Virginia Is For Families

Here’s something that I just discovered again.  A few of these photos have already been blogged here at Virginia Breeze.  But many of them I haven’t seen for a long time.  They were tossed in a Picasa Web Album last March after I took them.  Then I lost many of the originals and now I am downloading these and putting them in the Picture Push program where they can be shown to their best advantage.  Some are a little grainy.

But this is what it’s like at the beach sometimes.  I kind of like it.

Click on the photo and something should happen.

Play It Keeps You Runnin

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I couldn’t believe this when I saw it but it’s true.

It’s bad enough to be working in  Wal-Mart aka Walmut at four am on Purple Friday.  I really feel for this guy and his family.   I have been having some better thoughts about humanity lately but this could test all of that.  Watching all those lean and mean runners at the Richmond Marathon made my heart glad.

But this is the other side of the coin.  A young man died in the rush to save a few coins.

Of course this sort of thing has happened several times before in soccer stadiums around the world.  And it happens in night clubs when there is a fire.   Panic sets in and people in the back push to get out in some cases.  The push is amplified like a wave to the front of the crowd who are squashed by tons of pressure into whatever immovable object prevents the free flow of people.

The Story

But this horrible event probably was not started by panic.  People started pushing because they were in a festive mood perhaps.  Or they were mad.  Or drunk.  Maybe they stayed up until 4 am and were drinking to pass the time.   Friends sometimes wonder why I have such a difficult time dealing with crowds.  This is why.  I see everybody.  And often I don’t like what I see.

In the front you probably have the earliest arrivals.  These were probably people who planned out this adventure and were willing to wait awhile.   They may have been more patient and among them could have been mothers and grandmothers and other shoppers ready to save some money.

So it’s a mixed bag.  I wouldn’t blame them all.  Some of them were probably fearing for their lives too when things got going.
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Yesterday my younger son Zachary showed me a video he made and I would share it with you except for a couple of things.  First of all it’s on Facebook and I have no idea how to link to it or embed it.  It’s as if they want to suck stuff in like a vaccuum hose but not share any of it with the world.

Maybe that’s unfair.  I don’t know.  But from my technologically unsophisticated point of view this is what it seems.   And I do believe that I have just achieved some sort of record when it comes to putting a large number of syllables into two adjoining words.

But who cares?  I don’t.  Because even if I could share this video I would be concerned about sharing it.  It has so many photos of such hopelessness I would risk pushing some poor, hapless person over the edge upon which they are trying to balance at the moment.

So we viewed his video yesterday.  I saw photos of  little black children in Africa who must be around six years old holding machine guns and smiling.  See?

And after it was over he told me that he plans to work for UNRWA when he graduates.  UNRWA is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency.  His specific area of interest is the Palestinian refugee situation.

And while I am proud of him for wanting to help impoverished people I am also scared to death about him going to an area where there is a lot of violence and he is a big target.

Here’s a link to UNRWA in case you would like to take a journey into another world.  I think he told me that half the world (or maybe it was more) lives on a dollar or less per day.   It’s just unbelievable in any case.

I spent many years working with homeless people and people with debilitating psychiatric and/or drug problems in THIS country.   So all I can say to him is put your idealism in your back pocket and prepare to stuggle with some very real demons.

They  are so young our children. 

Play Bleeding Love

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