A few years ago, Flickr promised a terabyte of image storage for life, and for a shutterbug like me, that was an offer too good to refuse. When I became Regional Director for FIRST in Central FL, I opened a second account, to archive FIRST in Florida photos from tournaments and outreach events.
Then came the news, recently, that Flickr was ending the bonanza of free storage, limiting free accounts to 1000 images. I have nearly 1000 images in a single individual album!
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
Turn and face the strange
Ch-ch-changes
-David Bowie
Life is a roller coaster ride, a wobbly high wire act, at best. For all the self-help books and therapists and support groups and gurus, in the end it’s just a crap shoot. Life is anyone’s guess.
Even though I know all this, and my mantra, for the last few years at least, has been “Keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times and remain seated until the ride comes to a complete stop” – even though I’m no stranger to disappointment, failure and heartbreak, and I know better than to let my guard down, it’s still ridiculously easy to grasp onto the faintest pattern of twists and turns and adjust to the ride with expectations born of habit, especially if the ride becomes comforting and familiar.
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea (of “equality of the races”) ; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth. This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all other truths in the various departments of science. – “Corner Stone” Speech, by Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy – Savannah, Georgia – March 21, 1861
Not an American portrait of which to be proud – Click for NPR story
Whether you believe the cause of the American Civil War was slavery, or economics or the economics of slavery, the Civil War comprises a period in American history that must always be remembered but never celebrated. While there may have been people of integrity fighting for southern independence, the ultimate goal of that independence was neither noble nor of moral integrity. The words of Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, should leave no doubt as to the purpose of the Confederacy, which had nothing to do with heritage and everything to with white supremacy.
Centerline Rumble Strip 