Dr. Rosenberg,

     My apologies for the belated follow up to your email and phone call. I had actually written a response and then left it in my DRAFT folder, unsent! So I was especially sorry that you had to call and follow up.

     But to your point, our Patrons Services office shared your feedback and concerns related to our support of Black Lives Matter. We are sorry that you view our support and just about every cultural arts organizations support of BLM as you do. Our larger context is that we are supportive of all human rights as outlined and adopted by the United Nations in 1948. This holds that we believe in the "inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family".

https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

     I trust that you won't find fault with that as well and that we can continue to count on you as an audience member and a donor. Of course, we will be happy to refund you for your subscription for the 20-21 season or you can choose to roll it over to the 21-22 season as over 90% of our subscribers have already done.

     Best regards,

     Without making any concessions on its anti-racism sentiment, the Philadelphia Orchestra and its musicians organization should rescind its support of the political organization Black Lives Matter (BLM).

     I'll stand by my email of 2020 July 30. It should be enough that the Philadelphia Orchestra taking political sides is unprofessional and irresponsible and that BLM is an arm of the Democratic Party. (The BLM donation page, ACTBLUE.COM, is the Democratic Party.)

     I'll point out that (let me list the ones I belong to) the Phoenix Symphony, the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, the Chandler Center for the Arts, the Mesa Arts Center, Ballet Arizona, and the Pennsylvania Ballet all gave no specific support for Black Lives Matter (BLM). They offered anti-racism statements without any kind of party politics for BLM. I'm continuing my memberships with these organizations as this whole COVID-19 mess blows over.

     My own take on BLM http://the-adam.com/adam/issues/blm-01.html isn't as pretty as yours. Associating BLM's mission of violent racism, hate, and anti-semitism with "inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family" betrays a terrible ignorance of history. To accept BLM is to turn my back on human dignity and to ignore the terrible lessons from causes the American progressive left supported.

     Your version of history may be different, but I lived through some of it and I know people who lived through a lot more of it than they would like to remember. The anti-semitism of BLM is the latest chapter along with ANTIFA, BDS, and the Mod Squad.

     While almost every arts organization made some sappy statement pandering to the temporary passion of George Floyd's video death (having being silent for decades while racism was just as serious), only the Philadelphia Orchestra allied themselves with terrorists, not only the orchestra, but also the musicians association. Besides the obvious vision of hate BLM represents, isn't it a bit ugly for the orchestra to support one of our two major parties at the expense of the other? Party politics doesn't belong in publicly-funded arts organizations.

     In the meantime, as I said, I'll stand by my email from 2020 July 30 reprinted below, or I would be happy to continue my relationship if the orchestra and its musicians end their association with political groups like BLM. Here is a sample letter you could send to your subscribers.

     ================================================================

Dear Sir or Madam,

     After thirty-eight years I would like to end my subscriber relationship with The Philadelphia Orchestra. The support for a racist, violent, anti-Jewish group Black Lives Matter, an arm of the Democratic Party, makes me too uncomfortable to continue.

     It has been a good run, we've had some good times together. Thank you very much.

     ================================================================

Here's the letter I would like to receive from The Philadelphia Orchestra.


                            Maestro Yannick Néget-Séguin
                            The Philadelphia Orchestra
                            One South Broad Street, fourteenth floor
                            Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107
                                1-215-893-1900

                            May 1, 2021

Dear Subscriber,

    About a year ago a terrible video emerged highlighting racism
here in the United States of America.  We at the Philadelphia
Orchestra feel this is a neglected issue that should be highlighted
in the United States in general and specifically in Philadelphia.

    Arts groups all over the country responded in sympathy for
the victim George Floyd with an outpouring of concern about racism.

    Caught up in the excitement, the Philadelphia Orchestra and
the Philadelphia Orchestra Musicians did something other arts
organizations did not do, we supported a political action group
called Black Lives Matter (BLM).  We weren't the only ones who
thought BLM is a human-rights group fighting against racism.

    We found out that BLM is an action arm of one of our major
political parties, not an appropriate organization for our
support, and, furthermore, they have been violent, racist, and
anti-Jewish.  We apologize to all subscribers for our rush to act
without thinking about the consequences.

    Without abandoning our passion and concern about the issue
of racism, we hereby withdraw our support of the BLM organization.

                            Yours truly,



                            Yannick