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© Darlene Bushue 2019
Last spring, I was taking a drive through the park, and it was lightly snowing. It wasn't hard to spot this bright blue mountain bluebird off in the distance because he really stood out against the snowy landscape. Generally, they are pretty skittish, but this little guy hung around for quite some time, giving me ample opportunity to capture a few decent shots. I just loved his expressions in this one, like he was questioning whether it was really spring. Apparently, there have been sightings of them in the park already this year, so I'm hoping to catch up with them later this weekend.
From 2022. For the last image in the series exploring an abandoned sanatorium, I thought I'd leave with a more uplifting photo. This beauty poked her head in to one of the lab rooms, curious to see someone in a place she'd likely never seen anyone before. Rather bold for me to suggest this, but she reminded me of Steve McCurry's famous 'Afghan Girl'. They both have the same questioning look at the photographer, I suppose.
Ever felt like going somewhere else?
Away from all this chaos
I've been questioning my mental ill
Breaking for my day up
You give it all but it's never enough
I hold on but the day's never done
Let me go, yeah
'Cause I can't go on
Running from myself, running from myself
Running from myself, running from myself
Running from myself, running from myself
Ever felt you're going nowhere fast?
Tripping over nothing
Every time I try to change my past
I go falling down the river up the blue again
I give it all but it's never enough
I hold on but the day's never done
Let me go, yeah
'Cause I can't go on
Running from myself, running from myself
Running from myself, running from myself
Running from myself, running from myself
Let me go, let me go, yeah
Can't go on
Can't keep running, can't keep running
Can't keep running, can't keep running
Can't keep running, can't keep running
Running from myself, running from myself
Running from myself, running from myself
My heart fry in the air without questioning heaven.
When you think of men .... My lost soul cry in the wood.
Won’t share life and death - I am sad and lonely.
Another view of the Common Yellowthroat that visited in the Spring of 2021. I like the questioning look on his face. Thanks for visiting.
when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality :-)
Albert Einstein
foxglove, sarah p duke gardens, duke university, durham, north carolina
" I crave intimate love. Words that make my soul dance, a touch that gives me goosebumps, eye contact that electrifies my entire body, a kiss that could have me questioning whose air I am breathing. " ♥
say you'll always kiss me ♥
“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.”
― Aaron Swartz
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
― Albert Einstein
LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.
‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’
Love said, ‘You shall be he.’
‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee.’
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
‘Who made the eyes but I?’
‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.’
‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’
‘My dear, then I will serve.’
‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’
So I did sit and eat.
My love's been proven
It's you that's been
Not tryna be exclusive
You're only interested
When you feel like someone's stepping up
And I start questioning this situationship
And all the time that I've put in
You're not supposed to be here
Why can't you just let me heal?
You don't feel love
You just don't want me to move on
Through the rain the flowers are blossoming
Through with pain, back to doing me again
_______________________
☽ this amazing picture is sponsored by...
⋆ Usagi Society
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Fa sempre paura quello che non si capisce. E ragionare è sempre più difficile che allinearsi senza farsi mezza domanda. (Cit.)
Verso il Monte Tirasso, sopra Alassio. Liguria
The green and the light blue of the sea that fades into the sky
What you don't understand is always frightening. And reasoning is always more difficult than aligning without questioning themselves
"You, when it's good I'm questioning | You, then I stop to take it in | Is my head in the way? | Cause my heart can't explain | Where we going now? | Build it up, we tear down | Cared before but baby | Now I don’t give a fuck | All the way down | On a one way to you | I'm on my way down | No matter what you're going through" Lyrics from "All The Way Down" by Kelela
Entre deux instants d'un travail aussi méritoire que nécessaire, il arrive que les travailleurs du service voirie passent par quelques courts instants de questionnement avant de reprendre la route.
Des questionnement philosophiques, politiques, culturels, sociologiques, scientifiques, intimistes...
Ou tout simplement des questionnements très pragmatiques.
Parce qu'il y a un temps pour tout, après tout...
LIU Wei, plastic bags (2017), 120x240 cm
LIU Wei repurposes everyday materials to explore perception, societal contradictions and environmental impact by transforming post-industrial objects – especially plastic bags – into intricate wire mesh artworks. Glossy, vibrant and cheap but, simultaneously, toxic plastic bags embody both convenience and ecological harm. Through months of meticulous labour, LIU reshapes the waste materials into luminous forms, questioning whether discarded remnants of modern life can find redemption through artistic reconfiguration.
His work invites reflection on the long-term consequences of industrialisation, as the PVC in his objects takes a millennium to degrade. While these artworks will ultimately vanish, their message endures, offering a striking meditation on waste, permanence and the role of art in confronting crises.
www.nordart.de/fileadmin/downloads/kuenstler/2025/China/N...
