Deleting The Flag

I wept. What more can be said?

I was infuriated, but not surprised, by this account.

We are being terrorized by the Bush administration. Consider that godawful commercial that runs every few minutes on TV — the one with Tom Ridge talking about "being prepared." It is done in subdued color, which gives it a surreal quality. And it runs day after day.

We are being terrorized by the Bush administration, which wants to keep this nation in a state of fear and wants us to disregard personal liberty and common sense.

....Reminds me of the feeling I started to get when I realized that Bush really was going to be able to start a war. It was as if the America I thought I knew was betraying me somehow, or that it never really existed.
I've lived here in the US all my life, and I thought I knew what it was about. Since 9/11, things have changed, though. I just don't think it's my country anymore. I don't relate to it, I don't agree with it, and I don't feel it.
I'm not angry, like I was before and during the war (somehow I feel vindicated now), but I still don't like walking down the street thinking I'm surrounded by horrible people.
Both my girlfriend have been thinking about it, and we've basically decided that if Bush gets re-elected, we're going to move to Europe. And even if Dean or Clark wins, America has totally changed in my mind, because, as I've said hundreds of times now every time the issue gets brought up, it's not the politics, it's the culture. Like in "Bowling for Columbine." Although for the most part Americans are good folks, they have a real dark side that I'm just not interested in being around. All Bush, Cheney and Rove did was play off of that mentality. When the politics of the country change again, it won't be so obvious anymore, but it'll still be there, just lying dormant.
I'm really sad about leaving, though. I really believed in the inherent goodness of the people of our country. I believed that, like me, Americans always fought for "liberty and justice for all." And I don't like leaving my home. But I want to be where the people have a real understanding of what it means to be a good human being, and I've lost my confidence in my countrymen.

Edited for grammar.

I am an artist and take many picture as I like building. I sometimes have trouble with people if I film their homes so I do this mostly by never getting to near and never on their land.Public building I hardly ever have trouble but even their, a few times I had had my problems. As a small women one learns to get back in yout car if the police turn up and they have.Once I was in Soudi Arabia and my husband and I walked over to see some fishing boats on the Red Sea and 4 men in uniform and guns like uzi (sp) drove up in a jeep and wanted to know if we were taking pictures and they were mean. We were not, as my husband said these people would not like it if were filming fishing boats, but they questioned us about the camera we had left in the car. We were sure we were just going to jail. You do not look at the very pretty fishing boats in that country.I have also seen them do this where the Westerns and Turks went to the beach on the Red Sea that got so bad the Turks had to go to the head of the Gov. compamy so we could swim. We maybe turning into a police state.The big wigs have moved into one hell of a bubble with jets, police, guns. Something wrong with all this.

Used to be something to worry about if you were traveling to the USSR,Middle East, Albania, and other places.
Now they jack you up here.

One of my co-worker's husband is a railfan who used to travel to Chicago to take pix of rolling stock. The car knockers used to invite him into the car sheds to take shots of things, but now "since 9-11" the RR fuzz take his film, even if he's on the public street.

"But it can't happen here!"

S'Yeah, right, people.....

and other photographers about this. Not a small constituancy either - a couple hundred thousand rail enthusiasts in the united states. Several railfan related magazines have run articles and editorials on the subject.

The real agenda for some industries is to use it to avoid getting caught on film violating safety and pollution laws. IN the past, there was nothing they could do about it as long as the photographer remianed on public property. Although I don't think the Patriot Act actually changes that, rent-a-cops and local brown-shirt wannabees feel it gives then authority to invent law on the spot.

They like to throw their weight around.

At the end of the piece he says 'I deleted the photos of the backlit tattered American flag waving from high above a convoluted pipe structure that looked like a Windows Screen Saver with barbed wire in the foreground.'

Yet there is that very picture accompanying his story!

And earlier on he states 'Telling the truth to defend innocence seems so inadequate compared to lying to defend guilt.'

Or compared to lying to sell stories. Right, NYT?

Instead you try to accuse. What's your problem?

And yet it is still there.

Believe me?

You did have a valid point about the picture; I wondered the same thing myself. I just thought it would be better to ask the question instead of dissing the author.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

Or perhaps snapped a photo from his car, without them noticing.

Better still, perhaps he 'fake' deleted. That's what I would've done.

The Bush administration does allow industrial companies to restrict access to their records so that "terrorists" don't figure out how to get at the facility. The real reason is that they don't want to make the records public so that the public cannot figure out how much pollution they are creating.

I had thought of doing a similar project. I had started out by taking pictures of an overpass then deconstructed it in photoshop and reassembled the image with symetry to get some interesting effects. I was planning on taking photos of transformers and other industrial objects but after 911 I decided that would not be a good idea - you know being a 'swarthy male' and all. So I just put the idea on the shelf indefinitly. It was the first time I had an idea that literally wouldn't be worth the hassle.

Strange - now an artist has to justify doing his or her work now.

Kid was taking pictures for a school project and got a warning from the cops. I want to post the link from my local paper but their server is down. I'll be back (no fun to say that anymore, lol)

Edit: OK, here is the article:
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2003/04/19/build/local/32-photos.inc

And here is the student's reaction:
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2003/04/19/build/local/33-photo-kid.inc

There was also a letter to the editor:
Refinery security goes overboard
From the account of the Conoco refinery incident the other day in which a student was accosted and detained for taking photos, it appears that someone has taken "homeland security" a little too much to heart. Forgetting, for the moment, that the overzealous security types may not have had any legal authority whatsoever for what they did - an interesting thought in itself - this seems to be an exercise in stupidity. Anyone with the slightest interest in the layout of the complex has a variety of choices - a good telephoto lens, overflight by a light aircraft or an order to a commercial satellite service (which no doubt accepts all major credit cards).

The last I heard, there was no prohibition against photography outside military bases, so where does Conoco get off? Perhaps those responsible for Conoco's security in Billings should spend less time watching James Bond movies and read up on the Fourth Amendment. And if they're going to run a security system, then for God's sake run a professional one befitting a free country.

It's an amazing piece, incredibly well told.

I am curious if he went back to get the flag pic or managed to not delete one of them at the time. And I would love to see more of those photos - I think he has incredible talent.