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in the last weeks leading up to the US elections I thought I'd give you a work close to me, my hometown and our country. It shows the founding father of the Netherlands. This portrait is hanging in his residence here in Delft, now the 'prinsenhof' museum, where he was murdered by an assasin hired by the fanatic catholic king of Spain, who ruled over our country in the years before. We fought an 80 years war for our independence with the Spanish, who were often helped by the French, the English and the Germans, who all were envious of the fighting spirit and commercial aptness and most important the liberal attitude of the Dutch. The text displayed is not on the portrait, but just on the museum folder. It quotes the first William of Orange: "I cannot condone a monarch who wants to rule over the concience of his subjects. and wants to deny them their freedom of faith and religion" To this day we have retained that liberal attitude and we do so hope that the Americans will also move a bit closer to those principles instead of, like the republicans, require everybody who wants to be in public ofice to be part of an intolerant religion. last image rotation: 01-oct-08. remember the old splashpage with a great work celebrating the origins of democracy
I'm not trying to be balanced
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