I was born in the 1967, around 30 years after the last of the New Deal legislation went into effect. I grew up enjoying the benefits of the New Deal and the Great Society and as a lifelong Democrat, I’ve always admired the way those programs helped Americans during especially trying times. The past 30 years have seen conservative critiques of those landmark liberal programs and Republican Presidents from Ronald Reagan to George Bush have tried to slowly dismantle the foundations that the New Deal created. Yet in 2008, as I read about progressive politics and learn about the history of social change, I’ve grown to admire the spirit that animated the New Deal in the 1930s, and it made me appreciate the openness of FDR to new ideas to apply to the fundamental problems of our nation. More so than the legislative accomplishments, it is the spirit of experimentation that I most admire about the New Deal.

I hope people don't mind a plug. I'm having an art show this coming September in Gallery Saratoga in Saratoga, California. It'll be from September 2 to October 5. I'll have a reception on Saturday, September 6, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. If any of you are in the San Francisco Bay Area at this time, I'll be happy if you'd be able to see my art.

This year I did more ink drawings than paintings, and they'll be featured in my show. I do a weekly cartoon for a local California newspaper, the TriCity Voice, where I try to comment on what I see for a general audience.

I also put a more overtly political message in the cartoons that I've submitted for Z Magazine, a political magazine based in Boston. Each week I do cartoon of the Sunday readings for the Sunday bulletin of my church, St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Sunnyvale, California. If you like cartoons, you might enjoy my show...

I’ve always been interested in the civil rights movement and the general movement for social change. As I’ve read books on the people who’ve participated in the fight for equal rights, one name kept popping up who inspired many of these people to become active. Bayard Rustin is not as well known as Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X, yet he played an important part in the middle of the twentieth century in organizing protests for civil rights and for anti war causes, and he helped bring Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence into the mainstream of American progressive thought.

His work on behalf of important progressive causes was informed by his Quaker faith, and his activism helped improve American society by tearing down segregation in the South and bringing to the forefront issues of economic justice and world peace.

When I used to think of George Washington, I usually thought of the guy whose picture was on the one dollar bill. Most everyone else I know thinks of Washington in the same way, which is sort of sad.

In the past few years, I’ve read more about George Washington and have grown to admire him. During his lifetime, he was revered by his countrymen for his courage in leading the Continental Army to victory against the most powerful military in the world, and he drew even greater praise for his willingness to give up power and respect the spirit of republican government of the early United States. He was a good man and a wise leader, and nothing shows Washington’s character more than his evolving views towards slavery. Though he started out having the same views on race as his fellow Southern plantation owners, Washington’s views evolved to the point where he was a strong voice against slavery and wished that some means for the country to rid itself of the institution.

On this 4th of July weekend, I'd like to actually post a speech that Frederick Douglass gave about Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1876. I think it's in keeping with our election year and in keeping with one of the roles of a true patriot: to help our nation live up to its highest ideals. It is about the faith of Douglass and Lincoln in America's capacity to change for the better. First an excerpt from the book Douglass and Lincoln: How a Revolutionary Black Leader and a Reluctant Liberator Struggled to End Slavery and Save the Union by Paul Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick:

"In the most incisive estimation of Lincoln that Douglass was ever to make, the speaker reminded his audience that at the time of the beginning of the war, abolitionists (including Douglass) had seen him as 'tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent,' but when Douglass measured him against the rest of the country at the time, Lincoln was 'swift, zealous, radical, and determined.' Douglass now fully understood what Lincoln had gone through, balancing public opinion and justice.

"In the end, Douglass' people had come to love this president, and for a simple reason: 'We came to the conclusion that the hour and the man of our redemption has somehow met in the person of Abraham Lincoln.'

I first discovered the artwork of Thomas Hart Benton from an article in Smithsonian magazine while I was in college in the 1980s.

I really didn’t know too much about the fine arts back then, and I knew even less about the great American artists from that time between the two great World Wars. I loved learning about new artists and great paintings, and Benton was a real revelation to me. He was one of the biggest influences on me as I was learning to find my own style and voice as an artist. I never get tired of looking at Benton’s paintings, and his attempts to capture the energy and rawness of the everyday American life left a deep impression on my own outlook on art.

Growing up, my views of the American Revolution were influenced by the musical 1776 and the School House Rock specials on Saturday morning. I grew to deeply respect our Founding Fathers and to see in them a heroism that is lacking in today’s leaders. As a grown up I’ve started reading a lot of history books that remind that though these Founding Fathers were great leaders, they were also human, and that the Revolution was as much the story of the ordinary merchants, farmers, slaves, native Americans, and women as it was of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Our historians remind us that the American Revolution was a complicated event, with mixed results many of the people who participated in the fight. I’ve especially learned from 3 of my favorite historians, Howard Zinn, Gordon Woods, and Joseph Ellis, to see the founding of our nation in new ways.

These past few months following the primaries have been a lot of fun for me, as I’ve found the Democrats running for President this year to be the most interesting in quite a long time. The candidates ran the gamut from middle of the road candidates like Hillary Clinton to traditional liberals like Joe Biden and Bill Richardson to more progressive candidates like Dennis Kucinich, and it was healthy for us to hear the spectrum of ideas within the Democratic Party. Early on I supported Joe Biden because of his experience and his plan of partitioning Iraq. When he dropped out, I briefly supported Bill Richardson but he soon dropped out. When the California primary came along, I settled on supporting Hillary, as I was impressed with her toughness. Now that the primaries are over and Obama is now the Democratic candidate, I wholeheartedly support Barack. I think this was an especially strong Democratic field of candidates, and they all would be better as President than George W. Bush and the Republican field this year. Though I didn’t vote for Barack during the primaries, I’ve always thought of him as being an intelligent and charismatic leader who brings unique gifts to the Presidency.

In the House of Representatives, there are a group of 72 Democrats that are fighting to push forward Progressive issues within the federal government. This group is called the Congressional Progressive Caucus and it was founded in the early 1990s. The co-chairwomen of the caucus are U.S. Representatives Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee. The group fights for “universal access to affordable, high quality healthcare,” fair trade agreements, living wage laws, the right of all workers to organize into labor unions and engage in strike actions and collective bargaining, the abolition of significant portions of the USA PATRIOT Act, the legalization of gay marriage, strict campaign finance reform laws, a complete pullout from the war in Iraq, a crackdown on free trade and corporate welfare, an increase in income tax on the wealthy, tax cuts for the poor, and an increase in social welfare spending by the federal government (I got this from Wikipedia).

Today I read in the paper about the first gay marriages to take place today after the California Supreme Court ruling making it legal in the state. The San Francisco Chronicle has had a series of articles on the history of the gay marriage debate, on the work of attorneys willing to fight for the right and on priests willing to perform the marriage services, and on the change in attitudes of the institution of marriage among the gay and lesbian community. I think the San Francisco Chronicle has done a great job of educating the public on the history of the gay marriage debate, showing both sides of the issue and giving a good reason as to why it is so important for the gay and lesbian community.