George W. Bush
(2001-2009)
I began this project after his last days in office, trying to understand the change in the world post 9/11, his administration's decisions to invade multiple countries and change the leadership of each, while not attacking the country who had 19 citizens as attackers. It seemed clear that the fossil fuel industry was making moves of strength and positioning itself for the future. Bombings, torture, terrorism, and financial sanctions were the methods to coerce foreign populations towards our democratic style. Bush was an admitted born-again Christian, a term I still have no idea of its meaning. But from the golden clouds of heaven's appeal, he sat righteous in his administration's thirst for revenge. After twenty years occupying Afghanistan, the invasion of Iraq, and the destruction of Libya, trillions of dollars spent, and hundreds of thousands of deaths, George W Bush became a historical figure of much future debate.
I chose a hierarchical design to denote the hierarchical nature of evangelical Christianity Bush subscribes to. God is on top, God is Male, God provides for the good and chosen, and ignores the poor. Under this view of Christainity , God wants certain people to be rich, while others are forgotten.
God reaches down to touch the Adams of the 1%, while his begotten son drips in torture and oil.
At the bottom. the two different stories of the American promotional brochure that uses the Statue of Liberty to invite the downtrodden and oppressed, claiming open spaces for all who need to come and find safety and shelter, while on the flip side, guarding border walls and preventing most from entering after international banks fleece their cultures and leave them with no options but to flee their home lands.
Barrack Hussien Obama (2009-2017)
I had not decided to do a stele for President Obama until the election of Trump. But after the Correspondence dinner in which Obama insulted the idea of Trump as President, and Trump’s subsequent victory in 2016 , the story began to take shape.
During the Obama administration, it seemed as though a remedy for the past eight years was upon us. Hope was the catch phrase, and many of us submitted to this fantasy. It was good. Finally, after over two hundred years: a man of color, a black man was now the leader of the free world. He was a loving husband, and father of two daughters. He communicated with all peoples, and considering the GOP never gave him a single budget, filibustered at every turn, created hysterical fantasies about his beliefs, including his place of birth, he was still able to fulfill the county’s need of universal health care.
It was then I saw a resemblance he shared with the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, the first historical leader to claim, “I’m the son of God, all is through me…" All old burial methods were abandoned, the capital was moved from the Priest’s grip in Luxor to Armanas, and new, more efficient methods of design and construction were implemented.
I believe Obama was as hopeful in his desire to change the country, removing the ability to afford a healthy life from only the wealthy and offering health care to the poor. Making peace with sworn enemies, and moving the planet off polluting fossil fuels to renewable and natural energies. He also created the environment for same sex marriages, adoptions , and transgender equality.
As the end of his administration came to orderly transfer of power, the old power - the fossil fuel industry- similar to the old priests of Egypt, eager to cling to power and influence, replaced him with an old relic of racist rituals and beliefs.
Donald J. Trump
(2017-2021)
His rise to the political top is remarkable, stunning. The fossil fuel industry placed the former CEO of Exxon, Rex Tillerson, as Secretary of State. Social media giants Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and many other social platforms, Fox, the Murdoch family, used the newest psychological mixed with high-tech digital methods to infiltrate communities across specific regions, states, counties, cities, towns, and neighborhoods.
Once in office, a 24/7 campaign circus manufactured one calamity after the next. Each day a new low. Two in particular are the separation of families: the removal of children from their parents and their detainment in ‘camps’. Then, the subsequent deportation to the homes they had fled. Second: the riots in the capital building on January 6, 2021. An act planned, acted upon and then watched from the Oval Office , only then to create THE BIG LIE . Trump called on the mob, through tweet, to attack the Vice President for not following Trump’s coup plans.
Other notable mentions: Trump's idolization of Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, his dismissal of NATO’s values, the removal of the US Ambassador to Ukraine after the new President Zelinski refused to abide in Trump’s implied conspiracy to find dirt on the future President Biden before his reelection campaign .
Today, we are left with the results of his poor decisions and alliances . Ukrainian cities are in ruin, burned to ruble, children are bombed, hospitals razed, food supplies cut, and fuel is weaponized against the peoples of Europe. Meanwhile Putin has threatened nuclear war, destroyed his people’s future in attempts to create two economic systems, created laws against free speech, has embezzled trillions of Russian tax revenue dollars for personal investments in offshore bank accounts.
The depravity of this President is beyond possible to write about, never mind carve into stone.