I read with interest Sholeh Patrick's column about the upcoming play "RENT." A resident wrote in to question the need for a play in our community that centers on alternative lifestyles and HIV. Sholeh responded by taking the position that this type of thing is art, pointing out the various ties to previous classical plays, etc. She finishes by correctly bemoaning the impending "death" of art, pointing out various play houses on the brink.

I am not a sage regarding the proper ratio of plays to offer, but I personally have been put off for years by the focus on highlighting political agendas that have come to characterize "art." Art as practiced today often centers on offending traditional society with overt sexual overtones, criticism of Christianity, and other themes chosen to offend the mainstream. These themes seem to give the artists themselves joy and satisfaction in a smug way that lets us know they are better than us and insist we accept their superior ways. Today's artists feel the need to make political statements a part of every painting, play, and song and that's how they get funding.

Personally, I go to a play to enjoy good acting, watch an unfolding story, be uplifted by a theme, cry at a tragedy, or be inspired by a positive message. I'm a mainstream guy able to appreciate the finest subtleties, and be impacted by it. It's great to be entertained at a level that causes me to become absorbed in watching a production and be fascinated by the many aspects of a good play. But when suddenly an obvious political motivation becomes clear to me, it is upsetting that an otherwise beautiful production is being used as a vehicle to put out an agenda. Why ruin a great production by trying to jam an agenda down the throat of your audience? We arrived to be entertained, not to be converted, confronted, or have our values ridiculed. And the fine actors themselves often end up losing out because of playhouse management's choices, watching declining attendance.

Based on the declining attendance for playhouse "art" Sholeh mentions, I suspect I am not alone in being tired of agenda-driven art. Happily, the art galleries around our town are still full of spectacular paintings and sculpture that reflect beauty and talent in ways that inspire and impact.

And before someone steps forward and brings out the old saw that art is supposed to make us THINK, or confront ourselves, or otherwise make us question something, let me say I disagree. That view is a modern pollution that has entered and now dominates art. Today, too much of art has been co-opted by organizations who believe it useful for social change. Art is none the better for it, and I contend it is likely an ineffective way to achieve change. For instance, I have never heard of someone looking at a painting of a crying tree atop a rusting car and leaving the exhibit resolving to sell their automobile and use more mass transit.

Let me give you an example right here in Coeur d'Alene. A few months ago we went to watch "Almost, Maine" at the playhouse with several friends. Nice production, clever series of loosely related vignettes one after another. Terrific entertainment, fine acting. Then suddenly out of the blue with no hint, one male actor suddenly professed love to another male actor and the lights went out on that vignette as a punctuation mark. An audible groan in the audience as yet again some writer felt the need to jam in a political statement. Later at dinner, the finer points of the play and great acting were not the topic of discussion. Just the jarring insertion of a few seconds of this scene.

To me, this type of "in your face" presentation is a terrible diminishment of people's lifestyle choices - a shallow commercialization of something they make with deeply personal convictions. We all deserve better.

So, "RENT" will arrive here with all manner of political baggage hanging off of it, it seems. HIV is a tragedy and those affected by it deserve our prayers and support. If that's the goal, then I wonder aloud if the playhouse would be better served to put on a popular mainstream play with huge ticket sales and donate a percentage to HIV research.

Doug Miller is a Hayden resident.