCC volunteers, including those in Concord, work hard and generally care about their communities.

I realize that when all is said and done, there is probably nothing I can say that will make you feel better about your experience. However, I did want to assure you that what you had to say was taken seriously here. I would be most willing to speak with you by phone to answer any other questions you have or discuss your concerns.

Sincerely, Lisa Hergenrother, Manager Local Cultural Council Program
Cc: Mary Kelley, MCC Executive Director
Mary Louise Courvillon, Chair, Concord Cultural Council

2/15/01
Dear Ms. Hergenrother,
Thank you for your reply. My report notes two egregious violations. Are you simply going to ignore them with your statement: "While we have found no outright intentional violations of program guidelines or regulations"? Please at least tell me why those egregious violations of your own rules are not violations. That's a simple enough request, isn't it? You mention: "even successful applicants usually receive only partial funding." Then why did one applicant receive TWO grants for essentially the same project if funding is so tight? I find that grotesque. I also find your funding of wealthy people and organizations grotesque. You seem to be speaking some bizarre functionary DOUBLE SPEAK, which this non-functionary citizen cannot quite comprehend. If the council had trouble comprehending why my project might benefit Concord, why the hell didn't it call me and ask for a brief explanation? What the council essentially did instead was make me fully understand that there is no point in someone like me applying for a state grant. At least one grant recipient (12 girls going to see a play) had no "community benefit component" whatsoever, certainly a lot less than The American Dissident... except for the 12 girls. Please explain that.

I have volunteered to serve on the council. Do you really think I will be given the opportunity to do so? Just how seriously were my concerns really taken? Please, you need not try to convince me, because already you have failed. This state stinks. It is getting worse and worse and worse. Thoreau and Emerson would have been as disgusted as I am with it. The First Amendment is dying here... thanks to you and others who don't give a damn. Criticism is dying thanks to you and others who don't give a damn. This of course will only benefit the corrupt, inbred solons and oligarchs who run things.
G. Tod Slone, Ed. THE AMERICAN DISSIDENT

The American Dissident: Literature, Democracy & Dissidence

Concord Cultural Council & Massachusetts Cultural Council—Free Speech in Peril!

The Cultural Council: Slap in the Face of Democracy, Pat on the Back

Of the Chamber of Commerce, Bourgeois in Nature, Cliques and Cronyism

Correspondence with Concord and Massachusetts Cultural Councils