Picture Notes

I heard this term the other day and I’m still wondering who thinks this kind of stuff up. Come on, do we really have to worry about virtual terrorism? Virtual is not real, it a computer simulation. We all have more relevant things to worry about.

“Virtual Terrorism” is a Roll Your Eyes term. I hope to someday publish a list of things others have said and rate them on the roll your eyes scale of 1 - 10 with 10 being laugh out loud as you roll your eyes, 1 being quick flick with your eyes to the upper right. Virtual Terrorism would be over a 9.0 on the scale.

So here I was working on my computer sitting in a coffee shop in York, England getting my email from home. It’s not virtual email, but the real thing. I know it’s real because I can delete the spam, I just don’t know why it keeps coming back. York can be cold and wet during March and I would recommend somewhere more south in the UK at that time of year. The coffee was good and the internet connection was just fine and it was warm inside.

Partisanship?

I made this photograph several years ago when the house and the senate were both controlled by the republicans and at that time it had no further significance and didn’t even think about any political symbolism. But today there is a new wind blowing and I like to think of this air as cleaning out some of the stale smoke and anthrax dust that has been surrounding and choking up the country for the past 7 years. I feel a shift, a minor earthquake, a change in the economic fortunes of the country, an expansion from the narrow minded thinking that has stolen our resources and sent our money to foreign lands and I see a political landslide, a new reality in the political fortunes of many who will be sitting on the wrong side of the aisle during the next election.

I like this kind of change, it’s refreshing and invigorating. I also like to use old fashioned words like invigorating and conundrum, words that you find on packages of cough drops. So carry on America, make the world love you once again by electing a minority or a woman - take your choice but please leave the old white men out of it, leave them wondering what happened.

The time gets shorter, 498 days left. Is there a new friendlier reality coming from the politicians? I’m not sure that it’s not business as usual and the current administration is still on the stump, acting like they are still running for office, not being in office..

I wish they would start thinking about the future and how the country will go on and how they will be remembered, as either good or evil. A few “right hand” men have left.

I look at this castle in Conwy, Wales that was built so long ago, it was started in 1283 and is considered one of the greatest fortresses in Europe at that time. And the best part is that it’s still standing, although the inside is crumbling a visitor can still walk on the walls and look out over the sea. The guidebook said at one time it was whitewashed. Imagine how incredible that would have been - a fairyland.

I wonder what the White House and the US Capitol will look like in 725 years. Will anything that is in Washington, DC now still be standing? Will America still be here or will American be one large military industrial corporation more terrible than it is now? How will the future remember this era and these mistakes? As a time of greed? Only time will tell.