Friends –
I had planned to do a painting for Amanda since last January, but as life goes, much got in the way and I had not begun until the beginning of November. And also, so much in our world has changed. In a flash on November 8, it seems our world is no longer the one that we knew. And as a result, my Amanda painting is much different than I thought it would be.
I painted ‘Can We Repair Hope?’ with a conflicted mind. The Amanda statue, and the Yachats Peace March -- which this painting is intended to benefit – are founded on creating a loving world where we no longer bully and hate and promote biases based on color, gender, disability, sexual preference or religion. I started to create something that reflects the hope and generosity of a people that I thought we once were. And now I am not so sure. So I painted with ambivalence and a sense of despair.
My hope now is that this horrible outcome in which promoters of the KKK and other haters are rewarded with high positions will cause change. And the change I am hoping for is that it could make the rest of us pull together in ways that are much more powerful than haters can conceive.
Not sure how that will happen. But I’m starting with monthly donations to Southern Poverty Law and ACLU. And if Muslims are required to register with the government, then Roman-Catholic-me is registering, too. We are one.