In this day and age of self- aggrandizing pop stars, It is hard for today’s generation to imagine that there ever existed a selfless singer of song who’s only concern was the causes he sang about and not his celebrity.

Well there was, and still exists a man of such integrity. Our last living American folk hero, Pete Seeger. A champion of the disenfranchised since the 1940’s, Pete has been railing against war, pollution, racism, greed, and social injustice for eight decades. He bravely risked a 10 year prison sentence for defying Senator Joe McCarthy’s witch hunt  in the 50’s and popularized the civil rights anthem and “We Shall Overcome” for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s historic march in the 60’s. His anti-war song “Knee Deep in the Big Muddy” became a force in ending the Vietnam War. He founded the Clearwater organization which continues to clean up the Hudson River. Ninety four and still fighting the good fight, (more…)

It’s been over 6 months since the Newtown massacre and we’ve done absolutely nothing to prevent the next one. Shame on the gun and ammo manufactures. Shame on the NRA, and shame on our elected leaders who take their money. It saddens me that we live in a society that accepts a government that protects the profits of a few over the lives of many innocent citizens. The fact that the NRA was able to buy enough senators to usurp the will of 90% of the American people when it came to expanded background checks means that we’ve lost our democracy as well as innocent lives. (more…)

Since the recent AP scandal, there has been a lot of talk about the importance of the press to be able to keep our government in check. Sure, the talk has been coming from the press themselves who don’t like the fact that the Obama administration got a hold of the AP’s phone records even if it was presumably for national security reasons. They are crying foul, saying that inhibits the freedom of the press to be the public’s watchdog. (more…)

The bottom line is that the NRA is in business to protect gun and ammo manufacturing profits, not your rights. They exist to block any and all laws that might decrease sales, no matter what the cost. Otherwise, they would support laws that keep our children safe without affecting the average gun owner, like background checks and banning assault weapons. As a matter of fact they successfully lobbied congress to let the ban on assault weapons expire, the very kind that were used in Newtown. They also lobbied congress to make sure that federal medical research agencies are forbidden by law to finance studies that aim to reduce the harm from guns and made sure that federal agencies are forbidden to fund studies about the relative dangers & advantages of gun ownership. (more…)

Conservative Icon Defends My First Amendment Right and Together We Give a Lesson On Civil Discourse.

Last week was to say the least – surreal. My painting “The Truth” has once again created a media circus, drawing fire from the Religious Right demanding I remove it from display at Boston’s Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery where it’s currently part of the “Artists On The Stump – The Road To The White House 2012” exhibition. This kind of craziness is nothing new for me. The hysteria has happened before, when four years ago I announced I would debut the painting at New York City’s Union Square, Unfortunately, thousands of hate filled emails and threats of bussed in protestors convinced me to acquiesce to my family’s wish that I cancel the exhibit for my own safety. (more…)

We’ve all been warned about the looming fiscal cliff. During the campaign, the Republicans would often point to a clock counting off to the moment of our economic apocalypse. That may be a bombastic way to hype a self-inflicted financial disaster. But it is true that if the Republicans and Democrats can’t come to some sort of compromise by December 31, we will be in a economic pickle of no one’s liking. (more…)