A New Federal Writers Project?

In the last few days, I've noticed a number of people calling on the Obama administration to create a new Federal Writers Project, the old New Deal program that did more than just pay out of work witters to pick up their pens. The New Deal version created state guidebooks, conducted important oral history interviews, and generally did important work in preserving American history and culture, as well as documenting the history of the Great Depression. Larry Cebula posted a blog entry on this topic and and Mark Pinsky wrote something similar in The New Republic. In short, I'm for it. Public funding for humanities and the arts is minute compared to other disciplines, and in bad times private money is quick to dry up. I think a project along these line would go a long way in helping us preserve our diverse national history and culture. And, who knows? It might also lift our national morale. Lord knows, we need that just as much as we need some sort of economic stimulus.