LIU Wei: "Wald der Verwirrung" (2017), Plastiktüten, 120x240 cm
LIU Wei verwendet Alltagsmaterialien, um Wahrnehmung, gesellschaftliche Widersprüche und Umweltauswirkungen zu erforschen, indem er postindustrielle Objekte – insbesondere Plastiktüten – in filigrane Kunstwerke verwandelt. Glänzende, leuchtende und billige, aber gleichzeitig giftige Plastiktüten verkörpern sowohl Bequemlichkeit als auch ökologischen Schaden. In monatelanger akribischer Arbeit formt LIU die Abfallmaterialien zu lebendigen Bildern um und erforscht die Themen der Kontamination. Seine Arbeiten regen zum Nachdenken über die langfristigen Folgen der Industrialisierung an, denn das PVC in seinen Objekten braucht ein Jahrtausend, um sich abzubauen. Während diese Kunstwerke letztlich verschwinden werden, bleibt ihre Botschaft bestehen und bietet eine eindrucksvolle Meditation über Abfall, Beständigkeit und die Rolle der Kunst bei der Bewältigung von Krisen.
www.nordart.de/fileadmin/downloads/kuenstler/2025/China/N...
This bird was seen at Virginia Lake and had us questioning what it was, It did one spin in front of us and Judy thought that is might be a phalarope. We also wondered if it was a stilt sandpiper.
Confirmed by Ken to be a Phalarope Another rare sighting for us
It is migratory, wintering in inland salt lakes near the Andes in Argentina.[2] They are passage migrants through Central America around March/April and again during September/October Wikipedia"
anyone had forgotten what this tree looked like.
Having photography as a hobby has many benefits over philately; the hours spent inhaling fresh air whilst exploring the natural world, the locomotive advantages of moving your backside off the sofa, not to mention the chance to meet like minded togs, although I can live without the questioning scowls from the Bank Manager as you justify the necessity of that new lens purchase.
Furthermore, it is the effect it has on simply opening our eyes as we become acutely aware of the changing light, the graceful flow and development of the clouds as they dance and flit across the sky and how a scene can change dramatically from one moment to another.
I’n't nature wonderful!
Anyone recognise the lighthouse in this video?
I read a little less this year than usual. I found when my dad passed this summer, I became quickly wrapped up in the funeral and all of the things you have to take care of and then it took awhile to build up my concentration again. I only read 140 books this year, which is far lower than my usual amount of over 200. One year, I read 365 books! So, I slacked off this year. I found myself lingering along different pages and chapters more so than ever. Here are some of my favorite books that I read. They didn’t all come out this year but time is an illusion anyway.
I'd love to hear about all of your favorite reads from this year or other years!
Photo above is a multiple exposure from Iceland..a reading/study room with a landscape photo in honor of my favorite read of the year.
1. Rooms for Vanishing by Stuart Nadler
A real wonder of a book about different possibilities, split timelines, divergent futures confronting the personal horrors of WWII in one of the most creative and thought provoking ways I’ve ever seen. I read several chapters again and again and felt like this was one of the most philosophical and creative books Ive ever read!
2. The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei
Extremely ahead of its time and published originally 30 years ago and translated into English fairly recently. This is a glimpse of a future world which many facets have proved to be fairly accurate predictions but it is also about queer identity and is written sort of like a gay Taiwanese young William Gibson might write it. Wholly original!
3. Is a River Alive? by Robert McFarlane
Yes, a river is very much alive! This is a wondrous work of nonfiction that really explores some diverse and hard to reach areas of nature and its effect on both the nearby inhabitants and the visitors like this author. I loved its sense of environmental advocacy and questioning why we would allot personhood to corporations but not bodies of water, for instance. You really feel like you go on a psychological journey with the author and learn so much between the rivers he explores and the people he meets.
Thanks to my friend Bob for this recommendation!
4. Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
There was a period of my life where I just didn’t quite get Erdrich for some reason…it just didn’t click…but now, I am reading at least a couple of books a year by her. This is really a striking book about desperate women who have lost all body autonomy. Her books are always well written and engaging but this one felt more fast paced and thrilling than the others in style and topic.
5. House of Day, House of Night: by Olga Tokarczuk
I really love how Tokarczuk writes about dreams and mushrooms in this one especially. There is quite a bit about religion as well as physical gender identity within that religious space and a really interesting sense of the people who live in Poland in a border town with Germany and remnants of WWII even. She just has a really poetic way of writing.
6. The Measure by Nikki Erlick
I read this on recommendation from my sister in law in one sitting on the plane to Los Angeles. It is one of the most engaging book I have ever read and a speculative fiction masterpiece exploring the psychology behind lifespan and how society might change if everyone over 21 was sent a single string of a certain length that told them how much longer they would live….but not how they would die. Fascinating storyline and very well executed…I kept wondering how I would handle this situation myself. Another book that made me cry this year…I guess I am a bit of a mess! Apparently, this was an “instant” NYT Bestseller back in 2022 but I hadn’t heard of it until my sister in law mentioned it…I guess I just don’t pay attention to popular culture.
7. Archipelago of the Sun by Yoko Tawada
This is the third book of the trilogy of friends where Tawada explores language and identity within the context of our current world and its insistence on borders and a national identity that not all have and definitely not all share the same level of privilege. These friends are so diverse and interesting and also one of the characters and their transitioning identity is also explored so it is rather complex but also very thought provoking and meditative the way she writes…you just want to linger on certain sentences again and again.
