Then there is this: nearly $1 million was spent on poetry in the Little Rock, New Orleans, Milwaukee and Chicago zoos
to help raise awareness of environmental issues.


http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2010/12/grateful-dead-tom-coburn-wasteful-spending-/1


WASTEBOOK 2010
http://coburn.senate.gov/public//index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=774a6cca-18fa-4619-987b-a15eb44e7f18

9) Poems in Zoos - (AR, IL, LA, WI, & FL) $997,766

Our nation currently faces many challenges; a shortage of poetry in our nation‘s
zoos, however, is rarely cited as one of them. It is not widely viewed as an example
of our nation‘s crumbling infrastructure or a contributor to our national economic
crisis. Nor is it a dangerous disease in need of curing.

Nevertheless, a federal grant program has directed a million dollars from the
public coffers to infuse zoos around the United States with snippets of poetry.49

Hence, the Little Rock (Ark.) Zoo now touts a sign sharing a bit of wisdom from
Hans Christian Andersen: ―Just living is not enough, said the butterfly. One must
have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.‖50   Zoos in Chicago, New Orleans,
Milwaukee, and Jacksonville, Florida, will also sport bits of poetry, thanks to the
U.S. taxpayer. 51

Poets House, the New York-based organization administering the multi-year
program, says its goal is to ―deepen public awareness of environmental issues
through poetry.‖52

For projects like these, taxpayers may prefer to hear from Edgar Allen Poe‘s raven:


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