Has the right gone wrong?
We are born onto preferences (and prejudices). We learn from our parents and are initiated by our state. (Are you blue or red?) We usually vote the way we always vote. We mimic our friends, our neighbors, or the company we keep — for the sake of joining forces. Comrades. When we vote in a congressional race, we vote to protect our assets, our lifestyle, our money. What we really vote for — in a congressional race — is to select someone to write new laws, re-write old ones, and to implement them. I wish this wasn’t a fight, but it is.
Let’s Take a Vote
Laws are written, and re-written then implemented by the (mostly) old men we voted for. That’s right. Old white men, to be more specific. Old white men protecting their investments. These lawmakers bought into the greatness of the past. But now it seems like they’ve forgotten their own great generation. The great peacemakers. The work accomplished on civil rights, ending war, and women’s lib. The greatness that was lost in making the new great America.
Re-written, reversed civil laws (degradation of women’s rights, supplying endless wars, and the rise of white supremacy) — if this comes to pass — will be gifted to our younger generation, along with climate change, dying oceans, and food products treated with carcinogens.
What Does This Have to Do with Art?
It’s always been the job of the artist, writer, and musician to tell the story of our culture. The real story. The exposé. Art is being side-stepped in favor of mindless sit-coms and sex scandals. Truth-speak is being murdered. Will the artist be able to paint a picture without fear? Are we destined to comply in creating fake art, on purpose, just to make ends meet?
Vote for Someone You Don’t Hate by Maria Poulos is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by contacting artist
