I am angry.
Let me preface this with the understanding that this is a personal blog. When I speak here, I speak as an individual, not as a representative of the organization I volunteer with and love. With that out of the way…
There is a tremendous sense of fulfillment that comes with rescue. Blessings surround us daily. I heard a saying recently - “hard is hard”.
Nevada Representatives Mark Amodei (R-NV2) and Joe Heck (R-NV3) voted against the Supplemental Appropriations bill containing relief for victims of Super Storm Sandy. [roll call 23] There are a couple of boilerplate GOP talking points which underpin opposition to the supplemental funding bill. There's the "It's full of pork," argument. Pork baloney. It's often handy to remember that one man's pork can easily be another man's economic development idea, and secondly -- when haven't supplemental spending bills contained several disparate funding authorizations?
Dear Lady in the SUV,
You will not remember me, most likely. But I would like to briefly share my story, and how it is that you fit into it.
My girl and I have taken to looking at the ground when we hold hands in public – avoiding as much human eye contact as possible. And hey, if they are walking their dog, I avoid their gaze too; you just never know how deep a person’s…
You should be.
Prairie2 News: Obama and your Grandma.
The right thinks this nanny state interference is horrible, perhaps when grandma is turning blue they might reconsider. The problem is that when this works they will not see it, and will continue to believe the right-wing lies just the same. They are affected by thousands of similar ‘government interference’ everyday but don’t have a clue about it.
**TRIGGER WARNING**
While I did write about it early on, like many survivors of sexual violence, I have been keeping a distance from the proceedings surrounding the trial of Jerry Sandusky -- the former Penn State defensive coordinator who was accused of sexually abusing multiple children over a span of years. The case turns my stomach. I literally vomited a little in my mouth the first time I heard about it on the news.
I wasn't going to write about the trial going on against the norwegian mass murderer who on the 22 July last year brutally killed 77 people, most of them young, some even children. Because there are so many others, that is every media in Norway. But there was one event today that really moved my heart. That is 40.000 people in Oslo, and others in every big city in Norway, singing a song.
I’m completely wrapped up in my photography right now. It’s all I want to do.
It is my escape and my addiction.
Still the real world calls. Work. Family. Critters. House work.
Photography makes more sense to me than just about anything going on out there. The Republican primary? I can’t say anything that isn’t already being said by thousands of other voices.
I can’t make sense of the full-scale assault on women’s reproductive rights. Yes, it is a war on women, one that Democrats/Progressives/Liberals have allowed to happen either by collaboration or apathy. While I agree with Gaius that women’s access to contraception should be of vital importance to men, it does not appear to be. And contrary to what he says, what is happening right now is not a war on the sexual revolution as a whole as only half of the “revolutionaries” are being targeted. If it were not so, we’d see hundreds of anti-pornography bills being enacted in state houses all over the country. We aren’t. How about anti-divorce legislation? Nada. It’s all about the woman and her baby-making parts. It is all about patriarchy and putting women in their place.
And I can’t make any sense of it.
I can’t make sense of a soldier engaging in wholesale slaughter of innocents. I can’t make sense of the wars he’s been sent to that pushed him over the edge. I can’t make sense of the bloodshed that is sure to come in retaliation. Hearts and minds, indeed.
I can’t make sense of two children dying in a fire caused by their mother’s religious “blessing” and then seeing her front and center at her children’s memorial service as though she is the victim. Does that sound harsh? I’ve toned it down.
I can’t make sense of politicians who think government should be run like a business, especially in light of the ”blood out of a turnip” nonsense that has been going on at work for three years now.
I still can’t make sense of what happened with my mother, try as I might.
I can’t make sense of much of anything, so I make photographs.
I choose the subject. I control the exposure and the processing. It is art and it is science, and right now, it is the glue holding me together.
In Memoriam
With you a part of me hath passed away;
For in the peopled forest of my mind
A tree made leafless by this wintry wind
Shall never don again its green array.
Chapel and fireside, country road and bay,
Have something of their friendliness resigned;
Another, if I would, I could not find,
And I am grown much older in a day.
But yet I treasure in my memory
Your gift of charity, and young hearts ease,
And the dear honour of your amity;
For these once mine, my life is rich with these.
And I scarce know which part may greater be,–
What I keep of you, or you rob from me.
George Santayana