8. Tell Me Everything by Erika Krouse
I read three books by Erika Krouse and loved all three-this one is nonfiction and is about all of the horrific ways a football team takes advantage of, persecutes, and threatens women and how deep the cover up goes. Krouse is helping the investigator while also going through the horrors of her past and personal identity. I was honestly not expecting to find this book as engaging as I did but Krouse is an exceptional author whose short stories Save Me, Stranger have stuck with me for many months and who also writes vivid characters in fiction books (see Contenders). Highly recommended!!
9. The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and his Mother) by Rabih Alameddine
If you ever have the chance to see Rabih Alameddine speak, DO IT! I saw him a few years back after Trump was office the first time around and he spoke about how art including writing is in and of itself an act of resistance. This book is both tragic and funny. There’s an image of our protagonist hero escaping a bunker during a civil war in Lebanon that actually had me laughing so hard I’m surprised I could stop. But, this is also a portrait study of a city and how it changed when the fighting began and equally an exploration of a mother and her gay son as they navigate through their relationship across decades. This is technically fiction but reads at times like an autobiography and, after all, it is a true true story.
10. The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
This book scared the crap out of me and if it had been published when she first had started working on it, it would have been even more terrifying. The premise reads like a Black Mirror story where there are corporations who own and monitor your dreams and might even insert products into them. You can also be suspect based on your dreams but people give up their dreams in desperate situations just to fall asleep….very riveting and terrifying!
11. Poets Square Cats by Courtney Gustafson
I’ve been following this author’s cat rescue in Tucson, Arizona for a few years now but only had part of the story before I read this book. This is the autobiographical back story of the author and cat rescuer herself and the ways in which becoming a full time cat rescuer changed her and perhaps made her more human or at least helped her focus her values and what being alive truly means to her. She is doing very good work and it is important to support this work. This book also gives the back story behind so many important characters, many of whom don’t seem quite so feral when you see their true feline selves in her way. A book to be treasured!
12. Sunbirth by An Yu
I loved her speculative novel Ghost Music and this new one is even more bizarre and has an apocalyptic angle about the sun slowly disappearing and people in this town being enveloped by and exploding with light. None of the characters know what it is like in other cities and towns and some try to escape but, after all, the sun is something we all share so you wonder how it could be different when it is the same major problem occurring. I loved these astounding characters and the sense of imagination here.
13. ACLU The Fight of the Century: Edited by Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman
Never has there been a more important time to stand up for human rights and also understand the history of human rights. I loved some of the authors responding to historical cases that are organized chronologically. Yea Gyasi Viet Thanh Nguyen, Elizabeth Strout, Salman Rushdie, Aleksander Hemon, Brit Bennett, Li Yiyun, Rabih Alameddine, Louise Erdrich, and Anthony Doerr amongst main more give us glimpses into their own personal history and how these cases may have impacted them. Some of these chapters are also critical of the ACLU’s stance too in some aspects in a healthy way as in the case of campaign funding, for example. Regardless, it’s an organization under great threat in America whose continued existence is vital.
14. Bad Bad Girl by Gish Jen
This is partly a memoir of the author but also an exploration of her mother’s past and her ancestry from back in Shanghai. It explores the horrors of the history they lived through while her mother escaped to America but it’s also an engaging imaginary conversation Gish Jen has with her mother who suffered sexism in her own life and treats her daughter as if she should also be quiet and easy and not have so many opinions. But Gish Jen is a phenomenal author of so many great fictional stories exploring culture and identity and she will always be a Good Bad Girl that we should be grateful for. Thank goodness for the women who don’t succumb to societal and family pressures put on us.
15. My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me by Caleb Carr
An extraordinary nonfiction work that really had me on the edge of my seat several times and crying at others. This is a story of a human who Is battling a personal history with physical abuse and has gone through several surgeries that have been only minimally successful. He is an acclaimed author (I haven’t read any of his other books) and lives alone when he decides to adopt a cat later on in life. I just love how he explores his relationship with his cat and the cat’s personality and sense of adventure. This is actually a story about two wandering souls who find each other and meet in the middle and I do believe that they have found each other again in the ether of the afterlife.
16. Generosity by Richard Powers
I read four different books by Powers this year. If you haven’t read his work, it’s quite masterful! He is one of those authors that has great ideas and can truly craft a complex storyline and bring it all back home in an impressive way. This one is interesting because it focuses on an immigrant who by all accounts should be miserable…she has very little and her parents have been murdered and her brother imprisoned. At one point, she is even sexually molested. Still, throughout all of this, our protagonist, Thassadit Amzwar. remains happy and joyful in a way that others just can’t quite seem to manage or understand. As one might imagine, people try to diagnose her as if something is wrong with her and study her DNA…things go so haywire because other humans literally just can’t imagine how this human could be this happy when the rest of us are so depressed.
17. Bewilderment by Richard Powers
This book really got to me in so many ways…it’s so much about the relationship between a father and a son who is neurodivergent and tests him in so many ways but it is also about biofeedback, flexible thinking, and consciousness after death. It is filled with wonder and sorrow both and really explores the complexity of human consciousness.
