The January of Our Discontent

The weekend after the invasion of another country to kidnap an unpopular dictator (similar to one that's just been pardoned) and profit from oil again, and the enthusiastic on-camera approval of the murder of Renée Good by the federal government, I again joined the ongoing peaceful assembly to seek redress of our grievances. This really brought me back to the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State murders. I only took one photograph.

 

A few weeks later, after claims of imperialist command over the entire hemisphere, insulting the partners in our last major invasion of an unpopular dictator a few years ago (and destroying most of his subjects' civic infrastructure), and praise of another public murder so obvious it even upset the NRA, I again went down to Opera Square.

My former colleague Al Lareau, emeritus professor of German Language and Culture, specializing in the era of the Weimar Republic, so he knows a Nazi when he sees one.

This quilter brought her art to the cause with one of the more complex puns around.

The organizing group is called Peaceful Patriots and Old Glory is always prominently featured, but's also obvious that it's following the Constitution we're talking about, not blind adherence to a madman or 18th century aristocrats.

Revere's owner gave him this low-key sign because he's such a sweet dog and she imagined he would be upset if he knew what we were here for.

Blowin' in the Wind was playing on a bluetooth speaker nearby this aluminum foil-wrapped cubic sign atop a long pole. How many times must a man look up before he can see this sign?

This lady was skeptical when asked for permission to photograph her, but assented when told that it was the sunglasses and the pink megaphone that attracted me. My primary motivation here is documentary, but I do want visually interesting photographs,

I warned this couple I would probably characterize them as the younger generation. That prompted the raised gloved fist. I wonder if he knows who Tommie Smith and John Carlos are? Conversing about my vintage methods, we got into a discussion about the mutability of language, such as when someone proudly uses the term conservative today, they usually mean racist fascism.

I was around when Godwin's Law was first proposed, that every argument on the internet will quickly narrow to a comparison to Adolf Hitler, but if you tried to match a playbook and the rhetoric, one could see the association today was Pretti Good. Whether it was Mein Kampf or just a collection of speeches is in dispute. It's a little surprising to hear he's read anything at all.

And now a word from our sponsor. Isn't pinhole photography and film amazing?

The Diversity 30 has hand-drilled .23mm pinholes, on the axis and 11mm above it, 30mm from a 6x6cm frame. The film is Lomography 400 developed in a Cinestill Powder C-41 kit.