I believe in using art to create the future I want to see.

This is the Justice we need.

Now, I believe mass incarceration in the US is a huge problem on many levels–not to mention that it’s a money-making scheme for those who own the prisons, but I also believe in Justice. Many of us are watching the Trump Administration break the law by the Trump administration and wondering– isn’t this illegal? Is no one going to catch them on this? It reveals to us what many already know that the justice system works differently for those with money and power than it does for most of us. But I still have hope.

Judges are still fighting for us, and justsecurity.org is cataloguing all the lawsuits currently being filed against the Trump Administration. I have listed a few of the charges there–including some that are just Trump’s personal charges. But there are LOTS of lawsuits being filed right now. Justice may be slower than we want, but it can be more lasting.

My illustration may be a fantasy: two current prisoners as (hopefully) future plaintiffs in one of many lawsuits against the Trump admin already forming, but it gives me hope.

I was disgusted by the PR stunt Kristi Noem did with the men as backdrop for what amounted to an ad for Homeland Security. MSNBC revealed that the men rounded up for the El Salvador facility included men with NO charges against them, but who sported a tattoo that would look good in the public relations message Trump wanted to send to his voters about the “good job” he was doing on immigration.

In my painting, I imagined a future I wanted to see.

I want to believe that Justice will happen. We are being flooded with Executive Orders and State’s Bills whose purpose is to scare us into giving up. It may look hopeless, but people are fighting back. And I want you to take heart.

Many people are fighting for us, and we can join that fight.

Two people that are helping us know HOW to fight back are AOC and Bernie Sanders, and you can watch one of their stops on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour in its entirety, below. AOC begins about 11:40 into the video:

I believe in using art to create the future I want to see. I don’t have to be confined to ONLY what is happening, or what happened. I can create a new future.

I hope you make art creating the future YOU want to see. May your art inspire you and others to create that future.