Getting a little fed up with people whose response to covid stats is to tweet angrily at arts groups to go 100% dark until every case of the virus has been eradicated.

Some of you seem to think that arts orgs are hobby clubs with no employees. Some others clearly think you can pause workplaces with hundreds of employees that already operate on the razor's edge of solvency in *good times* indefinitely.

I know everyone thinks big-budget arts orgs have gobs of money sitting around in coffee cans, but guess what, you're wrong. The budgets are that big because that's how much it costs to employ hundreds of people, which is the number you need to do the things those orgs do.

Staff at orgs like the one I work for have been putting in absolutely insane hours crafting plans to keep performing to empty houses, manage complex partnerships with broadcast partners, AND KEEP EVERYONE SAFE. All with zero, and I mean ZERO, earned revenue coming in.

I hate our private patronage system for the arts as much as any DSA leftist, but it's what we have, and those millionaires and billionaires are single-handedly keeping my colleagues' kids fed and health insured right now. So yeah, you bet your ass we're still performing.

I won't bother listing off everything we're doing to keep people safe/healthy, but we've been performing concerts indoors and out since last August, and we haven't had a single outbreak. We have protocols on top of protocols and if you can't imagine that, it's your problem.

Because of those protocols, we've been able to put out full concert programs - wildly creative ones that far outstrip what almost any other orchestra in the country is doing, btw - on TV, radio, and every online platform you've ever heard of. FOR FREE.

More importantly, every full-time employee is still getting paid. Still covered by health insurance. Still working, safely. Do you know what a goddamn gift that is? Can you see that this is what we've all been telling the moneyed class they SHOULD be doing during this pandemic?

My general manager sends me emails at 11pm because she's still up working to keep me on stage at that hour. My committee chair (who is volunteering for that duty, just as all of us on our various dozens of committees are) calls me *daily* to talk through safety concerns etc.

Everyone in the arts right now is living on a knife edge. So many have been utterly thrown to the turf, told to fuck off and die until/unless the virus decides to die first. Told to go get a real job. Left utterly defenseless at the worst possible moment.

So you'd better believe that those of us who *haven't* been treated that way are aware of our rare position. We're consulting with doctors, scientists, government officials, doing everything we can to keep this sinking ship from slipping under the waves. And it's working. Barely.

So, no: we won't give up and hurl hundreds of people over the side just to indulge your weird, apocalyptic vision of what this pandemic *should* look like. We choose to keep each other afloat. We should all be so fortunate as to have that choice.

One more thing: New York is not LA is not Chicago is not Nashville is not Minneapolis. This country is massive and there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. What is possible here may not be workable there. Be grateful for what is possible.

[glances back up at megathread] ...available evidence would seem to suggest that I should log off and have a cup of tea.