SWD 22

Zakariya Ibrahim Issa, immigrant & US gun genocide victim

Zakariya Ibrahim Issa, a 20 yr old immigrant from Nairobi, Kenya, was shot-to-death in Seattle, July 31, 2015. He was on the phone with his mother and had just left a memorial Muslim service for a friend of his shot-to-death several days prior.

Art: 2015
Media: Ink, gouache, colored pencil
Size: 14 7/8 inches H x 30 ¾ W

The wings on the portrayal were drawn from 2 different birds wings at the ornithology lab, Burke Museum of Natural History, Univ. of Washington, Seattle.

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I find it ironic that a young man, of Muslim family background, would emigrate from a poor country developing country, one which has had its share of violence, and come to America, the land of freedom and opportunity, where he would fall victim to an ongoing American public health on a genocidal scale. Our elected Republican legislators, including President Trump, who express rage about Islamic terrorism and extremism, concurrently and willfully, without shame, legislatively enable the American gun-driven carnage and slaughter their claims to be “pro-life” and supporters of “gun rights.” The only given with gun rights in the U.S. is death for thousands  of Americans every year: Infants, toddlers, children, youth, young adults, and adults of all ages including the disabled, seniors and the elderly. That is terrorism. 

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A 24 min. 34 sec video about compilation of creating SWD 21 (Ryanne Elizabeth Mace, shot to death in a classroom in DeKalb, Illinois, Feb. 14, 2008, and the drawing of Issa.

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An op-ed I penned, published  in The Columbia Missourian, Sept. 13, 2017: “Drowning out the silence of America's gun war.”