August 18, 2025
Preface To Portraits of Racial Justice - Americans Who Tell The Truth by Robert Shetterly
Today Jean and I had the good fortune to be introduced to Robert Shetterly by our friend Megan. His warm welcome and dedicated passion to highlight good American’s Who Tell the Truth, creates so much hope as he continues to find people to paint, from all walks of our nation, who inspire courage and action.
As we have highlighted both Rob and the courageous and inspiring people whose stories he paints and courage he amplifies, it was a precious gift sit at his table and see his collection and works in progress.
Preface To Portraits of Racial Justice
“I have a friend who has been visiting the standing stones found all around the British Isles and Brittany. Most of us are familiar with Stonehenge, but there are a thousand more. They date from the Neo- lithic and Bronze Ages, four to five thousand years ago. My friend maintains that the first human creative act was to stand up a stone.
Why is that?
When a stone is stood up, its role changes. It's individuated; it ritualizes its space. It calls the residents of the area to be in relation to it - it creates an address in place and time.
A person who stands up with moral courage against injustice affects a community's morality the same way a stone does the geography. That person creates an address for truth and justice in history, a center for others to rally around, creates resistance, value, and dignity.
William Sloane Coffin, Jr., said, "Socrates had it wrong; it is not the unexamined but finally the uncommitted life that is not worth living." We re- member, and are taught by, the illiterate former slave Sojourner Truth, not the well-to-do white woman whose house she cleaned. Sojourner's committed passion for abolition and women's rights defines the ethical address we want to call home. There is a kind of meaning, a claim to stature, in our lives that can only be purchased with courage.”
Robert Shetterly - Portraits of Racial Justice
Invitation: “… the ethical address we want to call home.”
Read more about Robert Shetterly and see more his Portraits HERE. The portraits we saw today included Mary Bonauto (who argued for gay marriage) and Howard Zinn (Historian, Political Theorist, Educator). You can also read his blog here.
We will meet for the Community Table Monday, August 18th at 4:30 PM ET. Contact us for information HERE.
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We are also very excited about our friends Marshall Highet and Bird Jones’ new book The Washashore! We are grateful that some of the proceeds from the sale of the book will support our work. Get your copy and support Circles of Courageous Commons.
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"A person who stands up with moral courage against injustice affects a community's morality the same way a stone does the geography. That person creates an address for truth and justice in history, a center for others to rally around, creates resistance, value, and dignity." Robert Shetterly.
Now, in some ways, more than ever is the time for us to stand up with moral courage against injustice.