October 2006 Page 4

> PRIORITIES

At the moment, and of late, I am not much inclined to wax "eloquent" on matters of art and culture...

The world as we knew it is in precarious balance politically, militarily, economically, religiously and... morally. We have gotten ourselves or have been lead into, on purpose and by negligence on ALL sides, a situation the outcome of which is far from being as certain as ANYONE is suggesting.

Jihadist Islamic Fascism has become, and been allowed to remain for not less than 50 years, the dominant threat to world peace... a threat hitherto unknown in the history of civilization; by far surpassing anything Nazis ever dreamt possible in their most extreme sadistic delusional reveries of greed and brutality.

Few artists will, if our collective society survives, visually record and comment upon current events.

However, at the present place in time, world survival of the human species now depends mainly upon (in my opinion) doing all possible things, in word and deed, to perform NO action which in any way discourages, minimizes or harms the effectiveness or morale of American and allied fighting forces who have been sent to do battle against a suicidal fanatic enemy.

To state that one "supports the troops"... and then immediately add the word, "But..." will not cut the mustard anymore.

As we learned from some of those who were sent to Death Camps during WW II, the spirit of art prevails... drawings were made in the worst of conditions.

I sincerely believe that, if we fail now, right NOW, to stand up against religious and political tyranny, all will be lost. The chaos into which the world seems doomed to descend will not match anything any of us has ever imagined possible.

If our museums survive, then there will be the hope that humanity will have a chance, one day, to recollect what life once meant.

> MUSEUM ACCREDITATION

There are roughly 9000 museums in the USA. Of that total number, 775 are accredited by the American Association of Museums. Of the 775, 40% are art museums.