My $66 Sacrifice

Those banking CEO’s devastated by the news that their salaries would be limited to $500,000 a year? We are one. Because, I, too, have been forced by my government to make a sacrifice to help preserve The American Way. A recent letter from the Indiana Arts Commission informed me that the $2,000 Artist's Grant that I received in 2008 had been reduced to $1,934 due to “…challenging economic times in our local communities, in our state, and in our nation.”

Let me say that, unlike the banking CEO’s, I do not believe that I deserve any money from the government to do the work I do. I’m the one who (insanely) decided to be a writer. I’m truly grateful to have received the grant at all. I don’t even really care about the sixty-six bucks.

It’s just that being forced to forfeit the paltry sum of sixty-six bucks seems completely absurd to me when the government thinks it's perfectly reasonable to pay each of those damn CEO’s $500,000 of our tax money when it’s their greed and incompetence that got us into this mess in the first place. Not to mention the fact that honest, competent people who have lost their jobs and are facing real hardships as a result of said greed and incompetence are getting zip help at all.

Hello? Does this make sense to anyone?