Perspective | The Direction of Intention

Smoke And Truth [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on August 7, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

I was not prepared for the number. In fact, I double checked it because it seemed so outlandish. Because our skies have been filled with smoke for many days – our air quality is “unhealthy” – from the fires burning in Canada – and because we are avoiding most sources of news, I thought it would be a good idea to check in on the fires burning in our northern neighbor. I was not prepared for what I read: there are 742 fires burning in Canada; 201 are considered out of control. 16 million acres have so far burned. It is a record-breaking fire season.

I was heartened to read that the USA has deployed firefighters and equipment to help fight the wildfires just as earlier this year the Canadians sent firefighters to help with the fires in Los Angeles. In some essential ways, our longstanding and cherished partnership with Canada is still intact. I will not bore you with the fire-and-renewal metaphors currently swirling around my brain-pan.

A few days ago I watched Bryan Tyler Cohen’s interview with Elex Michaelson and appreciated this exchange on the economy: in this era of rampant misinformation, in our media universe in which “we pretend that there are no objective truths, [but] there are objective truths! If you go to the grocery store, that number is a number. It is either higher or lower…” The insistence of baseline fact gave me some small measure of hope amidst our national delusion.

No matter the spin, the numbers are the numbers. It is the reason that the current president fired Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) after the BLS released the current job data. He didn’t like the numbers so he did as he always does: he assaulted the objective truth. He wrapped a victim-tale around the numbers and whipped up a conspiracy theory to deflect from the baseline fact. He lit a fire to create a blanket of smoke in the hope of obscuring the data.

None of his shenanigans change the objective truth. Objective truth exists regardless of individual beliefs or opinions or tweets or the nonsense that he or fox news feeds its followers.

We are about to have a not-so-blind-date with objective truth. Medicaid will disappear for many millions after the midterms. As will SNAP. In the next year healthcare will become unaffordable for millions. Since tariffs are taxes that consumers pay, our prices are certain to escalate (they are already rising). The value of the dollar is dropping. The economy is shrinking. There is nothing mysterious or subversive about the numbers. There is no conspiracy. There is cause and effect.

Climate change is objective truth. 742 is the number of fires in Canada. It’s a record. The numbers are the numbers.

Yesterday Dogga woke us just as the sun was rising. I stood on the deck and watched in awe: through the smoke the sun was fuchsia. The sky was luminous yet an eerie yellow. Both were shades of color I’d never before seen. As it turns out I have to bore you with the obvious analogy: despite appearances to the contrary, the sun is not changed by the smoke. It’s not really fuchsia. The objective truth will remain long after the winds of change clear the smoke from our eyes.

Here’s an objective truth to pin our hopes on: even in the midst of all the posturing and bullying, in our hour of need, Canada sent help. In their hour of need, we sent help. When the smoke clears, perhaps the firefighters will help us re-member the objective truth of our relationship.

Greet the Day, 48″x48″ (inner image), mixed media

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SUN

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Metaphor, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, BLS, Bryan Tyler Cohen, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Elex Michaelson, erika mcentarfer, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, numbers, objective truth, story, studio melange, the melange, truth, wildfires | 1 Comment »

A Very Real Question [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on August 4, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

In the hiker/outdoor community there is a fundamental principle articulated in two similar mantras: First, “Leave no trace”. Second, “Leave it better than you found it”. Tom used to say it this way: “Take care of your own trash; don’t leave it for other people to deal with.” He was speaking about more than plastic bottles and candy bar wrappers. All variations of the theme are good rules to live by.

We are merely visitors to this planet. We do not own it or control it. Ours is to care for it and leave it better for those who follow. Ideally that is what it means to live in community: care for others, care for the environment. Consider the long and short-term impact of our actions. We are stewards.

Consciousness of impact. Acting with care and intention to “leave it better than we found it” requires a simple fundamental skill: the capacity to address what is actual, to discern between what is real and what is blind-belief.

This is what is actual:

“Ten of the eleven U.S. recessions between 1953 and 2020 began under Republican presidents. Of these, the most statistically significant differences are in real GDP growth, unemployment rate change, stock market annual return, and job creation rate.” Wikipedia: US Economic Performance by Presidential Party.

The operative word in the wiki post is “real”. Real numbers. Real growth. Real job creation. Real science.

Our current leadership (I use the term loosely) on every front is waging a war against what is real. It is the reason US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner Erika McEntarfer was just fired; she reported real employment numbers and the sitting republican president, rather than deal with the actual impact of his real policy failures, killed the messenger.

