Terrible Tucson Day

My friend Neil Herrick writes “Palin, Limbaugh, Beck and all of the other the cynical hate-mongers of Fox (so-called news) have a lot to answer for in helping to create the toxic climate that encourages the unstable towards the tragic direct action that resulted in the massacre in Tucson.”I wonder how some of these sadly influential people are feeling after this tragic shooting, having consistently beaten the drum of violence and promoted divisiveness and hate so openly -- as opposed to respectful and healthy, democratic debate. The current Republican persona pushes their own narrow agenda (defeat Obama and anything he promotes) so continually, and never takes into consideration what is good for the nation and its citizens. I do not know if this climate contributed to the insane shootings, but I do not the GUN climate did, and too many folks in DC support the right to bear arms at any cost. Well, this kind of thing is the cost. I hope they feel deeply ashamed today, but I doubt it. I am sure the few remaining centrist Republicans do.

John's first-cousin-once-removed who is a graphics artist in France responded to the attacks by designing this logo, left, which I think is brilliant. He says, rightly, "It's as simple as that."Jay is in the process of copyrighting it. I often feel so removed from politics, living up here in the rural northlands, in a predominantly liberal area and state. The snow has gently fallen over the past 24 hours, so in spite of the awful news, I am  lulled into such a false sense of  peace and happiness. There are guns here, but MOSTLY hunting rifles, a whole other story.

Today we are going to the funeral of a lovely man, a retired English professor and a witty, erudite and gentle good soul, from our town, hardly a happy thing. It is the first time I will have been out of the house in a week, except to go to the art critique and to see The King's Speech (which I loved.) I view driving to town in a probably pathological way, i.e. I do anything to not go. John's mantra to me each time he leaves the house is "Do we need anything?" knowing full well if we do, he better get it. There are times, especially when John is not about, that it becomes essential for me to go forth to replenish supplies of doggy chicken, fresh fruit or wine, the newspaper and mail, but that can all be obtained locally down the hill at the little, unpretentious, old-fashioned general store which is not a threat. For the past nine days I have been creatively using up holiday leftovers, and digging down into the depths of my large freezer in the Cold Room to make our meals. I mostly shop from home for non food items-- and buy much of whatever else I need on the net. By keeping a running list of what I need locally from Hanover and West Lebanon, I just resign myself to the rare day of necessary erranding. Thus, even more than most artists, I work in a vacuum.

With the main floor of the house finally quite clean (well.....) and John off for three days in New York tomorrow, I am looking forward to lots of time in my studio for the duration.