“Do We Have the Right to Remain Silent” brings a striking visual of two hands firmly cupping a globe which either bleeds or has been bled upon—are they carrying the weight of the world, like Atlas holding up the heavens? Trying to keep the world from falling apart? How much does the notion of “the blood is on [our] hands” come into play? Howard doesn’t offer clear didactic answers with the piece, leaving its broad, universal symbols open to dialog and inquiry. “I want to stir people’s emotions and make them question their beliefs,” Howard commented alongside an earlier, related piece featuring a blood-splashed globe and plaster hands from 2002. The title proves as provocative as its imagery: while the literal legal right to remain silent is well known, Howard questions both how practical that law actually is, as the actual implementation of legal standards varies wildly with contexts. Perhaps more importantly, Howard is also questioning the philosophical and ethical concerns of what it means to stay silent in the face of injustice. "There comes a time when silence is betrayal” Martin Luther King Jr. stated in his 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence,” which echoes thoughts from his 1963 collection of sermons, “Strength to Love,” where he wrote, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” Howard’s piece implicitly proposes a challenge along these lines: “Do we have the right” is not a legal technicality, but a moral imperative.