Photo LinkLove

I found the bug that caused this post to go away. And this seems like the perfect time to also bring it back. So here it is.

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

I was looking around at the crowd yesterday at the Richmond Folk Festival.

I have trouble being in crowds. It’s a lot better than it used to be and since I have started taking photos I feel practically normal in the midst of my fellow human beings.

It has reached a point where I can enjoy them and yesterday it went a step beyond that.

I was looking around and it suddenly hit me that I owe a debt to all these people. Because they form the society that protects us in many different ways from many different things including powerful entities that can get out of control.

Many of them are involved in some way or another in every thing that I have as well. And at the top of this list is freedom. I wouldn’t do well living in a fascist state and am unhappy when someone suggests I do.  Communism would not be much fun either.  In the real world.

It is my belief that (although they often do not realize it) the soldier and the protester are actually fighting for the same thing.  Freedom from oppression.  One looks outward and the other more inward.  Together they find a most difficult balance in a society like ours.

Some I do not see as I look around today. They cannot enjoy the beautiful weather and the entertainment. I cannot take their photo.

But their names are engraved on glass at the top of the hill. And when the sun sets it casts a beautiful light across them.
Perhaps I have not done that light justice in these photo. But it was there and I wanted to try and share it with you.

*

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

Only Americans can hurt America. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower, speech, American Society of Newspaper Editors, 16 April 1953

The problem in defense is how far you can go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Here in America we are descended in spirit from revolutionists and rebels – men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower, address, Columbia University, 31 May 1954

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

We have a free and open press here in America. We can criticize our government and the people who run it.  We can change things if we get together and vote for change.  There is an election coming up in November and it may result in some major policy changes both in this country and abroad.

It’s just the way we do things and have done them for hundreds of years.  Probably we don’t do them as much as our ancesters in this country did them.  There was a time when citizens ran around the White House after an election and got their foot prints all over the upholstery.

The dawn of a new populist era was vividly clear on Inauguration Day. Jackson opened the White House to his backers, and hundreds of them pushed and shouted their way through the building in search of conviviality as they celebrated their hero’s victory. Many were rough men in muddy boots who climbed on the chairs and devoured the food and drink provided by uniformed waiters. Women, children, farmers, laborers, ambassadors, members of Congress—a stream of humanity took over the place for the day.

They were in a celebratory mood.  Andrew Jackson had won the election.

But we don’t mind saying what we think.   And nobody is going to come around and arrest us for saying it.  We might have to answer a few questions if we threaten to kill someone.  But for the most part we are free to say whatever.

Here is what someone has to say about my poem.

“You stupid American! You think the air in Beijing will pollute your lungs? Then why do your American team still come to the Olypics?
You said you feel sorry about your Tibetan friends? Then why don’t give your money directly to them. Do you really care about them? Are you really friends of them?
You brainless American! Have you ever been to Beijing or Tibet? Do you have any evidence to prove what you said?”

-Anonymous

Dear Anonymous

I remember what happened in 1988 when a group of citizens decided to protest their government’s policies in China.  And I am wondering when communism will finally be sent to the dust bin of history.  We should all have the freedom to vote for our leaders and say what we need to say.

And I respectfully disagree with what you have to say about “proof” and my intelligence.  I have not been to the moon.  But I feel pretty certain that I could not breathe there without a tank of air.  If this makes me stupid then you must be very perceptive.

Thanks for responding.  Please come back and don’t be afraid to use your name. No one here is going to persecute you for saying what’s on your mind.

http://virginiaphotos.net/2008/08/13/woman-gymnasts-olympic-competition/

, originally uploaded by Davidlind.

I was looking around at the crowd yesterday at the Richmond Folk Festival.

I have trouble being in crowds. It’s a lot better than it used to be and since I have started taking photos I feel practically normal in the midst of my fellow human beings.

It has reached a point where I can enjoy them and yesterday it went a step beyond that.

I was looking around and it suddenly hit me that I owe a debt to all these people. Because they form the society that protects us in many different ways from many different things.

Many of them are involved in some way or another in every thing that I have as well. And at the top of this list is freedom. I wouldn’t do well living in a fascist state and am unhappy when someone suggests I do.  Communism would not be much fun either.  In the real world.

Some I do not see as I look around. They cannot enjoy the beautiful weather and the entertainment. I cannot take their photo.

But their names are engraved on glass at the top of the hill. And when the sun sets it casts a beautiful light across them.
Perhaps I have not done that light justice in these photo. But it was there and I wanted to try and share it with you.

*