Truth Teller #21 Woody Guthrie

 If Woody were writing the song “Pretty Boy Floyd” today, he might have substituted “Big fat sharpie” for “fountain pen”.

Truth Teller #19 Lord Bertrand Russell

 Mathematician and Philosopher Bertrand Russell was jailed for his opposition to the First World War. Although willing to be jailed for what he believed, he was not dogmatic. He famously remarked “I would never die for my beliefs, I might be wrong.”

Truth Teller #18, Bruce Spring

Springsteen delivered these These remarks  in Manchester, England at the beginning of his 2025 European Tour 

Truth Teller #17 G.K. Chesterton

 Chesterton was an English philosopher, apologist for Christianity, author of the Father Brown mystery novels and literary and art critic. He showed an early talent for visual art, but did not finish art school. That was a good move, as he was to develop into a writer of such stature he was cited as an influence by Argentinian great Jorge Luis Borges. As author of as many as 80 books, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1935.

Truth Teller #16 Shirley Chisholm

 Truth Teller #16 Shirley Chisholm was the first African American woman elected to the U. S. House of Representatives. In Congress, where she served 7 terms, she was an advocate for children, minorities and women. She became the first African American and first woman to seek the presidential nomination of one of the two major U.S. Parties when she ran against George McGovern in 1972. During that campaign she refused to be intimidated by several assassination attempts, but lost to McGovern at the convention. After retiring from Congress she helped found the National Political Congress of Black Women and taught at Mount Holyoke College.

Truth Teller #15 Bayard Rustin

 Truth Teller #15, Bayard Rustin. A close advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,Rustin was instrumental in organizing The 1963 March on Washington. Active during the civil rights era and after, he was forced to lower his profile after being outed as a gay man. However, once outed, Rustin was completely open about his sexuality. Although forced to take a less visible role due to his sexual orientation, he continued to work for the rights of minorities, workers and gays.

Truth Teller #14 Primo Levi

 Truth Teller # 14, Primo Levi ~ 174517 was the number tattooed on Primo Levi’s forearm as part of the Nazi effort to break him, and millions of others down to subhuman. Through luck, chemistry and sheer will he survived Auschwitz, and returned to his home in Turin, Italy. A chemist by training and a writer by necessity, he wrote of life in the camps with remarkable restraint, letting the horrors of the mass murder carried out by the Nazis speak for themselves, and trusting the reader to hear.

Truth teller #13 Frederick Douglass

Truth Teller #13 Frederick Douglass. Douglass escaped slavery to become one of its greatest foes. An eloquent speaker and writer, he used his gifts to argue against the evil of the “peculiar institution“ and became the leading advocate for the abolition of slavery in America.

 

Truth Teller # 12 Learned Hand

Truth teller #12: Learned Hand (yes, it was his real name)served the country as a federal judge for many years. A man with a Lincolnesque way with words, he was a legal philosopher who gave us our modern concept of free speech and its importance.

 

Truth Teller # 11, Bob Dylan

Truth Teller #11 Bob Dylan. Dylan’s pithy rejection of the idea that the president is above the law seems more on point now than ever. Give that man a Nobel Prize! You can hear him deliver the line here 

Truth Teller # 10 Teddy Roosevelt

Truth Teller #10, Teddy Roosevelt nails it. Historian, naturalist, author, soldier, trust buster, they don’t make ’em like TR any more.

Truth Teller #9 Joeseph Welch

Truth Teller #9, Joseph Welch. In 1954 the US Army accused Sen. Joe McCarthy of improperly pressuring the army into giving special treatment to a former aide. The US Senate convened hearings broadcast nationwide to investigate the matter. McCarthy, riding a wave of demagoguery, impugned the loyalty of a young member of the firm representing the military. The firm’s lead lawyer, Joeseph Welch defended the young attorney with these words “Have you no sense of decency sir? At long last,have you left no sense of decency?” These words became a tipping point for the Wisconsin Senator’s grip on power. The Senator’s wanton destruction of lives and reputations came to an ignoble end shortly after. You can see video of the famous exchange here

Truth Teller #8, James Baldwin

Truth Tellers #8, James Baldwin, critic, novelist, essayist, expatriate who rose from an impoverished childhood to become one of America’s great writers. On being poor, black and homosexual “I thought I’d hit the Jackpot. It was so outrageous , you had to find a way to use it.

Starting a New Series Celebrating Truth Tellers

Truth is coercive. We acknowledge this with phrases like “I have to say” or “I must admit.” The truth can also be uncomfortable or downright onerous, those who speak it can become outcasts. Mark Twain wrote only dead men can tell the whole truth in this world. But in a time way too many of our bullshit detectors seem to be malfunctioning, we need truth tellers urgently. So I am starting a series of portraits celebrating truth tellers. This is, I must admit, partly because I am sick of drawing liars. It is my pleasure to introduce Truth Teller #1, Mark Twain

Truth Tellers #2 Elizabeth Peratrovich

(from Wikipedia) a Tlingit who worked for equality on behalf of Alaska Natives In the 1940s, her advocacy was credited as being instrumental in the passing of Alaska's Anti-Discrimination Act of 1945, the first state or territorial anti-discrimination law enacted in the United States since Reconstruction following the Civil War, putting Alaska almost 20 years ahead of the national civil rights movement.

Truth Teller #3 Hannah Arendt

Truth tellers #3 Hannah Arendt. The thinker whose book “Eichman in Jerusalem” about the trial of prominent Nazi Adolph Eichman gave us the chilling idea of “The banality of evil.” In the book, she describes how an ordinary person can become a monster, yet remain seemingly normal. Such people try to live in a moral twilight, never deciding between good and bad. As Arendt observed ”The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”

Truth Teller #4 George Orwell

Truth Teller #4 George Orwell. Orwell’s look into the dystopian future, the novel 1984, was likely a big reason that dystopian future didn’t come true. Or did it? War is peace, freedom is slavery, Ignorance is strength. Big brother is watching you.

Truth Tellers #5 Nelson Mandela

Truth Teller #5 Nelson Mandela. First democratically elected President of South Africa. After spending almost three decades in jail for his anti-apartheid activities, Mandela emerged from prison without anger or bitterness to negotiate an end to the racially segregated regime. The example of grace he set made him beloved the World over.

Truth Tellers #6, Abraham Lincoln

Truth Teller #6 Abe Lincoln, an eloquent speaker who could go from the folksiest banter to the heights of oratory. The man that held the United States together through the toughest times since the Revolution, despite serious depression and who ultimately paid for his success with his life.”Honest Abe” is seen by many as our greatest President.

Truth Teller #7 Edmund Burke

Truth Teller #7 Edmund Burke. I will throw conservatives a bone here by quoting the father of modern conservatism. I think his observation that government is a pact between the dead, the living and the yet born is majestic, concise and true today as it was when he wrote the words in the late 1700s. But now that we have the power to wipe humanity off the planet, I believe the meaning of that truth has changed.