Are the arts being asked to become a "tool of the state"?

The recent call for the nation's arts community to participate in the Obama administration's "United We Serve" effort has been embraced by many, vilified by some.

Before this began, Arts Orange County led a coordinated arts community-wide food drive last March. Recently the arts groups agreed that it should be repeated this winter. It provided a ton of food to the OC Food Bank, whose cubbard was nearly bare, so I'd have to say it helped a little and it showed that the arts community cared enough to do its part even though these same organizations are themselves finding it a real struggle to survive in these economic times.

But one Arts Journal blogger sees the national effort as "propaganda" the arts community would do well to avoid associating with.

What do you think?