Amerika, Land of Apathy...Home of the Enslaved is a painting I completed for a group show with The Library Street Collective in Detroit. It is a small acrylic painting 4"x5" depicting a possessed Bald Eagle. An American debt slave is feebly attempting to hold open it's bar coded adorned beak which symbolizes the oppressive and growing power of the Federal government, which is eroding our civil liberties, waging multiple unconstitutional wars of aggression and crushing us all with insane levels of debt. It's ironic that the Bald Eagle was chosen as our national emblem, but seemingly appropriate seeing what this government has devolved into. Benjamin Franklin in 1784 reported his dismay for choosing the Bald Eagle, saying it was a 'A bird of bad moral character' that did 'not get his living honestly.' He observed that it was too lazy to fish for itself, preferring to steal from other birds. "Fate it would seem is not without a sense of irony."