An Open Message to The Arizona Bicentennial Committee

October 27, 2011

Heading for Tombstone tomorrow and getting extra books and posters to take along. Driving over to Tri Star at lunch time and then meeting Dan The Man Harshberger at two for a design conference at his studio. Also, working on logistics for the following weekend's Wild West Days in Cave Creek. Big parade (I'll be firing off a gun with the mayor) and then a big dinner at Cartwright's next door. Busy couple of weeks.

An Open Message to The Arizona Statehood Bicentennial Committee
You have a challenge before you. How do you tell the vast, confusing, violent and ridiculous story of Arizona over the past 200 years with zero budget? We know how you feel, we didn't get paid either. In addition, you will be unappreciated and what you come up with will be recycled pap. Don't fret too much. We got the same criticism 100 years before you.

Since we have studied history at length, we know a couple things about how you will handle our period (1912-2012):

• You will undoubtedly laugh at our hairdos as we laughed at the hairdos of the past.

Yes, that's Texas Ranger Samuel Walker, as in The Walker Colt (from the spectacular photo collection of Mike Gumby). This hairdo side bubble was quite popular in the 1840s and you see it on many photographs. Of course, we had some bubbles of our own:

So, we are pretty certain you will be laughing at our hair styles. We also know you will be laughing at our head gear, just as we laughed at our forefather's head gear:

These boys thought they looked pretty groovy. Sometimes, it seems like we never learn:

Yes, we have been downright goofy with our fashion, but what about our beliefs? Well, we know you will laugh at our hard fought ideals, just as we laughed at the ideals of the past (A man's word is his bond? What a joke!). We believed a lot of things that will seem goofy to you. Gee, I wonder what someone in our past has to say about this?

"To believe is to be strong. Doubt cramps energy. Belief is power."
—Frederick William Robertson