Whenever I look at this painting, the first thing I think about is hearing the news in 1991 that we were going into Iraq. I remember the horrible feeling that shook me, and I remember looking at my two adolescent sons that night at the dinner table and wondering if either of them would end up going into a war.
As it turned out, fraternity parties were as close as they got. But many other young men and women did not make it out, or if they did, they were wounded, either psychologically or physically. And in the first Gulf War, I’m convinced that one of my high school classmates died of cancer as a result of her exposure as a nurse to depleted uranium.
I have no proof of that, nor did I have proof that Bush’s advisors for the second Iraq invasion were just telling us what the country needed to hear to get the needed hysteria whipped up for that disaster. I did, however, have many, many years of reading and listening to saner voices, of reading books and magazines that offered a different perspective than the conventional wisdom. I know now that the patriotism with which we so often are driven to justify certain acts is often built on false information, but I also know that there are autorities you can trust, and sources you can access that make it pretty hard to deceive those that want to learn the truth.
I had, by the time I painted this painting, been successful in challenging the VA over my father’s service connected disability and getting the compensation for his widow and two adopted sons. I had been shown how to find information on line, how to connect to sources, and how to research and find experts on almost any subject. And I also knew how to look to see who benefitted from a certain point of view, who was funding what information and how it was being presented.
I was as cynical as they come back then, and still am. The difference is that more of the world is at least as cynical as I am. Now we know so much more than we did before, and yet it is still easy enough to get a scandal whipped up, a rumor passed around, or a lie told as though it’s a fact. And so many people will still believe what they hear on mainstream media even when there is obviously an agenda at work.
The reason I am so excited to attend Netroots Nation 16 is because I want to meet face to face the writers I’ve admired for so long. I want to meet those that have been writing far more eloquently than I have, sometimes daily, sometimes twice a day, and sometimes, like Bondad, only when it’s really important. And I want to come back to Alabama and see what i can do to turn this beautiful state around.
I know that there are many progressives living here in Mobile. In the entire state, in fact. But for far too long there has been an assumption that there is no way we can get progressive voices heard here. I don’t think that’s true at all anymore.
I look forward to being a conduit for many more progressive voices out of Alabama. And if you want to help me get there, I’m still offering a print of the painting above to those who support my gofundme effort.
Thanks.
Susan