18. Beyond Anxiety by Martha Beck
I read quite a few nonfiction books this year related to flexible thinkers, nature, human consciousness existing after death, and octopuses but this one really resonated with me in the sense that it helped me immediately to manage my anxiety and is highly recommended to any artists. There are people in this world who consume art and those who create art and those who do both. I am probably in the latter category because I create art but also really love being part of an international community like Flickr and don’t really enjoy participating in other social media type of sites that seem to focus more on making oneself look cool or rich or just a made up version of a human.
This nonfiction is about how creativity can cancel out the heightened anxiety that threatens to overwhelm us every day. If you start to feel the heightened sensation taking over like you can’t even breathe except to scream, maybe this book is for you. Also, just sitting down and doing art for hours is indeed a luxury and makes it hard to go back to the “real world” of capitalism, etc. but sometimes this is exactly what self care is needed
19. A Love Story From the End of the World by Juhea Kim
I loved the wild weirdness and environmental focus of these short stories set all across the world in this time of climate chaos and political upheaval. Kim is an author and activist with a truly creative spirit!
20. After by Bruce Greyson M.D.
After what happened this summer with my dad passing, I read a ton of nonfiction regarding human consciousness continuing and this one really goes through quite a variety of Near Death Experiences and how it also ends up changing people. It’s a really fascinating look into human consciousness and how it continues from a medical expert. I am fascinated by these human stories and really enjoy the perspective of someone from a background in Science. I do believe that, when the body dies, the consciousness and soul of the spirit does continue and that most of us have already lived multiple lives at this point.
Honorable Mentions:
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
Annihilation by Michel Houellebecq
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home by Stephen Starring Grant
**All photos are copyrighted**
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."
Albert Einstein
(Agalychnis callidryas) Many scientists believe the red-eyed tree frog developed its vivid scarlet peepers to shock predators into at least briefly questioning their meal choice.
These iconic rain-forest amphibians sleep by day stuck to leaf-bottoms with their eyes closed and body markings covered. When disturbed, they flash their bulging red eyes and reveal their huge, webbed orange feet and bright blue-and-yellow flanks. This technique, called startle coloration, may give a bird or snake pause, offering a precious instant for the frog to spring to safety.
Their neon-green bodies may play a similar role in thwarting predators. Many of the animals that eat red-eyed tree frogs are nocturnal hunters that use keen eyesight to find prey. The shocking colors of this frog may over-stimulate a predator's eyes, creating a confusing ghost image that remains behind as the frog jumps away.
Red-eyed tree frogs, despite their conspicuous coloration, are not venomous. They are found in tropical lowlands from southern Mexico, throughout Central America, and in northern South America. Nocturnal carnivores, they hide in the rain forest canopy and ambush crickets, flies, and moths with their long, sticky tongues.
Red-eyed tree frogs are not endangered. But their habitat is shrinking at an alarming rate, and their highly recognizable image is often used to promote the cause of saving the world's rain forests.
Some of my followers may be questioning my ability to identify vegetables and flowers with good reason. However, I planted this myself and am pretty sure that it is a tomato...snicker.
Thank you to all who try to educate me on the stuff in my images.
for serious carnivores, grilling is a giant overkill. not to mention questioning the landscape maintenance.
Amsterdam - Prinseneiland - Galgenstraat
Copyright - All images are copyright © protected. All Rights Reserved. Copying, altering, displaying or redistribution of any of these images without written permission from the artist is strictly prohibited.
The name Galgenstraat refers to the view you had of the Galgenveld from Prinseneiland. Criminals were first put to death on Dam Square near the Waag by strangulation or hanging, then the corpses were taken by boat to Amsterdam North. There, the corpses of convicted criminals dangled, clearly visible to everyone so that they had a deterrent effect. The corpses were left hanging until the ropes perished or were pecked to pieces by crows.
Happy Caturday 2.1.2021 "Make me smile"
In the morning, Timmy likes to lie in front of our door for a
while, on the doormat with the three cats, and check everything that happens in front of the house. Here he examines me questioningly "is your head better again?"
The story about it: in the afternoon of Christmas Eve, after the arrival of sister and brother-in-law, I began to set the coffee table. The good coffee set is upstairs in the living room closet.
So the upper cupboard door was open when I put something from the table on the bottom off the cupboard. And while straightening up again, hit my head full force against the corner of the upper cabinet door. "Not Christmas Eve to the emergency room!" was my first thought, the second is not ready for print ;-)
I voluntarily went to the ground because my feeling told me that otherwise this could happen involuntarily in a moment. My sister quickly fetched a cold wet washcloth, which I pressed against the wound.
After a short time I was able to get up and walk up and down the living room cursing with the washcloth pressed against my head. Then I saw Timmy asleep on the terrace on the bank and went out to him to let him comfort me a little. I squatted down in front of him and his reaction amazed me a lot:
He opened his eyes a little crack at first, but when he saw that
washcloth on my head, he snapped his eyes wide open, sat up, and got his little head very close to the problem area and sniffed it. Maybe he would have liked to lick a little blood ;-)
Then he looked at me and rubbed his head against mine. I
immediately felt much better, the pain subsided and a smile
crossed my face :-)
Since then I have to examine two heads in bed in the morning and see if some crust can be scraped off ;-)
(Translated from the German version with the help of www.deepl.com)
نشست و برای زمانی دستان خود را نوازش کرد. با کف دست با تامل و نه از سر حوصله که از سر واکاوی، نه و حتی نه، از تدقیق حافظه شاید، با کف دست روی دست دیگر را نوازش کرد. احساس کرد به اونزدیکترشده
She sat there and for a long while, not forbearingly, not enduringly, but questioningly, not even, to test memory, and even maybe to correspond, caressed the back of one hand with the other. Wasn’t he closer
Why do Teddy Bears love the silliest of things. Quite frankly the mug does look goofy but Rama seems to like it fine. He has grown quite attached to it.