With stock market losses, free-falling jobs creation rate, a shrinking economy, a historic shift of wealth from the poorest to the already morbidly wealthy, the tariff tsunami about to hit…in only six months the bustling economy that the republicans inherited from the previous democratic president, called the Envy of the World, is rapidly disintegrating.

In the real world it would seem prudent to buckle up for yet another recession engineered by a republican president, eleven of twelve. This one bodes to be a whopper. It does not take long for trash to foul an ecosystem.

Not only will this republican administration not leave the nation better than they found it, in their war against what is real they seem singularly dedicated to looting it with nary a concern for those who will follow. Like all republican administrations in the past 80 years, they will leave the messy trash from their gluttonous party for others to clean up.

We are now faced with a very real and sobering question: will our democracy survive this reckless trashing?

read Kerri’s blogpost about LEAVE IT BETTER

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Filed under: Merely A Thought Monday, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, community, data, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, discernment, economy, ecosystem, erika mcentarfer, GDP growth, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, principle, real, reality, recession, stewards, story, studio melange, the melange | 1 Comment »

Be Like Boo [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on July 24, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

The hydrangea seemed like an odd character, sagging from the weight of the hot heavy air, like a reclusive Boo Radley watching the world from behind a curtain of tall grasses.

Much of the day we are like Boo. The heat and humidity keep us – and Dogga – huddled close to the air conditioner, appreciating the whirl of the fans. We would wilt otherwise. We emerge from the house in the early mornings. We walk in the cool of the evenings. We move slowly through air that’s the consistency of soup. Nature is helping us to abandon our hurry.

It is morning as I write this. The sky is growing dark. The phone pinged an alert: lightning is in our area. Thunderclouds blot out the sun and I am glad that I did not water the grass this morning. For me, this summer’s prevalence of storms have become metaphoric of the nation. Heavy. Dark. Threatening. A good time to take cover. A good time to stay inside. A good time to reread To Kill A Mockingbird. Its themes are suddenly current and vital. Tolerance. Empathy. Understanding.

I am an introvert and understand Boo’s preference to seclude. When I saw the hydrangea peeking through the curtain I said to no one listening, “I get it! Me, too.”

***

we are trying to regroup, rethink and refocus our melange blogpost writing a bit. we – like you – know what is really happening in our world and do not need one more person – including ourselves – telling us the details of this saddest of descents destroying democracy and humanity. though we know our effort will not be 100% – for there is sooo much to bemoan in these everydays – we have decided to try and lean into another way – to instead write about WHAT ELSE IS REAL. this will not negate negativity, but we hope that it will help prescribe presence as antidote and balm for our collective weariness. ~ xoxo kerri & david

an illustration from SHAYNE by Beaky © 2015 David Robinson & Kerri Sherwood

read Kerri’s blogpost about HYDRANGEA

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Metaphor, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, Boo Radley, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, empathy, Harper Lee, hydrangea, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, seclusion, story, studio melange, the melange, to kill a mockingbird, tolerance, understanding | 1 Comment »

Especially Now [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on July 22, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

Dear You,

***

Sometimes what we see is obvious. Sometimes it is not. We showed this photo to 20. Kerri told him it was a painting. I told him it was a granite counter top. He narrowed his eyes. He knows us too well. It could be a photograph taken by the Webb telescope: the surface of an unknown planet or a particular slice of the galaxy analyzed through a monochromatic lens. What else could it be? A satellite image of earth’s weather pattern? A microscope image of lymph moving in the body?

Without context it is difficult – well, it is nearly impossible – to arrive at an agreement of what we see. And isn’t that the epicenter of the interesting times in which we live? Deceptive contexts. Most often dueling contexts. We do not wrangle over what we see; our fight is about context; the loss of shared context. We cannot agree on what we see.

His parents used the railing of the bridge to stretch after their walk. The young boy peered down into the water and said, “Yuck.” The family moved on. We stopped at the yuck spot and looked down. Pollen swirling in the slow moving river.

Kerri whipped out her camera whispering, “Gorgeous!”

Whose interpretation is correct? Kerri’s? The young boy’s?

Both. They share context so neither need be right or wrong. They agree on what they see just not on the aesthetics.

