DEDICATION

Another blog Russell? Are you kidding? No, this is one that has been in the works a long time. You will see. Nothing outside of God himself has shaped me or my art as much as the American West, and even though so much has already been written... I know that I have a lot to add.

The combination of my pilgrim heritage, my artist's eye, my love of God... and love of a good story, make my vision of the West unique... I think, and then there are the tintypes, collected feverishly over the past few years. I think it is a compelling body of work... and worthy to be saved, and shared with my beloved country. ****** I dedicate this blog to the greatest broadcaster in our generation, who just passed from this life today. A man who spoke the truth, and passionately loved this land, and its people, and its heritage... who just met his Maker. What a legacy of fighting for right... which we should all aspire to, even IF WE MIGHT DISAGREE WITH HIM. ******* He will rest in peace, but his battle, now our battle is ON! *******

Good, solid ideas breed like jackrabbits- The battle for the soul of America has only begun. Hidetown is just an allegory... but a real story, or should I say a deep well of stories which are valuable life-lessons, long ignored or white-washed or worse, misrepresented. Hollywood and Western writers have wasted much film and ink trying to illustrate the inate goodness of the worst people in our society... the old "There is so much good in the worst of us..." while inflaming the bad in average society, the "so much bad in the best of us," forming some kind of moral mid-ground for everyone, and "little behooving any of us to say anything about the rest of us." It has also made the American West look like a living Hell, via Eastwood spaghetti westerns or his blockbuster UNFORGIVEN, and television's Deadwood. They have it both ways... TO DEMEAN OUR SPIRIT OF GOOD, the good people were bad, the bad people were worse, and the Indians were innocent victims. Like Rush, I just want to cut it straight... let the facts speak for themselves. But there are also life-lessons from Hidetown that could have been learned and which would still teach Americans who they were and more importantly, who they can and should be. And here they are.