Happy Teddy Bear Tuesday
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." -- Albert Einstein
Quote my daughter requested... "i'm a Barbie girl in a Barbie world..." -- Aqua
7DWF Thursdays: B&W
”I think it's very important to have a feedback loop, where you're constantly thinking about what you've done and how you could be doing it better. I think that's the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.” Elon Musk
Processed With Darkroom and Snapseed for iOS
"Jealousy, turning saints into the sea
Swimming through sick lullabies
Choking on your alibis
But it's just the price I pay
Destiny is calling me
Open up my eager eyes
'Cause I'm Mr. Brightside"
The Killers
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGdGFtwCNBE
Mr Brightside was abit of an anthem for this weekend away. Couldn't get it out of my head.
I am trying to find my "Mr Brightside" after a weekend where I am questioning how on earth I can call myself a photographer. I have hit the delete button more times than I care to count. Especially disappointing when I am supposed to be in my element photographing seascapes.
The brightside was the wonderful people I shared my time with while away, not least of all my dear friend Andrew and my ever patient Sherpa and enjoying some red wine, pizza, many laughs and very wet pants and socks.
I think this image was the pick of the weekend for me. Maybe.
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. -- Albert Einstein
A year ago I took this photo and I felt at the time 2018 had been full of Photographic highlights. This year I feel I have stagnated it’s not been a great year. My trips to the Lakes and one trip to Scotland produced no keepers, maybe by the end of 2020 I will look back to 2019 with more fondness if I haven’t deleted most of my library by then. This frustration has led to me questioning my gear. I’ve been juggling 3 systems, Canon, Fujifilm and Olympus. Of course it has nothing to do with the gear but it doesn’t help lumping in gear decisions when planning a photo trip. So Ill box up my Olympus and sell on, use my Canon gear for local coastal and the Fujifilm for backpacking trips. I get out more and take fewer photographs on those outings. AND RELAX IN MY PHOTOGRAPHY!!!
Selma, AL | March 04, 2007
"Here today, I must begin because at the Unity breakfast this morning I was saving for last and the list was so long I left him out after that introduction. So I'm going to start by saying how much I appreciate the friendship and the support and the outstanding work that he does each and every day, not just in Capitol Hill but also back here in the district. Please give a warm round of applause for your Congressman Artur Davis.
It is a great honor to be here. Reverend Jackson, thank you so much. To the family of Brown A.M.E, to the good Bishop Kirkland, thank you for your wonderful message and your leadership.
I want to acknowledge one of the great heroes of American history and American life, somebody who captures the essence of decency and courage, somebody who I have admired all my life and were it not for him, I'm not sure I'd be here today, Congressman John Lewis.
I'm thankful to him. To all the distinguished guests and clergy, I'm not sure I'm going to thank Reverend Lowery because he stole the show. I was mentioning earlier, I know we've got C.T. Vivian in the audience, and when you have to speak in front of somebody who Martin Luther King said was the greatest preacher he ever heard, then you've got some problems.
And I'm a little nervous about following so many great preachers. But I'm hoping that the spirit moves me and to all my colleagues who have given me such a warm welcome, thank you very much for allowing me to speak to you here today.
You know, several weeks ago, after I had announced that I was running for the Presidency of the United States, I stood in front of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois; where Abraham Lincoln delivered his speech declaring, drawing in scripture, that a house divided against itself could not stand.
And I stood and I announced that I was running for the presidency. And there were a lot of commentators, as they are prone to do, who questioned the audacity of a young man like myself, haven't been in Washington too long.
And I acknowledge that there is a certain presumptuousness about this.
But I got a letter from a friend of some of yours named Reverend Otis Moss Jr. in Cleveland, and his son, Otis Moss III is the Pastor at my church and I must send greetings from Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. but I got a letter giving me encouragement and saying how proud he was that I had announced and encouraging me to stay true to my ideals and my values and not to be fearful.
And he said, if there's some folks out there who are questioning whether or not you should run, just tell them to look at the story of Joshua because you're part of the Joshua generation.
So I just want to talk a little about Moses and Aaron and Joshua, because we are in the presence today of a lot of Moseses. We're in the presence today of giants whose shoulders we stand on, people who battled, not just on behalf of African Americans but on behalf of all of America; that battled for America's soul, that shed blood , that endured taunts and formant and in some cases gave -- torment and in some cases gave the full measure of their devotion.
Like Moses, they challenged Pharaoh, the princes, powers who said that some are atop and others are at the bottom, and that's how it's always going to be.
