Is this America?

The feeling of seeing another headline about another student responsible for another shooting is getting so common that the lump in the throat, punch in the gut reaction we should have has been watered down to a sad sigh. Some things feel too midevil to still be happening and mass public murder is one of them. As an artist, my nature is to watch and observe, quietly. My opinion is usually reserved for canvas. Perhaps people like me should be getting louder.

Humans have always been violent creatures, continuously finding new ways of execution. Is this our instinctual gag tie against evolving into a brighter and further advanced species? Spending money on war and WMD’s before curing cancer or protecting the environment is definitely the norm, just like mass shootings have become in America.

The message Childish Gambino portrayed so poignantly in ‘This is America’ was clearly directed specifically toward the issue of police brutality/violence/incarceration of black America, but it is so telling of our society today, that it can be zoomed out of focus a bit to incorporate the general obsession with violence that we face here. The rise of distraction by our streaming, the standards of superficial white noise pushed higher by social media and the shamelessly obvious corruption of democracy has become our way of life and it’s getting more and more extreme. Why is America so damaged? Why are children killing other children and absolutely nothing changes? Why are guns a hot topic debate, when cigarettes are legal, but cannabis is not? The distraction is real, just like Gambino proves in his video. We are so focused on our devices and divisions that we forget we all live in the same place.

America, for her youth, can be summed up as a pageant queen, beautiful, rich, and powerful. It feels now though that our queen is slipping down a path of destruction, youth and beauty transforming into bitterness and greed. At the rate she’s going, she’ll soon be a bankrupt, desperate junkie giving cheap oral sex to get her fix.

It is true that the country has a rough past, just as that beauty queen would probably have been a true bitch in high school, making foes for life. The importance though, from some (certainly not all) of the injustices, is that laws have changed according to the public’s demands. Women marched for the right to vote, MLK risked everything to speak his message of civil rights. Do we have that anymore? Will there be a quake so strong that we all look up and agree it’s worthy to fight for?

For now, I just wanted to get my piece out, Gambino posing Jim Crow style from his video, using his 2nd Amendment right (eyeroll), pills, and lips rolling behind him slot machine style, how our minds read current events, one dizzying scroll to another, numbed by sex and prescriptions. The white poppies are becoming a theme in my work for their symbolization of peace and pacifism, dotted between the of lines of our problems. I completed this particular portrait last night. When I woke up this morning, the news showed the early reports of a school shooting, which made me feel even deeper for the cause of peace. Short and sweet is what I'm sticking to for this post. I'm lucky to live in this place that has the foundation for a beautiful melting pot of cultures, people and progression, but I have that lump in my throat that things will be getting worse, before they get better.

The Dream

Today, the 15th of January, I am reflecting a bit more intently than usual on the words of Martin Luther King Jr. This is truly the first stir of disquietude over my lifetime, watching the world around me and all of the cruh-aaaazy news. I owe that fact to being a caucasian in a snowglobe of safe charm. Growing up run-of-the-mill middle class in a little mountain town did not contend with much struggle to survive. I see the problems in our world and try to empathize, but I can only imagine the real injustice that happens from one country to the next.

I only remember a few Presidents growing up… the only thing about George HW that I can recall was Barbara Bush being ridiculed on magazine covers at the grocery store. My memory of Bill Clinton is curtailed to the Molly Shannon playing Monica Lewinsky on SNL. By high school, George W was in charge and I was just starting to understand the climate around others as the leaders in the White House change. Seeing American flags proudly up in rows along the sidewalk today, I close my mind of the headlines from last week, of the lamentable remarks reportedly made by our current President and exhale, remembering that for every Donald Trump born cradled in a silver spoon, there is a Martin Luther King Jr, ready to use their innate ability to connect with others and conquer the darkness that some try to use for gain.

In this illustration, I used the infamous mugshot of MLK in Birmingham, AL… the numbers reflected are changed to our current year. I couldn’t help but replace the four-digit inmate number to 2018, showing that from the time that picture was taken, in 1963, to now, we are still fighting and protesting similar, if not identical issues. We are still imprisoning minorities at higher rates, and therefore, letting the landslide of unjust treatment based on race plow through and destroy us. There are peaks and valleys, of course. We had a quiet eight years, but it only took one orange asshole to bring the white supremacists out of their rat dens. The hope is that history will repeat itself, in the way of a leader, an activist, who can bring an effacious message to the masses and create a ripple of positive change, worthy of a Federal Holiday. Behind this portrait are flowers, intended to be white poppys, a symbol of peace and pacifism. Yes, I understand the slight distaste of using a white flower to shout out the Civil Rights Movement, but it’s far less cheesy than using a peace sign.

I’d like to look at this image and not see the current year being a relevant token of duress and slanted views toward race and religion. I’d love to see society pledge to cogitate about the loss of freedoms, fear of law enforcement and likelihood of poverty in common-toned groups of people, and look beyond for a sense of togetherness that is completely achievable if all links in the chain are properly hanging on. Today we can hope for such a massive leap in humanity, that is, after all, the dream. Happy MLK day, let us not take his courage for granted.