What else is real? It is a good question to ask. Especially now.

read Kerri’s blogpost about WHAT ELSE IS REAL

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Filed under: Perspective, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: Agreement, artistry, context, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, interpretation, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, perception, story, studio melange, the melange, truth | 1 Comment »

Our Natural Tendency [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on July 10, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

This sedum is a volunteer. It somehow took root beneath the deck and yet has found a way to reach the sun. It’s funny. Each day I check on this little plant because its resilience gives me some small measure of hope: good things can take root in dark places and through natural tenacity, find a way to the light.

When I step back from our national horror story and take in the whole picture, I am overwhelmed at the abundance of light. People showing up for other people. People expressing outrage at the treatment of others. The shadow spaces are small in comparison.

In this way people are no different than plants. Our tendency – our need – is to seek and find the light and the light is found in the community and what it values. A community can only stay in the dark for so long before it – like a plant – begins to perish.

“They have no respect for human life,” she said, showing me the latest video of an ICE arrest. And then came her list of disrespect: “Decimating USAID, cuts to Medicaid and SNAP…” It was a very, very long list.

I responded, “They have no respect for others because they have no respect for themselves.” It would be impossible to vote for that Big Bloated Bill and be able to look at yourself in the mirror.

They crawl into dark places to flee the light. The assault on the free press. The prevention of congressional oversight – and the nation – from seeing into their “deportation detention centers”. The restrictions (elimination) of due process and habeas corpus…This, too, is a very, very long list. Dark hearts creating dark places.

Here’s the thing: in dark places people lose track of where they are. Disoriented, they also lose track of where others are. In panic, they lose track of how important others are. They become physically, mentally and morally confused. They default into “every man for himself”. In survival-mode, people push others underwater in an attempt to elevate themselves. In the end, all drown.

In the dark we lose track of who we are because we can only know ourselves in relationship to others. Societies collapse in shadowy amorality and the dim fantasy land of every-man-for-himself (obviously).

It is the way of fascist regimes to drag the people of their nation into the dark. Our current leadership in these un-United States is following the Nazi playbook exactly. To perpetuate their dark intention they need to manufacture enemies; the trail of enemy creation will eventually lead back to themselves. They will eventually have to eat each other in their dog-eat-dog fascism. Even though it doesn’t look like it at this moment in time, dragging us into the dark will bring them to perish in an inky bunker.

Like the sedum rooted beneath the deck, it is our natural tendency is to reach for the light.

The only real question that remains is how much dark-malfeasance will we tolerate before we-as-a-nation say, “Enough,” break free and turn toward the light?

And, if we make it, if we survive this dark time and stumble back into the sun, I hope we will have the courage to look at what the light reveals to us – about us. I hope we have the capacity to see fully the totality of our history – all of it. I hope we are capable of asking why so many of us drank from a fox-fire hose of lies and so willingly embraced fantastic falsehoods. I hope we might once and for all align our actions with our rhetoric and put to rest the ugly idea that We-The-People only applies to a privileged few, but applies equally to all of us – a wildly diverse community dedicated to keeping the experiment of democracy vibrant and in the light.

read Kerri’s blogpost about SEDUM

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Metaphor, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, community, dark, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, disorientation, free press, hope, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, light, relationship, resilience, shadow, story, studio melange, the melange, values | 1 Comment »

Mint And Magic [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on July 8, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

In folklore, garlic is supposed to ward off evil spirits and, according to Bram Stoker, it is especially useful at repelling vampires. I imagine that the protective properties dissolve once the garlic is sauteed with onions: evil spirits and vampires alike could not possibly be repelled by the intoxicating aroma of garlic and onions.

According to some traditions, mint, in addition to fostering tranquility, also has protective properties. Instead of vampires, mint defends against “negative energies and entities”. Since we in these un-United States are awash in negative energy and ill-intended entities, I am comforted that in our herb garden the mint is exploding out of its pot.

I suppose it is a silver lining to climate change that our summers are hotter and more humid which seems to be a super-steroid for mint growth. I’m considering planting a moat of mint around our house. I’m considering sending mint to all the people I love. It seems increasingly likely that they – and we – will need to fortify ourselves against the rising tide of negative energies and the entities that the republicans recently funded. I am considering wearing a necklace of garlic to ward off Stephen Miller and Russell Vought – the first legitimate vampires I’ve witnessed. Apparently Bram Stoker wasn’t just fictionalizing things.

