Christy Cole is from Louisiana and is known to me from the blogosphere over a period of probably almost five years. She brought some much-needed southern flavor to the John Kerry blog when I was a national moderator, and is a fixture at Democracy Cell Project. She is a poet and artist with some Cherokee blood (as I have some Sioux, a common bond). She is an American patriot with a passion for truth and for saving our Constitution. She advocates for a complete blockade of Fox News and Rupert Murdoch's enterprise, if only people would get up and mobilize! She speaks often of her man, who is pictured below, and of her children, one of whom recently came on "the blog" to inquire about pacifism.
I remembered this that Christy wrote around the time of the last election, and wanted to post it once again, especially in light of what has happened since Hurricane Katrina (with so many already disenfranchised voters permanently chased out of the area), and the promises of a "50 state campaign" that has yet to catch fire. It's good to read it again & I'm also waiting for my own original painting by Christy & chose my colors - orange, bright green & black.
Slugbug
Christy's Bio:
I was born in Oklahoma, the 4th of 5 children. I was raised thoughout Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana, but have settled in Louisiana where I also now have 5 children. And 3 cats.
I attended 20 public schools that I can remember and never made it past the ninth grade. My family was very poor and moved often, so I never had many friends nor was there any formal training as an artist. My father was a wood carver as a hobby, and as a child I would watch him carve for hours and days. My grandmother also dabbled at painting, which was not her best work, but she was a fantastic sketch artist and both her and my father are probably what encouraged me at first. I constantly doodled as a kid. When I was 9, I was sitting in class and drew a portrait of Brooke Shields, who was the 'It Girl' at the time. It looked just like her, and to this day I believe that was a turning point for my artistic path.
I never thought about 'becoming an artist'. To be honest I never thought it was an option, because it is well known 'artists' starve. But it became more than a hobby or even study for me, it became a passion. I went much further than my father or grandmother, and learned, researched, and studied the Masters every chance I got to see their works displayed in photos. I studied art and found myself in a lifelong study of history and culture as well. But, ultimately it has been a pursuit of beauty. When I see a beautiful woman, I just want to paint her. When I see a man, caught in a beautiful moment in time, I see him in fleshtones and shadows. Even to this day I am amazed at how beautiful our species is. I have so many beautiful images saved in my head, I will never have time to paint them all in this lifetime.
I get paid to paint, but I also give away a lot of art as well, as gifts. I love to hand people something beautiful, to hold in their own hands. Everyone deserves something beautiful to hold onto.
At the beginning of this next year, I am anticipating being very busy as I amass my first public collection for sale, hopefully by next summer.
Preaching to the Choir.
Excuse me, Blue State people. May I have your attention please..? Thank you.
I make it an obsessive habit to watch everything in our country lately. From down here in Louisiana, because of the 'Information Revolution' I keep surprisingly up to date on the current clusterfuck our nation has become.
Now, normally, I don't see things in red state/blue state terms. I was taught to believe we are ALL Americans first. Period. However, there is a red/blue problem that I simply can not remain silent on anymore. It touches on EVERYTHING we hope to do.
I see all our democratic and activist leaders, all on the move. It is truely a beautiful thing. The people are waking up, and the message is trickling out, slowly but surely. Our opposition to the tyranny of the Bush family bonds us in ways that transcend blue state red state and hold us firm against the fear. I see our leaders holding rallies in N.Y., L.A., Phoenix, and D.C.
What I do not see is rallies in Jackson, Shreveport, or Birmingham.
There may be a speech now and then, that gets heartily protested by the very loud minority, and then they are gone. Back to the blue states to preach to the chior. There is no democratic hope in the south because there are no democratic generals here fighting the republicans on thier own turf. Don't get me wrong there are dems here, hard at work, trying desperately to spoon out the ocean. But these dems are underfunded and COMPLETELY INVISIBLE in our daily lives.
Now perhaps, you have been told that we are all morons down here that spit at outsiders, and dream of the days when slaves were ours to own. Perhaps thats the image you have. But nothing could be further from the truth. By tradition the southerners are DEMOCRATS. We are only red state because the damn republicans have been rigging elections down here for more than a century. You think Ohio was ugly...? Try Louisiana EVERY election day. But, who do we tell? We are left with the corrupted leaders or telling those who will pass it on to the yankees, who then turn around and forget they once violently overthrew and occupied the very soil I am sitting above as I write this. And there were consequences.
MANY MANY consequences. All of them political. None of them easy. I wonder at times, if Martin Luther King had been from Cali would he have found it worth dying for? I doubt it.
Coming down here to make a speech and then outrun the fruit throwers on your way back to bluer borders WILL NOT WORK. You are simply overlooking the TRUE problem of the south because it is what..? Distasteful?..Tedious?.. Dangerous?
And you are missing the opportunity of the ages.
The current shuck and jive campaign coming out of D.C. these days is being delivered with a southern accent. But, not eveyone who SPEAKS with an accent, THINKS with an accent. And it is WAY past time to come and engage those people in a VERY lengthy discussion. One that we can sleep on, and engage again in the morning. I have never once believed the republicans outnumber democrats down here. ONLY at the polls is this a republican stronghold, and if you believe the numbers from Florida can be skewwed it's not a hard leap to see the truth about the south.
The truth is, you have abandoned us, and we need you now more than ever. We have the numbers, and the courage, and the will. But, we can not go anywhere without leaders who are willing to risk just as much as we are.
When a hero does come forth I do not know if he will be northern, or southern, black, white, red nor blue. I do NOT know if that hero that leads us to rally down here will even survive the experience. What I do know is this, WHOMEVER that hero is, when they rise from the ashes of the old south, their names will live forever in the halls of heros among men.
