Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 21:53:15 -0800 To: Citizens: ; From: US Department of Art & Technology <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Secretary Rallies Artists
US Department of Art & Technology http://www.usdept-arttech.net [EMAIL PROTECTED] Washington, DC
Press Secretary For Immediate Release: March 26, 2003
Secretary Rallies Artists
10:42 A.M. EST Washington, DC
Randall M. Packer Secretary, US Department of Art & Technology
THE SECRETARY: Thank you, all. (Applause.) Thank you, all, very much.
I am really proud to be here with the good men and women of the USA Exquisite Corpse, the artist's call to service. (Applause.)
We're also proud to be here today with our artist friends who have joined Operation Artistic Freedom. (Applause.) Over the last week the world has witnessed the skill and honor and resolve of the cultural community engaged in passionate dialogue and acts of artistic mediation. We have seen the character of a new generation of artists. Millions of Americans are proud of our artists, and so am I. I am honored to be the Secretary-in-Chief. (Applause.)
Every artist in our coalition of the willing understands the terrible threat we face from our government-in-action. Every artist here refuses to live in a future of fear, at the mercy of politicians and the corporate oilgarchy. And every artist here today shares the same resolve: the only valid experimental approach is one based on the uncompromising critique of existing conditions and their conscious intervention.
Our artists are making good progress; yet the war on war is far from over. We cannot predict the final day, but I can assure you, and I assure the long-suffering people of America, there will be a day of reckoning for the President, who has revealed the principles of arrogance, abuse of power, personal gain and a frightening lack of charisma, through his contempt for the opinion of the world.
Day by day, George W. Bush is losing his grip on reality; out of fear of the unknown, pain, and death - the Gods, surfacing from the immemorial depths of time and space - he has used his lethal weapons to bring down fire from the heavens, death and destruction that devours us all.
In the early stages of this war, the world is getting a clearer view of a terrible and deep anxiety resulting from self-created and deadly dangers that are growing beyond our control.
Our enemy in this war on war is the existential darkness that has possessed our government, that grips its soul. (Applause.)
The goal of artistic freedom unites our coalition. And this goal comes from the deepest convictions of the avant-garde. The artistic freedom we defend is the right of every artist and the future of our nation.
The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is the artist's gift to humanity.
That's what we do. That's our job.
Thank you. (Applause.).
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Contact: Press Secretary of the US Department of Art & Technology [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The US Department of Art & Technology http://www.usdept-arttech.net
The US Department of Art and Technology is the United States principal conduit for facilitating the artist's need to extend aesthetic inquiry into the broader culture where ideas become real action. It also serves the psychological and spiritual well-being of all Americans by supporting cultural efforts that provide immunity from the extension of new media technologies into the social sphere.
The Experimental Party http://www.experimentalparty.org
The Experimental Party - the "party of experimentation" - is an artist-based political party that has been formed to activate citizens across the country in an effort to bring the artists' message to center stage of the political process. This is a political awakening, 'representation through virtualization' is the major political thrust of the Experimental Party, it is the driving force.
