CUBA LIBRE
The dream of one day a free Cuba remains strong on Long Island. “Cuba Libre“; West Babylon, N. Y. (October 6, 2019).
Posts from the ‘Editorial’ category
VIETNAM: THE MARINE CORPS
I enlisted in the U. S. Army in 1968. Four days after taking my last final exam at City College (CCNY) I began my military service on January 29, 1968, one day before the beginning of the Tet Offensive in South Vietnam. How’s that for timing? During training you had some sense of the war, but it was still far away. When orders came down I was given a choice of assignments in either Korea or Greenland. Greenland would have been the safer and smarter choice, but I guess that I was not that smart.
WHY WALLS DON’T WORK: THE SIEGE TOWER
We have discussed this issue several times in the past. Wall’s don’t work. From the Great Wall of China to the Berlin Wall people have been able to pass through, under, over or around walls if they have been determined enough. Three thousand years ago and throughout much of antiquity the siege tower has been employed on the battlefield as the way to scale a wall. The film Kingdom of Heaven (2005) has been acclaimed as historically accurate. This film recreated the siege of Jerusalem by Saladin and his army in 1187 A. D. near the end of the film. Siege Towers are used to scale the walls although the outcome of the battle between the Crusaders and Saladin’s army turns on the use of trebuchets and vastly outnumbered Crusaders defenders.
As I view DPI’s “Border Wall Construction” (2019) taken by David Barak, I cannot help but wonder what the world reaction would be if Central Americans began building siege towers on the southern side of the wall. Seems plausible as we are not talking about building pyramids out of massive stones hauled from a quarry hundreds of miles away through the desert. Rather they could be assembled from wood brought from the interior. Can you imagine the reaction to seeing siege towers under construction? The propaganda value would be immense. The towers would not have to used to scale the wall, rather their mere presence would send an incredible message to the rest of the world. This is one message that I would never want to see. But our immigration policies become more bizarre by the day. This is not the America that I went to serve in the military. Do you see what is happening? The screws are being tightened from refugees fleeing crime, death and natural disasters to potentially legal immigrants who are not deemed to be welcomed. The Wall Street Journal (9/12/19) reported on immigration in Japan with respect to foreign workers. Foreign workers can only live in Japan if they are seen as necessary to help the economy for a relatively short period. They cannot enter Japan with their families. In addition they are drilled in Japanese customs and language. They are given only one opportunity to pass an exam at the end of their training. Failure means a return to their home country. For hundreds of years Japan has had a most restrictive immigration policy. Is this where we are heading in the U. S.?
If you accept restrictions on what you always assumed were your freedoms they will slowly be taken away. This is how it is done. Slowly, very slowly until one day you wake up and realize that it is too late.
HURRICANE DORIAN
Nuking hurricanes? They can’t be serious. Between now and the 2020 election is actually a more dangerous time for the United States than in the past 30 months as the writing is on the wall. As reality sets in the Administration becomes more unhinged with each passing day. Heck, tornadoes are dangerous too so maybe we could also nuke ’em. So what if a tornado happens to be over Oklahoma City or Kansas City at the time.
The photo for this blog “Damaged Trailer Park“, Ft; Myers, Florida (September 10, 1960) was as a result of Hurricane Donna. It is hurricane season once again for those of us who live along the Atlantic seaboard. Stay safe.
THE SLAVE FORTRESS: ELMINA CASTLE
In the film “Amistad” (2007) the Lomboko slave fortress located in modern day Sierra Leone played a major role. It was not the only trading post used by slavers in those times. Shown in this blog is “The Slave Fortress: Elmina Castle” (July 2009). It is located in the city of Elmina, Ghana. Worldwide visitors come to pay homage and to lay wreaths. Note the depiction of a skull in the upper left corner of the photo. Visitors are entering the dungeons where slaves were held. Let us not forget the role played by Jamestown in 1619 on this 400th anniversary. For a more complete understanding of the history and the role played by Elmina Castle see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmina_Castle.
