“The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and wasteful.”
Wendell Berry, Farmer, Essayist, Conservationist, Novelist, Teacher, Poet, 1934 –
So began a browsing session on the YES! Magazine site after filling out a survey in my evening email. It was this reference that started a long meandering perusal of their pages…
Americans Who Tell the Truth :: an essay of portraits by Robert Shetterly
Americans Who Tell the Truth
by Robert ShetterlyRobert Shetterly’s remarkable collection of portraits reminds us of the dignity, courage and importance of America’s truth tellers.
New England artist Robert Shetterly began painting portraits of Americans he admired at a time when he was deeply saddened and angry at what was becoming of the U.S.
“My respect and love for these people and their courage helped to transform that anger into hope and pride and allowed me to draw strength from this community of truth tellers.”
Reading the bios and looking at the portraits kept me clicking on into the evening. Finding tidbits like “Society is like a stew. If you don’t keep it stirred up, you get a lot of scum on top,” “Freedom begins between the ears,” and “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” …All from Edward Abbey, who I discovered in Desert Solitaire (I still own my original paperback copy).
If you have some time take a wander through the pages and see who suprises you by being on the list…
Americans Who Tell the Truth :: an essay of portraits by Robert Shetterly
