Bush Shook Me Out of Lethargy

As an artist, I communicate through images, beyond words. I feel that although people may believe what they read, it is often the visual that becomes the defining moment of their understanding, their means of perceiving the truth. It is what they remember most clearly.

Government has consciously become so insulated and convoluted that its citizens have no choice but to lay back in an apathetic slumber. Thus the governments agenda may be carried out with little objection. This administration has become not a democracy but a dictatorship. A structure built on fear and intimidation. How many people have been silenced by their threat of being un-American, un-patriotic and have been accused of being traitors? Indeed, the only traitors are in this administration, as exemplified by their "outing" of Valerie Plame. Isn't divulging a spy's identity a punishable act? Or did they change that law also?

I refuse to let myself succumb to this structure. We need to stand up, the Democratic Party needs to stand up, at this critical moment in U.S. history and say enough, ENOUGH! If we don't, Bush and his cronies will change the face of this country. It has already changed the very constitution on which this country was founded. They have traded the freedom of its citizens for the power of its leaders. They have changed our standing among the nations of the world.

Ironically, it is the president himself who has shaken me out of my lethargy. In the sixties, the anti-war movement was fueled by imagery and song that helped people identify with that faction. I am hopeful, that my images will also help in the rallying cry for change.

As I can no longer be quiet, I am creating a series of political posters of which two have been completed and I am currently working on the third. I believe the images are powerful in their simplicity and almost need no words to express one's despair, pain, hopelessness and suffering at the hands of this administration. The first poster, "The Evil of Access" deals with the "legal" use of wiretapping, the loss of Habeas Corpus and the administration's over zealous attempt to over ride decency and law in order to attain their goals of utter power and supremacy. My second poster, "Love and Death" speaks volumes as one is confronted with the daily rising death and injured toll of our soldiers as signified by the innocence of the rose in sharp contrast to the brutality of the blood. My next political image deals with the anguish and despair of the children that the fallen soldiers have left behind. It will be out very shortly.

As both the president and vice president have so successfully evaded serving their country in the military it seems unconscionable that they have so willingly and deliberately sent our young men and women to their deaths. Indeed, Bush stated that his surge will result in more American deaths. If anyone in this administration had one molecule of a conscience they would not be sleeping at night. In one day, they must take double the drugs that Rush Limbaugh consumes in a month.

As Al Gore recently stated one person, alone, can not make a difference but united as one voice, one vision, we can rid the nation of the hypocrisy of this administration. In that spirit, I would like to see my images on billboards, in magazines, on the sides of buildings, as a full page in the newspapers so that no one ever forgets that life is so precious that no one person or administration can put us in harms way with lies, hidden agendas and deception. I do believe that one person can make a difference if it moves us all in the right direction. I believe that AL GORE is the only truly intelligent human on this planet capable of leading us out of the muck and mire created by this administration, PLEASE RUN! The time is long past due for the truth. We must all stop, think and ponder the carnage and deception that Bush and his entourage have caused. We must not let him continue to make a mockery of the constitution he swore to uphold.

Take heed readers, beware, let us act now before our leaders destroy the very air that we breath, before they eliminate the blood on which this country survives, before they remove our heart and soul leaving us zombies mindlessly following their every irrational whim.

HarveyEdwards.com