In magic traditions mint has healing properties and is especially useful in enhancing mental clarity and sharpening focus. It is a calming agent. For these reasons I am pondering the virtues of sending mint to maga. Hey! That’s a catchy phrase for a campaign! Mint-To-Maga. Has there ever been a group of people in the history of humanity that was in greater need of mental clarity and calming down? That would require more mint than currently spills out of our pot but in the recent decimation of green energy in favor of fossil fuels, climate change is guaranteed to roar ahead unimpeded so my sudden mint production need has an unintended boost. After my mint moat is planted I’ll start looking for a farm.

I should have sent them mint before the election. I should have known this administration would suck the life-blood from the very people who voted them into power. Well, I did know but confess that I thought it would take longer to execute. Negative entities move faster than I knew. And, now that I think about it, I should have sent garlic prior to the election though I doubt it would have done any good. Maga seems hellbent on giving their blood to the Nosferatu. By now you’d think they’d have realized that they are being fed a steady diet of red herring and are, themselves, the primary food source of the Project 2025 vampires.

Fattened as they are on lies and gleefully cheering their own demise, I doubt that any amount of garlic can now protect them. It could possibly take a mountain of mint and more than a little bit of magic to calm them enough to reclaim a modicum of mental clarity – but I think it is still worth a last-ditch effort. My Spine-for-Congress campaign was a complete failure and now that their Mega-Murder-Bill is unleashed and aimed directly at the red states – and the rest of us, Mint-for-Maga just might help the red-hat-crew open their eyes before the negative energies suck them – and the rest of us – dry.

read Kerri’s blogpost about MINT

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Filed under: Perspective, Rants, Two Artists Tuesday | Tagged: artistry, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, garlic, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, life blood, MAGA, mint, negative energy, Project 2025, sarcasm, story, studio melange, the melange, tranquility, vampires | 2 Comments »

Our Dull Ho-Hum [David’s blog on Merely A Thought Monday]

Posted on June 23, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“In spite of indignation and anxiety over what has occurred, I cannot help wondering where we have failed. There was a time during the war when we enjoyed the trust and respect of little and big nations everywhere. What has happened to turn that, in some cases, into suspicion and disdain? We cannot blame our leaders, because we are a democracy. Somehow we the people have failed.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day, August 23, 1946

Our conversation was sparked by a post by John Pavlovitz: “The people I’m struggling the most with right now are the polite people, the patient people, the people who are acting as though they are above those of us who have f*cking had it.“

If our democracy fails – as it now seems is almost inevitable – we could blame the cowardly Republican congress, the unscrupulous executive or the corruption of the Supreme court. What of the responsibility that falls squarely on our shoulders?

We the people voted the corruption into place. For years we’ve tolerated the lies, the meanness of spirit, the grift. We tuned in to news that was more interested in ratings that in factual reporting. We allowed an insurrectionist, rapist, felon to run for the highest office in the land. We did not express outrage when the Supreme Court not only protected the felon, but granted him immunity from the law, elevating him to monarch status.

We’ve normalized the abhorrent. We’ve made the monstrous acceptable, ho-hum.

We have, for a decade, watched the real-time dismantling of democracy like we watch reality tv. We perform the daily doom scroll, seeking, grousing about and then forgetting the latest outrage. I return, again and again, to the forward Neil Postman wrote for his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death:

“Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity, and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.“

We are allowing the whitewashing of history, the celebration of ignorance over education. Only an empty-headed society would tolerate the elevation of the most unqualified to positions of leadership. 90 million people yawned and rolled over rather than go to the polls when the very existence of democracy was on the ballot. Congress knowingly confirmed a kakistocracy that made no effort to hide its authoritarian agenda.

Last weekend 4 – 6 million people took to the streets to protest the ho-hum. It was the largest protest in the history of our nation. It had no visible impact on our elected leaders. Ho-hum. They pushed forward their Grossly-Gluttonous-Bill with language that prevents the courts from checking the overreach of the executive. They added language that would make it impossible for a citizen to seek redress from government abuse.

They no longer fear the vote of the people. They are counting on our passivity. They are counting on our dull-minded ho-hum. They are counting on our capacity to change the channel when we don’t like what we are watching.

