It was a slowest news day in America apparently on Monday because this picture I took for the paper made the rounds in TV, regional papers and (reportedly) a copy of USA. Today Kels Grabow picked up while on a work trip in Arizona (she called me). This other media, in a fit of ignorance and misinformation, referred to it as a sinkhole and blamed the rain. Nope, not a sinkhole. Sorry. Just a lot that shouldn't be exposed to the elements and that's rotten through beneath the pavement crust. Nor was it a city block...as in "GOOD GLORY, MR.MAYOR! An entire city block has caved in and the city engineers have found giant broken egg shells in the grim depths below and clawed footprints leading toward the vibrant and heavily populated city center!!!"
---
In other news, I've logged oodles of stories this week and am feeling fat and satisfied on a glut of news. The collapse of the old lot was only the beginning. That day there was a vandalism report and mayhem of all sorts and I ended up driving all over the county, camera and a notebook in tow. Hung out with a reprobate middle schooler who gave me the inside opinion on one case. Bothered some busy deputies. Information disseminated!
Here's some of today. Just a little thing we call The Death Penalty. Did you know it was legal in Oregon? Now you do.
In college, I took a class about the history of the death penalty in the United States. It was from the history professor who taught history as if it were a literature class: stacks and stacks of books, novels and first-hand accounts and trial transcripts and documentaries. Next to Professor D., he was one of the best professors I had...just the sheer amount of STUFF he could jam into my head. He was also, how do you say, a passionate lecturer. There was pacing and bobbing on tiptoe and wild hand gestures and extremely effective and eloquent pauses while we all squirmed at our desks, wallowing in our ignorance. Sometimes I think history is a study in guilt and how we feel guilty about what isn't in our control, what is done and what WAS done. Thank goodness I was born a woman. My sex perpetuates few wars, genocides and mass enslavements. Or so it seems. But our wombs are the reason everyone gets born. So there's that.
No comments:
Post a Comment