Sheriff Jim Pope and his deputies arrested me last Thursday evening and threw me into jail. Apparently I was enjoying my coleslaw too enthusiastically. The arrest was all in fun, of course, and done as part of a fundraising stunt for the Anderson Union High School’s performing arts department. It seems that a good friend, Donna Nelson, paid $20 and filled out a warrant slip for my arrest during the salad course of a melodrama, “The Saga of the Prospector’s Daughter” or “She Was Only a Miner’s Minor.”

I attended the opening night performance with close to 150 other folks, some of whom have attended Anderson Union High School’s spring melodrama for years. Others, including myself, were experiencing the event for a first time.

Wow, was I impressed.

The 23-member cast was capably led by Stephanie Brown, acting as the Mistress of Ceremonies. In addition to the melodrama cast, there were 14 A-Town Dancers, a 19-piece Saloon Band and 17 table servers, all dressed in Western garb and talkin’ drawl-y.

Patrons enjoyed a delicious tri-tip barbecue complete with baked beans, the aforementioned coleslaw, baked potato, green beans with bacon and, for dessert, a tasty apple crisp or “Apple Nancy,” apparently named in honor of the school’s music director and heartbeat of the show, Nancy Dutton.

There were plenty of topical references written into the humorous script and the student actors, dancers, musicians and featured solo vocalists performed to the utmost of their abilities, much to the delight and hearty applause of all who attended.

Cow jokes and barnyard humor were much in abundance and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the evening. I saw many familiar faces, including more than a few from Redding.

I also “escaped” from prison without having to post any bail due primarily, I guessed, to jail overcrowding.

I’ve long been a fan of Enterprise High School’s much touted Victorian Dinner, Shasta High School’s famous Madrigal Dinner and Foothill High School’s innovative Club Cougar dinner theater performances. Now, I’ve added another notch to my belt, so to speak, and I hope to make Anderson Union High School’s spring melodrama an annual pilgrimage as well.

There is nothing so inspiring as to watch a group of teenagers engaged in the performing arts. Last Wednesday, April 30, I sat enthralled as Shasta High School students transported me back to pre-revolutionary France in the mid-1800s through the magic of Victor Hugo’s powerful “Les Misérables.” I went back to the David Marr Auditorium on Saturday, May 10, to enjoy the same play’s finale because it was the last time that my 17-year-old daughter, Kristina, a high school senior graduating in a few weeks, would be performing on that stage.

All of these pleasant memories came flooding back into my mind as I tackled this week’s editorial. It quickly occurred to me that the performing and visual arts are usually some of the first programs slashed whenever politicians and school boards are faced with tighter finances.

In no way should anyone interpret this editorial as a plea for pushing music, art, drama, dance or any other form of fine and performance art ahead of academics or sports programs. To me, all should be treated equally along with other state programs.

School budget cuts, especially those feared most by educators and parents alike, are bound to happen as California’s legislators and shool administrators begin to deal with what is now likely to be a $20.2 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year.

But let us spread the spending cutbacks across as many other programs as feasible without cutting anything wholesale.

Yes, it is more difficult to do things that way, but that is what is fair and that is what is needed most — across the board cuts in all areas to spread the loss of services and programming as broadly and as thinly as possible so that no one area bears the brunt of these budget cuts, and everyone shares equally.

Sacramento, the ball is now in your court. Don’t fumble it!