It was a nice day today here in Johnson City so I got the hell out of Monkey Central and I went looking for stuff to take pictures of around town. I found myself wandering the side streets adjacent to the little downtown area we have and I saw the above bench in front of a taxi cab company garage. I liked the look of it and I fantasized about Reich wingers denying someone, like oh, say Barack Obama, the right to sit on it since it was so patriotic and all so I snapped a photo of it. And then just to make sure I got it properly, I took another. Then I walked away. But mere seconds after I began walking down the street I heard a guy shout, "Hey!" I had no idea he meant me so I kept walking. Then he shouted again, "Hey, you with the camera!" I looked around and there was no doubt that it was me he was talking to. So I turned and looked at him, I gave him my best, "Why the fuck are you bothering me look." He snarled, "What are you taking pictures of?"
Now, this being the USA and me being on public property, the sidewalk, my first instinct was to say by way of an answer, "It's none of your fucking business what I'm taking photos of you fucking fuck, now fuck off you fucker." But I didn't. I answered him by saying, "Stuff." Then I walked away. He seemed satisfied by my answer because he didn't pursue me or anything.
But the whole situation got me to thinking how so not unusual that type of exchange has become here in the United States of Fear. Under the Bush junta we're all terrorists until they say we aren't. Everyone is suspect and everyone is guilty. They area I was in was a great one for taking artsy looking photos of decaying older buildings and urban stuff, but since we're in an endless war with a wily cagey enemy, it just may have been ground zero in the fight to save corporate America from the terrorists and I could have been the leader of a Nordic looking Muslim terrorist group.
It used to be that the guiding principle of our judicial system was that you were innocent until proven guilty. In the last eight years it's become 'we're all guilty and you better keep on eye on your friends, neighbors, and everybody else because if you don't then the secret domestic spying program will find you out and turn you in.' I'm not sure about you, but in the United States of America where I want to live fear is not what unifies us all and we shouldn't have to feel compelled to ask a stranger with a camera who is taking pictures on public property what they are doing. But you may not agree with me and you may want four or more years of endless war, the same old Bush shit, and domestic spying, if you do then please feel free to vote for McCain.
Me, I'm voting for someone, anyone, who will give me back my country and stop trying to keep me and my fellow citizens afraid.
17 comments:
I'd be tempted to sneak back to that patriotic park bench and pinch a loaf right on it.
I would have asked you out of mere curiosity - what do you see there? Is it cool? Is it funny?
But I agree with you on the US of Fear analogy.
Stop Terror = Stop Being Afraid!
Because if you WERE a terrorist, the first thing you would blow up would be the benches.
I think that you echo the feelings of everybody in this post. What have we become?
Dr Monkey
You have expressed the feeling that so many people experience now. We are old enough to remember when things were different, when dissent was just dissent. I like the way you handled it. Holden Caulfield would have approved.
That is so weird. I can honestly say that I've never had an encounter like that. I was taking pictures of a brick wall once (uh, for reasons that are too complicated to explain here), and all I got were amused looks and a few chuckles.
I get the heebie-jeebies a lot of times when I stop to take pictures of signage at night, but luckily haven't had the self-appointed photo police ask me what the hell I was doing.
I agree that Bush is certainly contributing to the paranoid climate of this country, but I think 09/11 is also a major cause, even years later. I remember being on a plane shortly after 09/11, where I glared at a man who looked like he was from the Middle East (is he gonna make a move?!!). I still feel terrible about it to this day.
Our department gets a few calls a month on insurance people and real estate appraisers for being "suspicious persons" because they're out photographing properties. From what I've read, the hobby of trainspotting has really taken a hit since 9/11, with numerous accounts of folks being detained and cameras confiscated for hanging around rail yards and train stations taking photos of trains.
It's all sad.
Just to throw this out: perhaps he thought it was industrial espionage or something. You were obviously from a rival cab company out to steal their superior bench technology.
Were you wearing a flag pin? If not, that's obviously why you were pinned (hahahaha I'm so funny!) as a terrorist and questioned about your suspicious activity. No flag pin = USA hating, Obama loving, terrorist.
Next time some "tairist" flies an airplane into a bench, we'll know who's responsible. Why do you hate freedom?
this country is becoming a police state.
I love your reply: "Stuff" like you're ten years old. hee hee
I just wonder what he expected you to say -- I mean, you took a picture of a bench, not a schematic of the fucking White House.
and don't think I don't realize you're trying to drive up that cussing score, you dirty monkey you.
Don't be alarmed. I used to know a taxi driver who worked for one of these outfits. They have a lot of reasons to be suspicious!
My husband has become very paranoid since 9/11. He thinks that anyone who is arrested is guilty as charged. He is completely supportive of all repressive legislation and the enforcement thereof. If I try to argue that we are no longer the America that I used to love, he accuses me of supporting terrorists and boy, oh boy, won't I be sorry when the terrorists come here and blow up my grandchildren. He drives me crazy!
YOU STOLE ITS SOUL!!
Soul stealer!
Someone saw me taking a picture of a dead squirrel once (don't ask).
They just shook their head and avoided eye contact.
I'm pretty sure I'm on some sort of "list" somewhere now.
Such is life.
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