Description
I grew up among big hearted gentleman farmers who disparaged the bad apple or potato in the barrel. “It’ll spoil the whole lot,” they said. “You’ve got to get rid of the rot. Cut it out or throw it out. A bit of blight will destroy a field, a whole crop!”
These same farm families believe that those on welfare are scamming the system. They offer jobs to as many as they can. It is hard for them to imagine that so many people have such needs and cannot take care of themselves on the wages offered – can’t find a good day’s work when there is so much to do.
Yet when they see sickness and tragedy strike their neighbors; they respond with secret payments of overdue bills. The wives help organize the benefit suppers while working dawn to dusk in the fields, on the books, cooking up lunches and dinners for the crews. When you’re so busy, I guess it’s hard to remember that people aren’t fruit and vegetables and that we’re all doing the best we can.
When we lose our compassion who becomes the bad apple?
Part of An American Story: The Phasianidae Family & Friends Exhibition
This work was done in response to the 2016 Election and Black Lives Matters protests. Each work was exhibited with a story or quote. Below is the introduction to the overall exhibit.
I am a story addict. I want to know where a story will go but as any reader knows there are different sides to the same story paradoxes that make the story richer for the contrast. Right now I don’t recognize the story that America is telling. I hear words like “Great, Better, Best, Wealthiest, Melting Pot, and at the same time words like “Sh*thole, Walls, Sons of B*tches, America First.” from the mouth of the man elected to lead us.
I love our country. The promise of the story started with the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and it’s Bill of Rights.
These ideals and documents that have been fought for, bled for and lead people to our shores to be part of this land. I love that our Revolution inspired the French and to honor our part in their history they gifted us the Statue of Liberty. I love the poem on her base. These are the ideas that have balanced the daily news stories that have torn at my soul while I worked on the paintings for this exhibit.
What story is our country telling you?
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