Everyone knows who Beethoven was and what he did. Here's a challenge for you:   without reaching for a history book or encyclopedia, name one general who was a contemporary of Beethoven. Almost everyone is familiar with music from Verdi's or Bizet's operas (whether they know it or not), but who can tell me what the political situations were in Italy and France at the time they were writing their music? I didn't think so.

I'm bothered a helluva lot less by a few million dollars given to an opera company, ballet company, or symphony orchestra now and then than I am by an umpteen billion dollar annual military budget.

Kings, politicians, and military men fade into the mists of history. The Arts last, for us to enjoy and be inspired by today--and on into tomorrow. Too bad we don't spend anywhere near as much on the Arts as we do making machines to kill people with. Someday, maybe the human race will evolve beyond our present primitive state.

Don Firth