“We seem to have forgotten to weigh our values and to realize that we have to pay for the things we want. The payment which can bring about friendly and peaceful solutions is infinitely less costly than the payments which will have to be made if we are going to be an enemy to all the world.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day, August 23, 1946

read Kerri’s blogpost about HO-HUM

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Filed under: Education, Merely A Thought Monday, Perspective, Seeing | Tagged: Amusing Ourselves to Death, artistry, authoritarianism, cult of ignorance, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, democracy, Eleanor Roosevelt, ho hum, ignorance, John Pavlovitz, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, lies, Neil Postman, passive, story, studio melange, the melange | Leave a comment »

The Antidote [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on June 19, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

This photo is of Apollo’s chariot arcing across the sky. It’s only visible because the clouds buffer the chariot’s brilliance.

Zeus is scheduled to come through later tonight. There is promise of thunderbolts. Dogga is not a fan of the flash-and-boom. Frankly, neither am I. Zeus is too showy for my tastes.

Persephone is back from her stay in the underworld and Demeter couldn’t be more pleased. The blossoming peonies are proof. The wild grasses and ferns are a-poppin’. The tomato plant promises to be as tall as I am!

Ares children have been let loose on the land. Phobos and Deimos – Fear and Terror; they wear masks and ambush immigrants. They bully because it makes them feel superior. They pull people from their homes and cars. They take children from schools. They tackle senators. They answer to a minor deity, Dolos. He is renowned for his orange color, his penchant for lying, his empty promises otherwise known as deception.

I, for one, am waiting for Hestia to fully show up on the scene. Welcoming, unifying, an ancient powerful goddess who exudes peace and quiet. She is the hearth, the warm center of “home”. She is formidable because she deals in simple honesty. You might recognize her: she is the force that pulled people into the streets, uniting them to rebuke Dolos and his nasty servants. It seems she might team up with Athena who brings a healthy dose of wisdom and strategy to the mix, capable of easily corralling Fear and Terror and sending the orange Dolos back to the swamps where he belongs.

No doubt the goddesses will provide the antidote for the toxic masculinity that ails us.

[Juneteenth! It is especially important to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the USA – particularly in the face of an administration that whitewashes our nation’s history]

read Kerri’s blogpost about THE SUN

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Filed under: DR Thursday, Metaphor, Perspective | Tagged: apollo, artistry, Athena, bully, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, Demeter, hearth, Hestia, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, peace, Persephone, story, studio melange, the melange, toxic masculinity, wisdom | 1 Comment »

Follow The Lines [David’s blog on DR Thursday]

Posted on June 12, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

“In the art world, lines are a fundamental element used to create a wide variety of effects. They can define shapes, create movement, guide the viewer’s eye…” ~A-I Overview to my inquiry about lines in art

I confess that I am having a hard time. I’m in the middle of a mini-moral crisis.

I’ve written this blog since 2010. I set out to write about positive things, affirmations and stories of the best of us. At the time I began writing I was traveling around the nation, working with incredible people everywhere I went, so I had a bucketful of stories to share, celebrating the best of the human spirit. Kerri and I began writing our Melange 382 weeks ago. We had so much art and music in our folios and files and we wanted to bring them into the light of day. Sharing the best of us – another way of celebrating the human spirit.

After all of these years I enjoy a small but enormously appreciated (by me) audience.

Lately, I am aware, that my daily writing and my focus is not about celebrating the best of us but has almost exclusively become about ringing an alarm against the worst of us. I am sometimes snarky. I am mostly horrified at how dulled we as a nation have become to the outrageous. I am alarmed at our normalization of the monstrous, the disappearance of Congress, the collapse of the system of checks and balances.

Each day I have a chat with myself about staying focused on the positive but I am lately finding that to be naive to the point of dangerous; it is akin to sticking my head in the sand or plugging my ears so I hear no evil.

Each day, more and more people are being swept off our streets. Each day, they are denied due process. This morning I’ve been reading – and verifying – accounts about the unnecessary death of a Haitian woman in one of our many overcrowded detention centers. The conditions are appalling. She is not the first. She will not be the last. Her crime: trying to escape abject poverty and enter the land of the free and the home of the brave.

90% of the people – human beings – are being held without due process in privately run detention centers that are by many accounts no better than concentration camps. Think about it: “privately run” means that they are detention-for-profit; the more people swept up and crammed into these camps the more money they make. Inhumanity with a profit incentive.

Which brings me to my moral crisis. I am both a visual and theatre artist. I know how to create movement that guides a viewer’s eye. I know how to make an audience see in a story what I want them to see. I also know how to prevent them from seeing what I don’t want them to see. It’s akin to the magician’s trick. Create a distraction so the mechanics of the trick go unnoticed. Our national media are masters of distraction. They make rather than report news.