There were people like Anna Cooper and Marie Foster and Jimmy Lee Jackson and Maurice Olette, C.T. Vivian, Reverend Lowery, John Lewis, who said we can imagine something different and we know there is something out there for us, too.
Thank God, He's made us in His image and we reject the notion that we will for the rest of our lives be confined to a station of inferiority, that we can't aspire to the highest of heights, that our talents can't be expressed to their fullest. And so because of what they endured, because of what they marched; they led a people out of bondage.
They took them across the sea that folks thought could not be parted. They wandered through a desert but always knowing that God was with them and that, if they maintained that trust in God, that they would be all right. And it's because they marched that the next generation hasn't been bloodied so much.
It's because they marched that we elected councilmen, congressmen. It is because they marched that we have Artur Davis and Keith Ellison. It is because they marched that I got the kind of education I got, a law degree, a seat in the Illinois senate and ultimately in the United States senate.
It is because they marched that I stand before you here today. I was mentioning at the Unity Breakfast this morning, my -- at the Unity Breakfast this morning that my debt is even greater than that because not only is my career the result of the work of the men and women who we honor here today. My very existence might not have been possible had it not been for some of the folks here today. I mentioned at the Unity Breakfast that a lot of people been asking, well, you know, your father was from Africa, your mother, she's a white woman from Kansas. I'm not sure that you have the same experience.
And I tried to explain, you don't understand. You see, my Grandfather was a cook to the British in Kenya. Grew up in a small village and all his life, that's all he was -- a cook and a house boy. And that's what they called him, even when he was 60 years old. They called him a house boy. They wouldn't call him by his last name.
Sound familiar?
He had to carry a passbook around because Africans in their own land, in their own country, at that time, because it was a British colony, could not move about freely. They could only go where they were told to go. They could only work where they were told to work.
Yet something happened back here in Selma, Alabama. Something happened in Birmingham that sent out what Bobby Kennedy called, 'Ripples of hope all around the world.' Something happened when a bunch of women decided they were going to walk instead of ride the bus after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children. When men who had PhD's decided that's enough and we're going to stand up for our dignity.
That sent a shout across oceans so that my grandfather began to imagine something different for his son. His son, who grew up herding goats in a small village in Africa could suddenly set his sights a little higher and believe that maybe a black man in this world had a chance.
What happened in Selma, Alabama and Birmingham also stirred the conscience of the nation. It worried folks in the White House who said, “You know, we're battling Communism. How are we going to win hearts and minds all across the world? If right here in our own country, John, we're not observing the ideals set fort in our Constitution, we might be accused of being hypocrites. So the Kennedy's decided we're going to do an air lift. We're going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is.
This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves; but she had a good idea there was some craziness going on because they looked at each other and they decided that we know that the world as it has been it might not be possible for us to get together and have a child. There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don't tell me I don't have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don't tell me I'm not coming home to Selma, Alabama.
I'm here because somebody marched. I'm here because you all sacrificed for me. I stand on the shoulders of giants. I thank the Moses generation; but we've got to remember, now, that Joshua still had a job to do. As great as Moses was, despite all that he did, leading a people out of bondage, he didn't cross over the river to see the Promised Land. God told him your job is done. You'll see it. You'll be at the mountain top and you can see what I've promised. What I've promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You will see that I've fulfilled that promise but you won't go there.
We're going to leave it to the Joshua generation to make sure it happens. There are still battles that need to be fought; some rivers that need to be crossed. Like Moses, the task was passed on to those who might not have been as deserving, might not have been as courageous, find themselves in front of the risks that their parents and grandparents and great grandparents had taken. That doesn't mean that they don't still have a burden to shoulder, that they don't have some responsibilities. The previous generation, the Moses generation, pointed the way. They took us 90% of the way there. We still got that 10% in order to cross over to the other side. So the question, I guess, that I have today is what's called of us in this Joshua generation? What do we do in order to fulfill that legacy; to fulfill the obligations and the debt that we owe to those who allowed us to be here today?
Now, I don't think we could ever fully repay that debt. I think that we're always going to be looking back; but, there are at least a few suggestions that I would have in terms of how we might fulfill that enormous legacy. The first is to recognize our history. John Lewis talked about why we're here today. But I worry sometimes -- we've got black history month, we come down and march every year, once a year, we occasionally celebrate the various events of the civil rights movement, we celebrate Dr. Kings birthday but it strikes me that understanding our history and knowing what it means is an everyday activity.
Now, I don't think we could ever fully repay that debt. I think that we're always going to be looking back, but there are at least a few suggestions that I would have in terms of how we might fulfill that enormous legacy. The first is to recognize our history. John Lewis talked about why we're here today. But I worry sometimes -- we've got black history month, we come down and march every year, once a year. We occasionally celebrate the various events of the Civil Rights Movement, we celebrate Dr. King's birthday, but it strikes me that understanding our history and knowing what it means, is an everyday activity.
