Elephant in the Room: With Us or Agin' Us

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With Us or Agin’ Us ©2008 Emily Duffy Photo by Sibila Savage

Dimensions: 52”x24”x36”
Description: Hanging globe on flagpole. (Started in 2003)
Materials: USSR-era paper globe with maps of Texas covering all major land masses, wooden flagpole covered with news headlines about Iraq, noose made out of American flag material, and metal flag holder.

This first piece in my Elephant in the Room series was inspired by George W. Bush’s statement to so-called “coalition partners” (aka “the Coalition of the Willing”). He said: “You’re either with us or against us.” - November 6, 2001

"A coalition partner must do more than just express sympathy, a coalition partner must perform," Bush said. "That means different things for different nations. Some nations don't want to contribute troops and we understand that. Other nations can contribute intelligence-sharing. ... But all nations, if they want to fight terror, must do something."

Bush said he would not point out any specific countries in his speech.

"Over time it's going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity," he said. "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."

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With Us or Agin’ Us - Detail of Africa ©2008 Emily Duffy Photo by Sibila Savage

Bush said threats by Osama bin Laden to use weapons of mass destruction must be taken seriously. "This is an evil man that we're dealing with, and I wouldn't put it past him to develop evil weapons to try to harm civilization as we know it," Bush said. "And that's why we must prevail, and that's why we must win." - Source

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With Us or Agin’ Us - Detail of the Americas ©2008 Emily Duffy Photo by Sibila Savage

This statement, and hundreds more that followed out of George W. Bush's mouth, showed he is a bully who insists on categorizing complex political issues into black-and-white sound bites. Unfortunately, he was able to use the past credibility of our country, and mountains of cash, to convince a reluctant "coalition of the willing".

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With Us or Agin’ Us - Detail of the flagpole (Fallujah) ©2008
Emily Duffy Photo by Sibila Savage

The thought that came to my mind was that Bush was trying to turn the entire world into annexes of Texas, and that by leveraging our previous goodwill with the world he had the entire globe in a stranglehold. Therefore, the sculpture has every major landmass covered with maps of Texas and the globe is hanging by a noose made from American flag fabric.

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With Us or Agin’ Us - Detail of Asia & Europe ©2008 Emily Duffy Photo by Sibila Savage

This was all just fine for an American populace who at the time was more interested in living the good life than paying much attention to current events. Now, however, that has thankfully changed. Americans in record numbers are becoming politically active and the recent Democratic and Republican conventions drew record television viewership. An informed, educated, and angry public is very bad for the GOP's right-wing agenda.

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With Us or Agin’ Us - Detail of Australia ©2008 Emily Duffy Photo by Sibila Savage

NOTE: You're welcome to share my artwork and comments with anyone you think might appreciate them. But I ask that you give proper credit of these copyrighted works and link them back to this blog. None of this artwork may be used by others for profit of any kind.

Please help spread the link to this blog everywhere you can. This artwork was created for the purpose of making Americans think carefully about the kind of country they want this to be when they vote on November 4, 2008. Do they want a continuation of 8 years of fear, war, division, hate, economic drain, isolationism, and denial of science, climate change, and basic reality? If not, they need to vote for, support, donate to, and cover the back of the Democratic candidate, Barack Obama.