We-the-people are being distracted. We are being pitted against each other so we do not look at the magic trick that is making our rights – and the rights of others – disappear. We are not supposed to see what is happening in the detention centers – we are not supposed to know how our taxes are being used, what we are paying for, what we are creating: a police state.

Follow the lines. It is not so hard to see what we are not supposed to see. It’s ugly. A president ignoring the law, exploiting brutal immigration sweeps to incite violence, manufacture an “insurrection” in order to turn the military against citizens. The suspension of elections will surely follow. The sweeps will include voices of opposition.

It is morally irresponsible to look the other way. It’s morally reprehensible to say, “There’s nothing we can do about it,” or “I didn’t vote for this,” or “I had no idea what was happening,” or “This doesn’t impact me.” It is fundamentally immoral to pretend that this is something that we “Can’t talk about.” It is depraved to roll along as if the current course of this nation is anything other than ethically bankrupt. People are dying, being held without due process in deplorable circumstances. And we-the-people are paying for it. We don’t like where the lines lead so we change the channel. We look the other way or swallow whole-cloth the media spin.

What is my responsibility to write? To paint? To draw? How can I celebrate the human spirit, the best of us, when the leaders of the nation are every day grinning at, applauding and investing in brutality, taking delight in human misery? And our tax dollars are making it possible.

read Kerri’s blogpost about LINES

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Filed under: Art, Creativity, DR Thursday, Edges, Perspective | Tagged: artistry, authoritarianism, david robinson, davidrobinsoncreative.com, detention centers, fascism, fundamental, human spirit, immigrants, inhumanity, Kerri Sherwood, kerri sherwood itunes, kerrianddavid.com, kerrisherwood.com, morality, police state, story, studio melange, the melange | 2 Comments »

The Freedom To Dance [David’s blog on Two Artists Tuesday]

Posted on June 10, 2025 by davidrobinsoncreative

The juxtaposition was startling. At the exact moment that we were packed in a raucous dancing and cheering crowd, watching our son Craig, an EDM artist, perform at PRIDE Milwaukee, the dictator wannabe was threatening martial law and sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell what his toadies are trying to call “an insurrection”.

The celebration of individual freedoms meets the crushing of individual freedoms.

The language is important. By every account (except on fox news) the protests against the draconian ICE raids were mostly peaceful. The Los Angeles Police Department published a letter praising the protestors for peacefully exercising their First Amendment right. Even so, the word that the Republican administration wields is “Insurrection”. This is not an accident. It is laying groundwork for the invocation of The Insurrection Act, which “authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law…”

A protest is not an insurrection. What we witnessed on January 6, 2020 was an insurrection: a violent uprising against the government. What we are seeing in Los Angeles is a citizen’s right to protest.

The Republican administration has been paving the way for the final move in their authoritarian takeover for months, branding campus protests “illegal” and threatening to withhold funding from colleges and universities that allow “illegal” protests – meanwhile arresting and deporting international students. “The arrests and deportations of noncitizen students and scholars for expressing their political views are creating a climate of fear on campuses across the country,” said John Raphling, associate US program director at Human Rights Watch. “The Trump administration’s actions are an attack on free speech and threaten the very foundations of a free society.”

The music pulsing, the crowd reveling, I was suddenly overwhelmed. I stopped dancing and watched the people. PRIDE began as a commemoration of resistance: in The Stonewall riots and demonstrations the LGBTQ community “fought back against government sponsored persecution.” 55 years later, I recognized my privilege to stand with a community of people celebrating their individual freedom and triumph over government sponsored persecution.

What’s happening in Los Angeles and across this nation? It is the Republican-led government violently uprising against the fundamental rights of the people. It is – just like January 6th – an insurrection against our democratic institutions and ideals. Make no mistake: the people in LA are coming together to fight back against government persecution, the creation of a police state and authoritarian attack on our democracy.

I can only hope that 55 years from now, some proud father, dancing in a crowd of thousands to his son’s thunderous music in a commemoration-celebration of the people’s triumph over their government-run-amok, will, like me, be overwhelmed when he recognizes the profound meaning of the moment: the exercise of his privilege in a nation that, once, when faced with authoritarianism, vehemently defended individual freedoms, democracy and the right to protest. For a moment he will stand in awe and then, swept back into his son’s vibrant music, will give himself over to the pulse, the heartbeat, the freedom to dance.

read Kerri’s blogpost about PRIDE