Intolerance in the US

First off, I want to apologize to those readers who are expecting a blog about photography and art and have noticed that it's been some time since I posted anything on my blog.

In the last few years I have become complacent and comfortable and haven't felt like I had a voice or an opinion. But, now that the extreme right has taken control of the country I feel that I might be getting back on my soap box.

One of the things that really bothers me about the Right and especially Trump is the growing intolerance in this country about anything "different" or that is contrary to the right wing's own beliefs.


Let's start with the definition of intolerance:

lack of toleration; unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect contrary opinions or beliefs, persons of different races or backgrounds, etc.

The way I see the Right Wing's train of thought is this:

• Keep the poor impoverished because it must be their fault they are the way they are.  
• Let's keep out all the Muslims because they are all radical and want to harm the US
• Build that wall because those Mexicans want to steal our jobs.
• Women's rights? They have rights what are they complaining about.
• Race discrimination? That doesn't happen in the good ol' USA
• Climate change, the planet is fine let's keep pushing fossil fuels.
• Protect the upper 1% because they are generous and will help the middle class.

I could go on but you get the picture.

With the new administration only being in power for a few days we have already seen executive orders and "alternate realities" that have put this country on a course backwards.

All of their ideology whether it's race equality, reproductive rights or freedom of and from religion, stems from one central theme, intolerance.

So here it starts. I will hopefully be talking about the art world and new exhibitions and ideas in photography but I feel this blog is going to be my place for the next 3 years and 11 and a half months to hopefully get a dialog and a movement going to put the breaks on this intolerance, bigotry, and misogynistic practices.

Historic Change

Last night our country elected a historic candidate, the first black president of the United States of America. His election win was carried on the shoulders of many first time voters and also people like myself who got more involved than I ever had in a presidential election. But this is not the end of the journey, just the beginning. All of you who were so passionate about getting Barack Obama elected need to stay a passionate and make sure that the change promised actually occurs. You need to make sure you are involved, write your congressman and the White House, let them all know that you want change to happen. You want the war to end, you want this economic slide to end and you want the reputation of the United States to become what it should be.
So now is your chance to stay involved with politics, keep a watchful eye on Obama and make sure that change does happen.