history

January 23, 2017 Time Capsule

This post is my way of creating a time capsule.

Over the past few days, I have been watching history take place. As I said in my last post, I had every intention of participating, but being sick prevented that. So instead I sat and watched online as everyone shared what was taking place. I have collected a number of images and posts from facebook, twitter, and news sites, and am sharing them here as my way of preserving this moment in time. I have tried to give credit to the appropriate people, but if you see something that is improperly credited, please let me know so I can fix it.

*Note, I have edited this post to add one more image. And because history is always unfolding before us, I will revisit this idea again and share more in the coming weeks. If you have anything you think I should add to this virtual time capsule, please let me know in the comments.

Jill June, artist. Shared on facebook with the Iowa Women's March page

Jill June, artist. Shared on facebook with the Iowa Women’s March page

Art By Anna Sudit

Art By Anna Sudit

 

Sarah Silverman on Twitter "This was my mother's pin from 1972. As important today as ever"

Sarah Silverman on Twitter “This was my mother’s pin from 1972. As important today as ever”

 

Resist. Original art credit to Woke Giant. Visit https://www.wokegiant.com/ for more.

Resist. Original art credit to Woke Giant. Visit https://www.wokegiant.com/ for more.

 

Because there seems to be so much contention over these two images, I felt it important to share it here.

Because there seems to be so much contention over these two images, I felt it important to share it here. Whether or not it’s been photoshopped, I don’t know. But the way the media is being treated over the sharing of this image tells me that it needs to be preserved. (Source CNN)

 

A cropped image of Woody Guthrie's guitar. Shared by a friend on facebook with the call to all artists to take a stand.

A cropped image of Woody Guthrie’s guitar. Shared by a friend on facebook with the call to all artists to take a stand. For more information on the history of this, click here.

 

A call to action shared by a friend –

Paula Graves –

Snowflake.

I’ve been called a snowflake so many times over the last few weeks and I’m not sure if the people who are saying that understand that it isn’t an insult.

Snowflakes are delicate, beautiful, and unique. When they first start falling, we all look to the sky in delight and wonder. Excited for that first snowfall.

What happens though when you get many snowflakes together? It’s a powerful storm and not to be messed with. Even the names are scary – snowpocolypse, snowmagedden, Blizzard of 1993 (ok maybe not that one), and today, the Women’s March on Washington.

You are calling me and my nasty women (and lovers of nasty women) snowflakes? Great! I’ll take it. You are about to see the worst snowstorm you’ve ever seen.

#WomensMarch #GetReady #Snowflake

And this one, because this is not just about one person, one generation, or one woman, this is about our now, and our future and the future generations of all women and men.

wokebaby

Photo credit to Jenny Sowry at the Charlotte NC march. Article I grabbed the picture from was on Buzzfeed, but it’s been making the rounds everywhere.

Another friend created a post on facebook with the intent that they would see a year from now in their “memories” and be able to compare past and present. I thought it was a good idea and have shared my own here. The only difference between his post and mine is the gas prices.

1/20/2017:
  • Gas: $2.79 (price in Redmond WA)
  • Dow: 19,819
  • NASDAQ: 5560.7
  • Unemployment: 4.7%
I’ll come back see what it is 1/2018
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How Did We Get Here?

I am sick to my stomach. I am scared. No, I’m beyond scared, I’m terrified. We are three days away from the most contentious election I have ever been witness to and I can not even begin to imagine what the world is going to look like in four days.

In the past year, less than a year, the level of vitriol, hate, prejudice, and downright nastiness that has been shared over the airwaves, online, and in person is beyond anything I have ever experienced. While I may be too young to remember the civil rights riots and well anything that happened before 1966, I do have memories of bigotry, segregation, and misogyny that have taken place in my lifetime. I’m also a student of history, it’s one subject I actually enjoyed in school, and firmly believe if we don’t learn from our past we are destined to repeat it over and over. Which I guess is what’s happening now.

But what really hits home about this is being a parent. My teenager is not yet old enough to vote but is old enough to be aware of what is going on in the world. The level of anxiety that this brings on for her, and in turn, me, I’m finding is difficult to describe.

It used to be that when I was a kid, I could look to the future and think “wow, I have my entire life ahead of me. There are so many amazing things on the horizon; inventions yet to be produced, cures yet to be discovered, experiences yet to be had.” We had hopes, dreams, and passions we all wanted to pursue.

When she looks to her future, she sees none of that. What she is faced with is a population that is killing off  the planet. Robbing it of its resources and life-giving habitat. Not to mention what we are doing to the animals. She is faced with consumerism being the only reason to live; make money, buy stuff, repeat. Don’t think about saving money, just keep droning on, making those dollars, paying your taxes and debts, and turning a profit for the corporate giants that are taking control of every single aspect of our lives. Keep doing this until you die.

What kind of life is that? Is this really what we’ve become?

I’m not even going to speculate what the world will look like on November 9, 2016. Because every scenario I come up with, is not good. I only hope that we can come together as a country, as a world, as a human race, and somehow get past what has been dividing us, and save humanity before it’s too late.

 

Measuring Time

Why is it we measure time using big, monumentous occasions? For example, if I asked where were you when you heard the Challenger blew up? Or President Reagan was shot? Or the planes flew into the twin towers? You could probably tell me exactly where you were, what you were doing, and who you were with. (Provided you’re old enough to remember some of those events.)

But what if I asked you, where were you or what were you doing on March 13, 2001? Or last Tuesday at 2:47 pm? Would you remember what you were doing then? Who you were with? Would it evoke a pleasant memory or something you’d rather not face?

As a mother to a now 11 year old I find myself wondering where have the years gone already? We celebrated her birthday just a couple of weeks ago, and during that time I realized in just 7 more years she’ll be old enough to start college. That’s 3 years less than since we adopted her. She’ll be old enough to vote then. And old enough to do a lot of other things that I don’t really want to think about right now. (I still have memories of what I was doing when I was 18) So as I write this, it’s a reminder to me to cherish those small, every day moments. To stop measuring time just based on the big milestones, but to enjoy the little ones too.

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And to answer my own questions posed earlier ~ I was on an airplane flying to New Orleans with my dad when I heard about the space shuttle blowing up.  Our pilot used the unfortunate choice of words when he first came on the PA system. He said “I’m afraid I have some bad news.” You can imagine what my first thoughts were there.

I was living in Virginia, just outside of DC when President Reagan was shot. And for some reason I was home from school that day, so I saw it on tv, over and over again.

And on September 11th, I was getting ready to take my mom to the airport. She was supposed to fly from Atlanta back to Seattle that day. Needless to say after seeing the second plane hit, live because I had just turned on the news, I turned to my mom and told her I don’t think you’re going anywhere today.

As for March 13, 2001 – I do remember this day, only because we were still in China, getting to know our new daughter. As to last Tuesday, that sadly I don’t have much recollection of. I’d have to go back and look at my calendar to even see what I was doing that day.