Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:28:24 -0400
From: Hobey Ford <hobeyone-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: [Puptcrit] Puppetry Bailout


OK here's the draft letter
;o)

Dear Mr. President,
I write on behalf of America's Puppeteers. Our business sector
probably hasn't come to your attention in the recent economic
downturn, but we are a vital part of every child=92s life in America,
not to mention the child in every American.  We are bringers of wonder
and magic.  We teach America's children to love literature, to read,
to know when to cross the street, to respect one another and otherwise
make their lives brighter.  Sasha and Melea know us well.  Perhaps you
remember our puppets from your own youth.  You may have met our
brothers and sisters in Indonesia when you lived there as a child.
While American's pinch their pennies and AIG executive=92s take there
millions of our tax dollars, we are the affordable entertainment in
the American community. We are the free programs at your public
library.  We are the assembly programs at every school in America.  We
are the ones teaching to the multiple intelligences through the arts
where other means fail.  We are in classrooms teaching the 21st
century skill of creative thinking and play.  We are the preservers of
America's veteran puppets, who taught, entertained, and uplifted your
parents and grand parents and your grand parent's parents.  We have
our own United Nations of puppeteers but when we get together there is
only laughter and tears of Joy.  We teach tolerance, we tell the story
of Harriet Tubman, and the folktales of the Native American, we help
children express themselves when their own words won't come.  We made
ET come to life, we live on Sesame Street, we brought Lion King to
life and saved Broadway, We are the animating soul of Howdy Doody,
Kookla Fran and Ollie and Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy, We are the
balloon characters at the Macy's Day Parade.  We are the stars of the
opening of Olympic ceremonies, we foster children into the words of
Shakespeare, and we speak truth to power in the streets on Mayday and
helped America wake up to the horror of the Vietnam War.   We let the
Moms and Dads laugh when they feel like crying.   We are at bedsides
in children's cancer wards providing sometimes the last laugh of a
dying child.  We are among the oldest traditions on earth.  Our
ancestors rode the Silk Road with Marco Polo, entertained the royalty
of the old world, allowed the oppressed to laugh at their oppressors.
We lived in concentration camps and made our puppets from rags to
feign some joy for the children.  We are beloved around the world when
our government is hated.  We bring joy!  We are American made!

But many of us our watching our bookings slip away.  Some are
scrambling to make ends meet.  Puppet collections older than your
grandparents are in need of a good home.  So we are writing you for
our own bailout.  We are vital to America's future.   We voted for you
accept for one or two but they are our family and we love them all the
same.  While it looks likes the dogs who helped bring this country to
its knees have been bonused more than many of us will earn in a
lifetime, I think we need a little consideration.  A measly billion
would probably do the trick. We realize that you might laugh when you
read this but we'll just consider that a freebie.  In the mean time,
we'll take what we can get.  Its not a give away, we earned it and
deserve it, in fact I truly doubt that the nation will be any fun at
all if we go down. So come on buck up.  You know you want to.  You can
come visit our little family this summer at our National Puppetry
Festival in Atlanta.  We will treat you right and you may need a good
laugh by then as well.
Yours Truly,
The Family of American Puppeteers and our fuzzy friends,
_______________________________________________
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