To the editor:
The 32 million dollars in budgetary cuts to the Cultural Arts Programs in the state of Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis will cause children to be driven from their enriching skill centered activities.
The children we’ve been providing a “Theatrical Summer Camp Experience” for at our Theater Company come from economically depressed neighborhoods riddled with crime and violence. These children have been acquiring academic and technical skills, as they shed the yokes of poverty, achieving and advancing themselves towards a bright and positive future. Now, these innocent and eager to learn children will be stricken from their pursuits, as they become the next casualties of these injurious budget cuts.
These types of destructive scenarios have become the “new norm” and “standard” that will propagate the forthcoming “toxic reality,” which is being imposed upon the children of Florida as relegated by Governor Ron DeSantis.
During our 53 years of consecutive theatrical service in schools and the extended communities of Miami-Dade County, many lives have been healed and saved. We’ve been publicly recognized for the superlative and distinguished service we’ve steadfastly delivered to the Greater Miami Area.
On the floor of the United States House of Representatives the Republican Colleague of Governor DeSantis, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen took center stage and proclaimed to the world the wondrous works and magnificent impact that our “theater company” is having upon students and families throughout Miami’s extended communities.
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was gracious enough to provide us with a brilliant video and marbleized plaque depicting and memorializing her historic comments. The theatrical excellence emanating from our productions include “Carbonell Award” recognitions for many, if not all, of the “performance arts categories” registered in South Florida.
As a combat wounded and disabled United States Marine, being meritoriously promoted in combat and awarded the Purple Heart; this thoughtless and unprecedentedly harmful action taken by my governor and my combat brother-in-arms is startling, heart-wrenching and bewildering.
Upon my return home from war with combat injuries, I was aided in my healing and rehabilitation, as I processed through the anguishing discomforts and torments of battlefield experiences via the “theatrical remedies” graciously afforded me, from the very theater company that has privileged me with the honor of being their board president.
Since my return to the United States, our theater company has published a “full color page tribute” honoring our nation’s veterans in every theater program, for each one of our Broadway shows, over the last 53 years.
Governor Ron DeSantis, please mobilize/spearhead and institute an immediate solution that will reinstate the lost funding we’re seeking. This budgetary enhancement is critical in nature and of the utmost importance. The safety, protection and well-being of our vulnerable children and families in the state of Florida are in jeopardy. They will be wounded and harmed without a rapid response and remedy authored by our chief executive.
— John Donnelly, Key Largo resident and board of directors president for The M Ensemble Theater Company, Miami