Moses told the Joshua generation; don't forget where you came from. I worry sometimes, that the Joshua generation in its success forgets where it came from. Thinks it doesn't have to make as many sacrifices. Thinks that the very height of ambition is to make as much money as you can, to drive the biggest car and have the biggest house and wear a Rolex watch and get your own private jet, get some of that Oprah money. And I think that's a good thing. There's nothing wrong with making money, but if you know your history, then you know that there is a certain poverty of ambition involved in simply striving just for money. Materialism alone will not fulfill the possibilities of your existence. You have to fill that with something else. You have to fill it with the golden rule. You've got to fill it with thinking about others. And if we know our history, then we will understand that that is the highest mark of service.
Second thing that the Joshua generation needs to understand is that the principles of equality that were set fort and were battled for have to be fought each and every day. It is not a one-time thing. I was remarking at the unity breakfast on the fact that the single most significant concern that this justice department under this administration has had with respect to discrimination has to do with affirmative action. That they have basically spent all their time worrying about colleges and universities around the country that are given a little break to young African Americans and Hispanics to make sure that they can go to college, too.
I had a school in southern Illinois that set up a program for PhD's in math and science for African Americans. And the reason they had set it up is because we only had less than 1% of the PhD's in science and math go to African Americans. At a time when we are competing in a global economy, when we're not competing just against folks in North Carolina or Florida or California, we're competing against folks in China and India and we need math and science majors, this university thought this might be a nice thing to do. And the justice department wrote them a letter saying we are going to threaten to sue you for reverse discrimination unless you cease this program.
And it reminds us that we still got a lot of work to do, and that the basic enforcement of anti-discrimination laws, the injustice that still exists within our criminal justice system, the disparity in terms of how people are treated in this country continues. It has gotten better. And we should never deny that it's gotten better. But we shouldn't forget that better is not good enough. That until we have absolute equality in this country in terms of people being treated on the basis of their color or their gender, that that is something that we've got to continue to work on and the Joshua generation has a significant task in making that happen.
Third thing -- we've got to recognize that we fought for civil rights, but we've still got a lot of economic rights that have to be dealt with. We've got 46 million people uninsured in this country despite spending more money on health care than any nation on earth. It makes no sense. As a consequence, we've got what's known as a health care disparity in this nation because many of the uninsured are African American or Latino. Life expectancy is lower. Almost every disease is higher within minority communities. The health care gap.
Blacks are less likely in their schools to have adequate funding. We have less-qualified teachers in those schools. We have fewer textbooks in those schools. We got in some schools rats outnumbering computers. That's called the achievement gap. You've got a health care gap and you've got an achievement gap. You've got Katrina still undone. I went down to New Orleans three weeks ago. It still looks bombed out. Still not rebuilt. When 9/11 happened, the federal government had a special program of grants to help rebuild. They waived any requirement that Manhattan would have to pay 10% of the cost of rebuilding. When Hurricane Andrew happened in Florida, 10% requirement, they waived it because they understood that some disasters are so devastating that we can't expect a community to rebuild. New Orleans -- the largest national catastrophe in our history, the federal government says where's your 10%?
There is an empathy gap. There is a gap in terms of sympathizing for the folks in New Orleans. It's not a gap that the American people felt because we saw how they responded. But somehow our government didn't respond with that same sense of compassion, with that same sense of kindness. And here is the worst part, the tragedy in New Orleans happened well before the hurricane struck because many of those communities, there were so many young men in prison, so many kids dropping out, so little hope.
A hope gap. A hope gap that still pervades too many communities all across the country and right here in Alabama. So the question is, then, what are we, the Joshua generation, doing to close those gaps? Are we doing every single thing that we can do in Congress in order to make sure that early education is adequately funded and making sure that we are raising the minimum wage so people can have dignity and respect?
Are we ensuring that, if somebody loses a job, that they're getting retrained? And that, if they've lost their health care and pension, somebody is there to help them get back on their feet? Are we making sure we're giving a second chance to those who have strayed and gone to prison but want to start a new life? Government alone can't solve all those problems, but government can help. It's the responsibility of the Joshua generation to make sure that we have a government that is as responsive as the need that exists all across America. That brings me to one other point, about the Joshua generation, and that is this -- that it's not enough just to ask what the government can do for us-- it's important for us to ask what we can do for ourselves.
One of the signature aspects of the civil rights movement was the degree of discipline and fortitude that was instilled in all the people who participated. Imagine young people, 16, 17, 20, 21, backs straight, eyes clear, suit and tie, sitting down at a lunch counter knowing somebody is going to spill milk on you but you have the discipline to understand that you are not going to retaliate because in showing the world how disciplined we were as a people, we were able to win over the conscience of the nation. I can't say for certain that we have instilled that same sense of moral clarity and purpose in this generation. Bishop, sometimes I feel like we've lost it a little bit.
I'm fighting to make sure that our schools are adequately funded all across the country. With the inequities of relying on property taxes and people who are born in wealthy districts getting better schools than folks born in poor districts and that's now how it's supposed to be. That's not the American way. but I'll tell you what -- even as I fight on behalf of more education funding, more equity, I have to also say that , if parents don't turn off the television set when the child comes home from school and make sure they sit down and do their homework and go talk to the teachers and find out how they're doing, and if we don't start instilling a sense in our young children that there is nothing to be ashamed about in educational achievement, I don't know who taught them that reading and writing and conjugating your verbs was something white.
