The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

A column by Liberty Theater Manager Mike Ferrians

In a February edition of the Times, the Americanism of the week was a quote from

Annie Proulx, author of The Shipping News: “One of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music.”

Without music, there is no life. For decades, music has been an “elective” in the public school sys- tem, taking a backseat to classical educational elements deemed primary. But the Performing Arts are not electives in life. They are mandatory. We need them to survive, to be human. Our local pub- lic schools have been forced to cut or seve...