SNAPSHOTS

     Once we called them snapshots. Today we call them pictures and a whole bunch of selfies. So I decided to do a snapshot on us, on our country, a huge selfie in words and try to decide which pic is telling the most.
      "A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you, the less you know."
                                Diane Arbus
    So states one of the world's best photographers ever, so what is the secret and what are we not seeing though we be looking straight at it.
     Think of the snapshots of America today. On the one hand, we see the hate, the ugliness of that hate, the ugly looks on the faces of people shouting out insults, threats, and defiant against the truth of America. 
     On the other hand, we have the snapshots of Americans standing in lines to donate time and goods to those fellow Americans, or even - gasp - immigrants who are caught up in a natural disaster. "Jews will not take our place" against the love and citizenry standing with candles, crying, holding hands at so many vigils for the dead, the murdered.
     The homeless. They are allover the place now and 'such' a nuisance'. Just step over them and hope they will go away, right? NO! Wrong. Why not take the picture of the little 4 year old boy who wanted to understand the word homeless and was taken by his dad to see what it means, to see the hunger, the shelters and now this little hero used his allowance to buy a burger everyday for a homeless man. And uh-oh, sorry, Trump and fellow haters, this little one and his dad are people of color. Dearie me!
     And what about the pictures of the recent elections? What secrets are they revealing and what secrets are we missing. When Orange County goes blue in California and here in Florida we almost turn blue by such a razor's edge and over in Georgia, despite all the fiddling with voter's rights, the suppression of it, Abrams almost pulled it off. So what are the secrets? One - our country is changing and in a good and positive way, but two - there are many opposed to those changes, who wish to live in the past, keep the old status quo, not even the ones of today! Pictures tell a lot, by omission as well.
     Some people are mean, and we get that meanness blasted at us as the country sends photos of itself in verbal snapshots, those mean or dangerously inane tweets. We get the nastiness and the determination almost to see that we never heal and that also comes from within the Democratic Party. One would have thought that this fight that geared up the whole country would teach us that we need to stick together, to recognize new ideas and people, but also recognize those who have brought us to this point of victory and good for the country. The snapshot of the opposed to Pelosi who has done so much, raising money, keeping the Democrats in Congress organized, hanging in over the dark years and helping to bring them closer to an end - these people need to recognize and appreciate what she has done and learn to work together. Together!! A House divided and all that, so let us keep that house together unlike the house of the country which is divided at present.
     We also see the pictures that tell us that there is still so much goodness and caring out there. In the Camp Fire in California so many were caught and died, so many missing, but one elderly citizen was picked up by her garbageman who knew he had elderly on his route and needed to check on them for himself and found her in the road, scooped her up, and five and a half hours later, they were physically safe.
     So pose the pictures together and what truths do we see? What secrets are revealed and which ones remain undercover? I see a picture of a country in the throes of great change. I see snaps of those who would demand a wholesale change in our very founding principles, who would put an end to our democracy. But I also see selfies of good and caring people who give of themselves and their possessions and time to others. I see the teachers who buy supplies and winter clothes for their students. I see the restaurant owner who makes sure that his leftovers are not trashed but instead are given to the hungry. I see people of hate, of murderous intent, who store hatred inside themselves and their kids as easily as they store guns and ammo nd explosives. But I also see love as well in other pictures.
     So who are we? Who are we as people? Who are we as a nation? Are we still evolving in a positive manner or have we slipped backwards? What will be our future and the future for our kids? So here is an idea - look within and take your own selfie. Walk around and take pictures of the people and the neighborhood around you. These can be physical or mental images, but they must initiate thought and evaluation, open secrets to the air and reveal the goodness and the evil within, all that makes us who we are. And then choose which pictures we need to keep and which we need to airbrush with a fury. The secrets of snaps. The open and the hidden. Take the pics and make a choice. The right choice. The only choice that allows for a future. SOC - Save Our Country and even more, save ourselves, save yourself.