Dance As Propoganda

There has been much talk (from the right) about "propaganda" in the schools.  The left, naturally, denies it.  However who is right?  Well, if you look at this story, you start to suspect that maybe the right is "right".....

A small troupe of highly trained dancers will soon appear before Salt Lake City schoolchildren gliding, leaping and twisting into shapes that intend to teach them about air pollution and the environment.

The program is funded by a federal grant and that causes some of Utah’s elected officials to roll their eyes or, in the case of Rep. Jim Matheson, it has him scrunching his nose.

“I don’t think this passes the smell test,” said Matheson, a Democrat. “I question whether this is an appropriate use of federal tax dollars.”

He’s talking about $25,000 that the Environmental Protection Agency awarded Monday to the Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) as part of its environmental-justice grants.

All told, the EPA handed out more than $1 million to 46 nonprofit and tribal programs. Not only did RDT get funding, so did the Utah Society of Environmental Education, which plans to use its $25,000 on a waste-recycling program in Salt Lake’s Rose Park neighborhood.

But it’s the RDT grant that has Matheson and Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, calling for Congress to scrutinize this grant program and potentially eliminate it.

“We should see if this is indicative of what all the grants are or not,” Matheson said.

Bishop tells The Salt Lake Tribune he has attended some of RDT’s performances and enjoys them.

“I don’t begrudge them at all, but it is not the type of thing the federal government should be doing,” he said.

I grew up in a dance family.  My mom and my sister are both classically trained and dance was an integral part life for us.  However, Rep. Bishop is 110% correct here.  This is NOT what the federal government should be doing.  Especially not when the government is as broke as ours is right now.

But interpretive dance is not the only thing these EPA "environmental justice" grants are going toward.

One financial award went to the Cleveland Tenants Organization for fighting bed-bug infestations. Another paid the Florida-based Institute for Community Collaboration train teenagers to become environmentalists.

Now to be fair to President Obama's administration, these grants are not new - not at all....

Since 1994, a little-noticed EPA program has handed out a total of $23 million in such grants to 1,253 organizations, for stated purposes that observers are questioning.

President Bill Clinton and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) were responsible for implementing “environmental justice” as part of the EPA’s mission. In early 1990, following a lobbying push by the CBC, the EPA established the Environmental Equity Workgroup. In 1994 it was renamed the Office of Environmental Justice.

In February of that year, Clinton signed an executive order requiring all federal agencies to develop environmental justice strategies. The order established an interagency working group comprised of the heads of 11 departments and agencies and several White House offices.

As a result, the EPA has spent millions each year to promote its “environmental justice” vision to Americans by awarding cash grants to community-based activist groups.

However , to the Obama Administration's credit, they have taken advantage of this program to the betterment of his crony supporters.

This is just another example of spending that should be cut long before any military spending is cut.  Hopefully a change in administration will allow this program to wither on the vine due to lack of funding.  It needs to happen sooner rather than later.