BABYLON SUPER STORM – AUGUST 22, 2019
The “Babylon Super Storm – August 22, 2019“. Those who lived through it had never seen anything like it on Long Island. I have been living here for over 46 years and survived several serious hurricanes witnessing destruction and loss of electric power for days. Nothing compared to the fright which this storm brought. It came in the night between nine and ten P. M. The house shook. All of the windows began to rattle and there was heavy rain, lightning and thunder and the wind. Everyone that I have interviewed swore we were hit by a tornado despite the weather reports of something called “straight line winds”. A super cell that descends quickly from the upper atmosphere seemingly out of nowhere. The hardest hit areas were in West and North Babylon. Crews from out of state are here restoring electricity and helping with the clean up. Like a tornado the damage was selective. Some patio chairs were overturned at my home while a neighbor had an enormous tree nearly crush his house. Cars that were unfortunate to be parked under some trees were totaled and in some cases caught fire.
BORDER ZONE
DPI is pleased to welcome our newest contributing photojournalist, David Barak. David is based in San Diego, California. Besides his passion for photojournalism he proficient in studio & portrait photography, graphic design, illustration, news reporting and editing and film & video production and editing. His website is: www.davidbarak.com. His first contribution to DPI is “Border Wall Construction“; Border Field State Park, California (June 21, 2019) from his “Border Zone” essay.
MIGRANT GIRL
With all eyes focused on the current humanitarian crisis on our southern border let us not forget that U. S. citizens were once also migrants living in squalor in relocation camps during the Great Depression. The power of the still photograph is clearly evident and on display with the recent, tragic photo of the migrant Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his daughter Valeria who drowned in the Rio Grande at Matamoros while seeking asylum in the United States. I think that it is fair to say that that image will clearly be in the running for the next Pulitizer Prize.
TEXTING…TEXTING…TEXTING
I think that the question of the day is how were humans able to survive for thousands of years without their smart phones? Our iPhones and Androids serve many purposes besides being able to communicate via telephone for which they were originally created. For emergency use, for checking news, sports scores or the stock market nothing can beat a smart phone. They have become indispensable. Today it is unusual for someone to step outside of their home without a handy smart phone nearby. I say that it is an important tool, but only a tool. The tool does not run me, I run the tool when necessary.
A new language has even been created, in part to cut down on usage for people without unlimited plans. LOL, IMO and TTYL just to name a few. We have a shared family plan with our carrier which is unlimited, fortunately. I checked our phone and text usage for a recent month. My usage was phone-93 minutes with 29 incoming texts. No outgoing texts. On the other hand my daughter’s phone usage was 287 calls for 1610 minutes and over 1,000 texts. The carrier does not provide information on text usage for over 1,000/month. It seems as if she lives on the phone. How does she have time for anything else?
What I find actually rude is when a stranger that you might meet is so busy texting a friend that you have become part of the wallpaper to them. It’s as if you don’t exist. If you drive your car by always looking in your rear view mirror you will miss very important information right in front of your face. We learn from observing and speaking to people that we meet for the first time. To text to family and friends ad nauseum is always to be looking into the past. It will always been a few seconds in the past. To quote Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Our blog photo was taken on a Manhattan subway car in New York City, “Texting…Texting…Texting“; January 31, 2018.
THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
You say that it could never happen again, scenes right out of the Great Depression. I say not only could it happen again under different circumstances, but there are already disturbing signs. For it is not only the 800,000 federal workers who are working without pay, but with every passing day there is going to be a ripple effect throughout the economy that is already underway. Breadlines have formed. The air traffic controllers have basically said that flying under these conditions is at your own risk. With every passing day of the shutdown more people will be affected than simply federal workers. Food stamp allocations for March will not be paid under existing conditions. At that point I would expect to see a hunger march in front of the White House. I do not think that the Administration has fully contemplated the wide-ranging effects of this self-inflicted government shutdown. Maybe the best people, these economists, were the wrong people to be hired or maybe they just don’t care?