When that hero does come, many, including me, will give all we have to protect them. But we can not protect what we can not reach.
When the rallies that electrify the blue states are over, and the chior goes home, there will STILL be a quiet sense of desperation in the deep south. As a region we are the poorest and most illiterate, even now. You could get it all back, and win the very heart and mind of the country.
But you can not take what you refuse to touch.
ADDENDUM: More, & I received my own Cleopatra, which I have added at the very top!
Thanks for sharing the artwork and the speech from Christy.
She is a treasure for all of us on the blogosphere.
Posted by: Ally McRepuke | October 30, 2007 at 12:37 PM
And the problem with the Democrats is not limited to the blue states abandoning the red states, at the national level.
At the state level, in California, the blue counties of the Bay Area have utterly abandoned the red counties of the rest of the state, especially Orange County, Inland Empire, and Central Valley.
As the blue counties keep pushing anti-car, anti-sportsmen, anti-pet, and other ideological legislations, the red counties continue to turn redder, to a point where American Independents (California's Constitution Party affiliate) outnumber Democrats in many SoCal neighborhoods.
Posted by: Ally McRepuke | October 30, 2007 at 12:40 PM
Excellent piece, if only the Dems will sit up and take notice.
She advocates for a complete blockade of Fox News and Rupert Murdoch's enterprise, if only people would get up and mobilize!
Amen to that
Posted by: Kangaroo | October 31, 2007 at 02:42 PM
More Christy, who is on a roLL
Oh, and while we are at it, let's stop already with the ...'But Jefferson suspended, and Lincoln suspended...' comparisions already.
This is not the Revolutionary War period, nor is there a Civil War imminant with slavemongers threatening to break the nation in two, and george w bush is no Lincoln and he damn sure ain't no Jefferson.
Niether of those men ever appeared on national tv and lied repeatedly to our faces while committing OPEN HIGH TREASON to illegally start a LAND WAR IN ASIA.
And if they did, it didn't happen recently.
We have never ever as a nation faced anything similar to what is happening now. The only things it can be compared too, Nazi Germany, WW2 Japan, CALIGULLA, are all examples from places with far longer histories than ours.
No president, not even Jefferson has ever so totally and thouroughly assaulted nor disrespected the Constitution like this one has. He has NO INTENTION WHATSOEVER to hold up any of the principles and regulations set forth in it. He has proven that again and again.
No other president has come so close to literally installing a dictatorship in all ways. He has rendered the Constitution completely MOOT.
We should not only be compelled by the evidence to impeach him, we should do it just to find out exactly what in the hell is going on here.
Everything they have been doing must come to light, because it is certain what they have kept hidden is FAR WORSE than anything come to light so far.
They must be held accountable for it, or in the eyes of the entire world, we will all be damned for it. None of our future generations will be safe if it is left undone.
November 1, 2007 9:30 AM
Christy said:
It is too late. He just graduated to a real live DICTATOR.
To Implement Policy, Bush to Turn to Administrative Orders
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/30/AR2007103000558.html
And look what Hoyer had to say..
House Democratic leaders fired back at Bush with strong rhetoric of their own. "The president wants the same complacent, complicit Congress that was a co-conspirator in a coverup of what was going on in this country," said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.).
Posted by: nmp | November 01, 2007 at 08:36 AM
I know sometimes I annoy people. But you guys, just being here makes me so proud to be here with yall.
I am not really used to being the focus of a lot of attention, I am a private person, so I decided I will not try to deal with how I feel about it till later.
It is true NMP, I am on a roll. I have hit a stride that is so different than anything I have done before, but is so natural it is almost hard to believe it is happening.
These works coming off my easel lately are perhaps most surprising to me than anyone else. A lot of people never even realized I am an artist, and now all the sudden, it is the only thing I think about, the only thing that matters.
I don't know what is happening to me. But I damn sure like it. I don't know how to even deal with it, you know, in my head. All I know is I just need more canvases, and some nutmeg brown, and more time.
All the sudden, I want to live forever.
And if I keep painting like this, I will.
I love you guys.
Thank you NMP for this page, seeing them all together chokes me up. So colorful.
And Nefertiti just stands out from them all.
Until yesterday my birthday recently was only a reminder of watching the 04 election get highjacked. Now, it is also Nefertitis birthday too. So I guess time makes everything ok again.
Posted by: Christy | November 03, 2007 at 12:23 PM
Cleopatra will be added but I will show her in-situ on the wall - you will see how she "goes" and I need to move around a bunch of stuff & get the right fasteners. Should be sometime this weekend.
Happy Birthday! I'll add that pic at the very top & then hopefully there will paintings all down the left and text all down the right.
Posted by: not my president | November 03, 2007 at 02:24 PM
nmp,
So cool that you blog-ho'd Christy's art work onto one page. (Meant to comment yesterday but my computer kept kicking me off the internet.)
Christy, it's wonderful seeing all your pictures in one spot. You can really follow your progress as an artist. Actually, between nmp and her camera and you with your art, it makes me want to do it too. Problem is that I can fill in color quite well, but I can't draw shapes and figures correctly. It's like once someone starts the outline, I know what I would adjust. I just can't start the original. (bluck!)
Posted by: sparrow | November 04, 2007 at 05:58 PM
It really is amazing to see them all lined up on one page like this. Even on my own blog they are all spread out. I can't even describe how it makes me feel to see them all or how my mind races and remembers simultainiously.
Do you realize with this sampling, I covered 8 different races of people?
BTW NMP, I looked up the link you left for your friends art site at DCP, TY she is really good. Very interesting work.
Posted by: Christy | November 05, 2007 at 11:35 PM