Some thoughts on art and politics

I love all the pics I've seen of friends at marches today. We're traveling on a long-planned, unfortunately-timed vacation, so it's been weird and guilt-inducing to see all my comrades standing up. What we did today was see Kinky Boots on Broadway, and while it didn't help any causes directly, it helped heal my broken heart a bit.

Scott and I saw a wonderful musical about how a businessman's mind (and life) changes when he befriends a drag queen and realizes he can save his family's ailing shoe business by aiming at a different clientele. All of the performances brought the house down, and it made me laugh and cry in good ways. The big finale is how your life can change if you change your mind and accept people for who they are. And it struck me, sitting there, that this is not only a message that TPTB need to get, but also that it would drive them crazy to see people enjoying art, especially art that fosters understanding and love, and also beautiful men in heels. And it also struck me that that too is behind their proposed attacks on art and education--these are things that *can* and *do* change people's minds, and that's what they are afraid of most.