Towards the end of last week a friend shared a YouTube video link with me of the painting, “The Forgotten Man”. The video was published on September 7, 2010 and I was fortunate to have been able to view it when it had slightly over 10,000 views. Many things over the past weekend kept me too busy to share the video with you in a more timely manner. I can’t apologize for this since it was a weekend of more action than talk. Since my initial viewing of the video of this masterpiece, the video has found it’s way into the viral video status with over 174,000 videos as of this morning, September 13, 2010. Folks, that is impressive, but it’s not near enough. Every single American needs to see this video so they understand truth to why Jon McNaughton made it.

In the video the artist, Jon McNaughton, explains,

“For a long time I didn’t know if I wanted to paint this picture, because I worried it might be too controversial. But, as an American… I knew I couldn’t be still. I had to do something.”

And, do something is precisely what Jon McNaughton did when he painted “The Forgotten Man“.

Mr. McNaughton continues to explain his decision,

“I wondered if the Presidents of the past could speak to us today, what would they say?”

Personally, I have no doubt the Presidents of the past would be reaching out to Jon and thanking him for taking such a bold step to record a time in American history when Presidents are so quick to sell their country out to corruption and special interests that do not have America’s best interests at heart.

On the McNaughton Art site, Jon explains,

“There is no racial meaning or undertone that the FM is not black. This is not a racial painting; it is about the vanishing of the American dream.

It is not a partisan painting. I take no favoritism of Republicans or Democrats. Both parties are guilty.”

Seth Adam Smith, the videos author, writes,

Against the background of a darkening sky, all of the past Presidents of the United States gather before the White House, as if to commemorate some great event. In the left hand corner of the painting sits a man. That man, with his head bowed appears distraught and hopeless as he contemplates his future.  Some of the past Presidents try to console him while looking in the direction of the modern Presidents as if to say, “What have you done?”  Many of these modern Presidents, seemingly oblivious to anything other than themselves, appear to be congratulating each other on their great accomplishments.  In front of the man, paper trash is blowing in the wind.  Crumpled dollar bills, legislative documents, and, like a whisper—the U.S.Constitution beneath the foot of Barack Obama.

The forgotten man, shown front center in the painting, truly shows the frustrations of many American Citizens who are growing more and more frustrated with our politicians and their unwillingness to serve their constituents and their country.

While I was attending FreedomStock in Onawa, Iowa on Saturday 11, 2010, I had the opportunity to speak with Michael Jablonski who owns The Forgotten Man .org who was one of the scheduled speakers for that days memorial event of 9/11. While talking to Michael and his wife I asked them if they had seen the video of Jon McNaughton’s “The Forgotten Man” yet. Neither one of them had seen it yet. I quickly pulled out my computer and loaded up the video and put it in full screen mode for the two of them to see this impressive and accurate portrayal of our Presidents, both past and present. As I watched with them I could see their faces as they were both struck with absolute amazement as to McNaughton’s degree of accuracy in his masterpiece. Was the timing coincidence or was it just meant to be? We’ll never truly know the answer to that question, but I was able to bring two different, and yet very similar, versions of The Forgotten Man together on 9-11.

Please watch and share this historical masterpiece as Jon McNaughton portrays all the American Presidents of past and present in his painting, The Forgotten Man.