Ok! So you caught me!
I have been identified as a lurker.
I will fess up!
I have been lurking around the comments section for about the past 6 months, even though my dear friend and fellow Kossack, Yasuragi, introduced me to DKos almost a year ago. Following many of my frequent rants Yasuragi would pause, wait for me to calm down and quietly ask: “Have you signed up yet?” Well, I finally did. I must say, that being a part of the DKos community has been a fascinating and enlightening experience.
You see as a photographer, I learned, early on, to position myself in the role of the observer. Because of the nature of my clientele, I mastered the ability to be the Seer as opposed to the person being SEEN. This has proven to be a valuable skill and it has allowed me to study and analyze the corporate/political system(s) from the inside out.
So, Please allow me to introduce my self. -
I am a student of the civil rights movement and attended segregated schools in the South. I enjoyed a long and successful career as a corporate photographer. About ten years ago my life took a different path and I now dedicate my energy and time to the issues of sustainability, food production and the environment. I am an organic/biodynamic farmer, fisherman and scuba diver with a powerful connection to Gaia. So for want of a better description, I promote myself as an environmental activist and educator.
My varied range of experiences while on assignment has informed the visual perspective that I bring to my images. On any given day I would find myself capturing images of executives in a corporate boardroom on Wall Street and on the next assignment documenting relief efforts in countries devastated by war or natural disaster. Through my camera lens I have witnessed suffering and hardship on a scale that is sometimes beyond even my comprehension. I have watched as hungry children wander through squalid refugee camps in countries torn by conflict. I stood in horror as entire families of Kurdish refugees died before my eyes from malnutrition and disease. I saw packs of boys, no older than 10 years of age, search for something to eat in bombed out buildings while food rotted in the market square. I have witnessed the hopeless desperation and horror of entire population of countries up-rotted by the violence of a hurricane or earthquake.
I also live with the fact that 16.2 million children in this country are in a household that cannot provide access to nutritious, healthy food on a regular basis. This is in a country that discards 40% of the food that comes to the table.
What has also been honed is my ability to see injustice in our system of government. I am deeply shocked and repulsed when 20 school children (babies) are murdered in their classroom and the NRA blocks any meaningful gun legislation under the guise of the Second Amendment.
I am disgusted when I see illegal voting laws passed and people disenfranchised by a legal system that favors only the rich.
I watch as corrupt, pompous, ignorant politicians betray the public trust while feeding at the corporate PAC trough. They feed while they simultaneously dismantle programs and assistance for the poor, the elderly and veterans.
Radical, racist politicians seek to by pass the Constitution and overturn laws that they don’t like and don’t hesitate to shut down the entire economy if they can’t have their way. The word that constantly comes to my mind is sedition.
I am offended by the undisguised racist, homophobic, sexist, climate denying propaganda that is spewed on a daily basis by Fox News and the Palin- Limbaugh’s of the Far Right.
Finally, I will end on a more positive note. Everyday I rise grateful and proud that Barack Hussein Obama is president of the Untied States. Although I never thought that I see it in my lifetime, his election gives me hope for the future of America.
Ah! But there I go again.
This was supposed to be an introduction not a rant.
So! Happy New Year to you all.
I send you Peace, Love, Light
DGSAGE
Pleased to meet you
Hope you guess my name,
Ah, what's puzzling you
Is the nature of my game
Rolling Stones