Norman Rockwell

During the height of World War II, Norman Rockwell painted four of the most powerful and enduring images in American history. Like many artists and writers, he supported the war effort by creating work inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s January 1941 State of the Union address outlining his four basic human liberties: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Unlike his peers, however, Rockwell did not receive a government commission to interpret Roosevelt’s words. Instead, the Saturday Evening Post paid the Vermont artist to create the paintings for reproduction in that enormously popular weekly magazine. The four commanding images achieved the instant and widespread recognition government officials could only hope for: in four weeks during the spring of 1943 they reached millions of American living rooms through the pages of the Post.

The Four Freedoms appeared in the pages of The Saturday Evening Post magazine for four consecutive weeks, from February 20 to March 6, 1943. Rockwell’s paintings went on a multi-city tour, premiering in April 1943 at the Hecht Company department store in Washington, DC. This traveling show was designed to rally patriotic enthusiasm and inaugurate the new war-bond campaign. The Four Freedoms exhibition succeeded in raising almost $132 million in war-bond purchases. Rockwell said later that the Four Freedoms were “serious paintings which sucked the energy right out of me, leaving me dazed and thoroughly weary.”

-from Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms: Paintings that Inspired a Nation

Freedom from Fear

Freedom from Want

Freedom of Speech

Freedom to Worship

This version of America, the one my parents emigrated to America for, so that my brother and I would have a better life, no longer exists.

I voted today. If you've read my journal for awhile now, you know who I voted for. Do I think that because of my vote, the country will bounce back and become the shining, wonderful beacon of democracy that it once was?

No.

I don't think we'll see that for a very, very long time. I think we as a nation will begin to see a change only if we all become more active and vocal regarding our government, and our nation.

These problems didn't start with Bush. They've been slowly building up, over time. Our nation has only noticed them now because an increasingly larger majority of our population refuses to ignore them. Those that still ignore them- well, they're just going to keep ignoring them, no matter what.
The erosion of our freedom, the sullying of our environment, our nation's dependency on oil, the drugs we willingly allow psychiatrists to prescribe and dose our children with even though they were never, ever tested and proven on children (just adults, thank you Big Pharma!)...

All this shit that has been piling up over the years that, once 'uncovered'(and I use the term uncovered loosely), has people in an uproar- it's been here. And it's been building up because the majority of us have been satisfied with sitting back, putting on the blinders, and only really paying attention every four years when we get ready to cast the vote for our next president.

Voting is important. But being an active, vocal member of society is equally important. Please keep that in mind from November 3, 2004 to November 2, 2008. Do more than just vote- read the news every day and keep yourself up to date on current events both locally and globally. Donate some of your time to the cause of your choice. Take part in local public town hall meetings. Vote in every election, not just on November 2nd, and do your research before you go into the booth.

If we all do this, then things will slowly get better.
If you haven't gone out and voted already, go vote.

/political rant