One of the reasons I became an artist

[Paul Rucker]

Dear Friends,

One of the reasons I became an artist was to fight for the rights of those I felt were wrongfully convicted. One on those people was Troy Davis. While playing as a musician with the Augusta (Georgia) Opera Company in 1989, I remember having lunch on a Sunday afternoon, and watching a Klan rally outside of the opera house.  Not too long after that day, I heard about another very sad event in Georgia’s racial history: the Troy Davis case. Convicted of shooting an off duty police officer despite no physical evidence to link him to the crime.  In the past 20 year, 7 of the 9 witnesses against him have recanted. Yesterday, Troy Davis was executed.   We just lost the life of someone who could likely have been innocent, for there was certainly reasonable doubt to his guilt.

As an artist, I feel discouraged. As a citizen, I feel disgust.

I can create works like PROLIFERATION, and talk about injustice, but in these acts alone, I cannot make change.  I’m hoping that we as a society will take a long look at the cost of ignoring injustice.  Today, we all have blood on our hands, and it is spreading.  Ignoring injustice is the one of the worst forms of evil.

I am an artist, and I hope to make a difference. In order to do this, I need your help. I would like for us all to be a little more active, engage in more dialogue, write more letters, do more to fight injustice in our world.   Such outrage and action are our greatest responsibilities.

Paul