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For Immediate Release: Heart From Stone Project, 4/30/07 Father Bicycles a Heart from Stone Jerry Sedgewick, a 51-year-old father, and his 15-year-old son, Luc, are pulling by bicycles an exhibit of a heart from stone 1,200 miles from St. Paul, Minnesota to Washington D.C. The trip begins July, 23 and is expected to end on August 25, 2007. The heart from stone serves as a symbol for the country's indifference to the needs of all children. "While it might appear that children get everything these days," Sedgewick says, "there are troubling things they don't get. This trip is meant for drawing attention to those things: an oil supply that will run out in our children's lifetime, a huge shift in our economy, the results of global warming, a stunting of children's brains because of TV, obesity and diabetes because of high fructose corn syrup in soda pop and packaged foods, alarming access to pornography and guns, an entertainment industry that pushes easy sex and the consequent increase in sexual disease, and an educational system that rewards test-taking versus creativity so that every child is left behind." Sedgewick adds to the list the needs of children he calls "the unseen and unheard," those who are homeless, without health insurance for pre- and post-natal health care, and those who suffer abuse, molestation and neglect. The traveling exhibit also includes a heart from gold opposite the heart from stone. The heart from gold symbolizes those who have hearts dedicated to improving the lives of children. At each stop along his trip, Sedgewick hopes to award a heart of gold to persons in that community noted for their contributions to the lives of children. They will receive wooden hearts of gold cut out and painted by children. Along the way Sedgewick and his son will document their travels both through film and photographs. Conversations with those he meets will make up the material for a subsequent documentary and photographic exhibit tentatively entitled 'Who Cares?.' "I want to believe that people really do care about more than what is spoonfed by talk show hosts and the nightly news. I want to believe that they do care about the needs of others. If nothing else, I expect to get a pulse from the upper midwest and eastern regions of the country." The idea behind the heart of stone arises from a short story entitled "The Unforgivable Sin," written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a 19th century American author. The allegory features a man who leaves a small village in order to find the unforgivable sin. When he returns several years later he is quiet and withdrawn. The villagers ask him if he had found the sin, and the man simply nods and points to his chest, but will say nothing. The man eventually throws himself into a kiln, and when the villagers sift through the ashes they find only a heart from stone, a symbol of indifference. "We cannot be indifferent to the needs of people in this country or we develop hearts from stone," Sedgewick says. "Because it is so difficult to come together, liberal and conservative, around political issues, maybe we can rally together toward the needs of our future, our children. In the end, it isn't as altruistic as it might appear: whatever common good we can promote for the future of our children will also be what's best for us today." Sedgewick is taking a leave of absence from his job as a scientist at the University of Minnesota to complete the trip. He is not being sponsored by any organization. More about the trip can be found at www.heartfromstone.com. ##### |
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Last updated 4/2007 by Jerry Sedgewick |
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