We've got to get over that mentality. That is part of what the Moses generation teaches us, not saying to ourselves we can't do something, but telling ourselves that we can achieve. We can do that. We got power in our hands. Folks are complaining about the quality of our government, I understand there's something to be complaining about. I'm in Washington. I see what's going on. I see those powers and principalities have snuck back in there, that they're writing the energy bills and the drug laws.
We understand that, but I'll tell you what. I also know that, if cousin Pookie would vote, get off the couch and register some folks and go to the polls, we might have a different kind of politics. That's what the Moses generation teaches us. Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes. Go do some politics. Change this country! That's what we need. We have too many children in poverty in this country and everybody should be ashamed, but don't tell me it doesn't have a little to do with the fact that we got too many daddies not acting like daddies. Don't think that fatherhood ends at conception. I know something about that because my father wasn't around when I was young and I struggled.
Those of you who read my book know. I went through some difficult times. I know what it means when you don't have a strong male figure in the house, which is why the hardest thing about me being in politics sometimes is not being home as much as I'd like and I'm just blessed that I've got such a wonderful wife at home to hold things together. Don't tell me that we can't do better by our children, that we can't take more responsibility for making sure we're instilling in them the values and the ideals that the Moses generation taught us about sacrifice and dignity and honesty and hard work and discipline and self-sacrifice. That comes from us. We've got to transmit that to the next generation and I guess the point that I'm making is that the civil rights movement wasn't just a fight against the oppressor; it was also a fight against the oppressor in each of us.
Sometimes it's easy to just point at somebody else and say it's their fault, but oppression has a way of creeping into it. Reverend, it has a way of stunting yourself. You start telling yourself, Bishop, I can't do something. I can't read. I can't go to college. I can't start a business. I can't run for Congress. I can't run for the presidency. People start telling you-- you can't do something, after a while, you start believing it and part of what the civil rights movement was about was recognizing that we have to transform ourselves in order to transform the world. Mahatma Gandhi, great hero of Dr. King and the person who helped create the nonviolent movement around the world; he once said that you can't change the world if you haven't changed.
If you want to change the world, the change has to happen with you first and that is something that the greatest and most honorable of generations has taught us, but the final thing that I think the Moses generation teaches us is to remind ourselves that we do what we do because God is with us. You know, when Moses was first called to lead people out of the Promised Land, he said I don't think I can do it, Lord. I don't speak like Reverend Lowery. I don't feel brave and courageous and the Lord said I will be with you. Throw down that rod. Pick it back up. I'll show you what to do. The same thing happened with the Joshua generation.
Joshua said, you know, I'm scared. I'm not sure that I am up to the challenge, the Lord said to him, every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you. Be strong and have courage, for I am with you wherever you go. Be strong and have courage. It's a prayer for a journey. A prayer that kept a woman in her seat when the bus driver told her to get up, a prayer that led nine children through the doors of the little rock school, a prayer that carried our brothers and sisters over a bridge right here in Selma, Alabama. Be strong and have courage.
When you see row and row of state trooper facing you, the horses and the tear gas, how else can you walk? Towards them, unarmed, unafraid. When they come start beating your friends and neighbors, how else can you simply kneel down, bow your head and ask the Lord for salvation? When you see heads gashed open and eyes burning and children lying hurt on the side of the road, when you are John Lewis and you've been beaten within an inch of your life on Sunday, how do you wake up Monday and keep on marching?
Be strong and have courage, for I am with you wherever you go. We've come a long way in this journey, but we still have a long way to travel. We traveled because God was with us. It's not how far we've come. That bridge outside was crossed by blacks and whites, northerners and southerners, teenagers and children, the beloved community of God's children, they wanted to take those steps together, but it was left to the Joshua's to finish the journey Moses had begun and today we're called to be the Joshua's of our time, to be the generation that finds our way across this river.
There will be days when the water seems wide and the journey too far, but in those moments, we must remember that throughout our history, there has been a running thread of ideals that have guided our travels and pushed us forward, even when they're just beyond our reach, liberty in the face of tyranny, opportunity where there was none and hope over the most crushing despair. Those ideals and values beckon us still and when we have our doubts and our fears, just like Joshua did, when the road looks too long and it seems like we may lose our way, remember what these people did on that bridge.
Keep in your heart the prayer of that journey, the prayer that God gave to Joshua. Be strong and have courage in the face of injustice. Be strong and have courage in the face of prejudice and hatred, in the face of joblessness and helplessness and hopelessness. Be strong and have courage, brothers and sisters, those who are gathered here today, in the face of our doubts and fears, in the face of skepticism, in the face of cynicism, in the face of a mighty river.
Be strong and have courage and let us cross over that Promised Land together. Thank you so much everybody.
God bless you."
Prenant la pose... Mantis me regarde du coin de son oeil interrogateur... je suis bien comme ça ?...
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Striking a pose... Mantis looks at me out of the corner of his questioning eye... I'm fine like that?...
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Haciendo una pose... Mantis me mira por el rabillo del ojo inquisitivo... Estoy bien así?...
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Eine Pose einnehmen... Mantis schaut mich fragend an... Mir geht es gut so?...
Philip