That dream
shall have a name
after all,
and it will not be vengeful
but wealthy with love
and compassion
and knowledge.
And it will rise
in this heart
which is our America.

         from “From Sand Creek” by Simon Ortiz

 The early 19th century artist Edward Hicks painted many versions of his Peaceable Kingdom, but all of them are variations on the same theme: Pennsylvania founder William Penn (a Quaker like Hicks) signing a treaty with the Indians for the peaceable transfer of a portion of their land to him, while around them, also in peace, live animals that, in nature, never live peacefully together: the bear and the deer, the eagle and the rabbit, the sheep and the lion, the snake and the child. In short, everything that lives - whether it swims, flies, crawls, slithers or walks - lives together in harmony. This is how Hicks saw Penn’s vision for the New World. This is our own vision as well.