Nonprofit Hell

Deb’s Wednesday post, Topsy Turvy, was her opinion.  We share the space and compose together at times—this post not being one of those times.  She usually runs them by me to check for accuracies or other additions, as I do w/ her.  That was my only input and I agreed w/ her points.  And  the comment to her post today is further evidence of topsy turvy, and is obnoxious, misdirected, wrong and cowardly.  Her post had nothing to do w/ the nonprofit I run or the Grounds for Music event that just occurred.  Truth be told, being the president of a nonprofit org. for the arts is lousy 99% of the time for me.  No money, very little appreciation for the arts and for fighting an uphill battle for 40 years for the collective good of the art community— to make art a business so artists get paid instead of fighting over the scraps.  Collectively, Deb and I have 70 yrs. experience in the culture wars and  we have used our own savings from working crap jobs to help put this forth to benefit far from just ourselves but others and their kids too.  To tell the truth, very few would volunteer for this low-no pay job and get grief all the time and put a smile on it so these events come off and attendees go away feeling good.  It’s a tremendous toll on my mental health. Whoever wrote that smear comment today knows nothing and used my name no less as their tag and owes me a major apology. Anonymous no less.  what a coward.   We have opened up our home to so many unknown people, and to get this kind of crap—the willful ignorance literally makes me sick—as  mentioned in this blog before, I have PTSD as a result of being drafted during the Vietnam War.  A  instead of thanks for your hospitality and generosity.  this is why it sucks to be artists in America - mostly unpaid.    Mr. /ms. anonymous —what did you ever do to make the world a better place?  I’m interested.

Finally, the vast majority of young people I’ve dealt w/ for Ground of Music were respectful and did their jobs and were a real life force to the events.  And they were confessing right and left about the problems they are going through—it’s been a real window into our troubled society right now.  And I listened.  With much empathy.  And with as much guidance I could muster.  They had no idea that I was going through hell while I was mentoring them.  I hope that some of them eventually become part of an extended art family and we can all thrive together in a new our future.