And mankind is naught but a single nation.
- - The Koran
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
- - Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 1963
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.
- - Albert Einstein
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.
- - Stephen Hawking
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.
- - Elie Wiesel
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------For in the final analysis, our most basic common link, is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we are all mortal.
- - John F. Kennedy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------We are all afraid -
for our confidence,
for the future,
for the world.
That is the nature of human imagination.
Yet every man,
every civilisation,
has gone forward because of its engagement with what it has set itself to do.
The personal commitment of a man to his skill,
the intellectual commitment and the emotional commitment working together as one,
has made The Ascent Of Man.
- - J. Bronowski, 1973

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this painting: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The Statue Of Liberty - in front of the World Trade Center Towers
. . . at night.
Spotlights illuminate from below up onto Liberty.
The mother-of-all symbols of freedom stands before
the parents-of-all symbols of free enterprise.

This "snapshot" spans two frames in time:
The lower half is the past, pre-September 11, 2001.
The upper is the present,
as the former reality below morphs up into the post-9/11 beacons of light that ascended in the towers' absence.
The stars attempt to honor each of the thousands of innocent webs of light
crushed out by the plug ugliness of a mass archaic mentality.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Only the liberated spirit can breathe.
Ultimately, the Statue is a positive, enduring summary of that "pursuit" Thomas Jefferson envisioned for us.
A "happiness" perhaps never attained - yet Liberty's abiding, persistent hand continues to hold high the upper level of the enlightened mind.
- - Sean Connolly

================================================================================================================================================

ARTIST'S ENTREATY: . . . . . . . . . . .
encourage the development of moral order.
give credence to the good in us.
treat all as yours . . . . . . . . . . . . they are.
- - sean connolly, 2007