Wednesday, November 16, 2016

The Crowd


The people, united, will never be defeated. That's what they chanted sometimes. That's what they hope, but there are no guaranteed outcomes in bare-knuckle politics. Never be defeated? Ask a few Syrians about that. Maybe this administration and its colleagues in congress will so offend the American people that they will get the crap kicked out of them in the 2018 mid-term Congressional elections. But maybe not. They are good showmen, in the P. T. Barnum sense, and unafraid of deception. (Although that doesn't make them unusual.) Most Americans will remember Barnum's most famous quote, "There's a sucker born every minute." We just saw that in action, didn't we?

So here are people in the crowd, angry, maybe hopeful, maybe not, but simply needing to emote. The first two shots are around the starting area at the Gateway One building.  Note the Peabody signs. Peabody Energy is the largest privately held coal company in the country and an adversary of environmentalists. Their headquarters is inside.

After everyone wandered around downtown for a bit the crowd seemed to gel at the intersection of 4th Street and Washington Avenue. The last shot is from my office window, which overlooks that location.

But let's also remember that our most revered president, Abraham Lincoln, once noted that "you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." God, I hope he was right. 

And, hey, a shout-out to Gunn, our friend in Norway - I like your idea. Know any European editors who might like to buy some of these images?        




4 comments:

Stefan Jansson said...

I was a bit surprised at the voter turnout in the election. Only around 50 percent decided it was worth the effort.

Bill said...

That looks like a good turnout for the protest. I hope eventually all this will make a difference. They'll have to do it again and again, never give up!

Sharon said...

Wow, you really had a huge turn out for this protest.

William Kendall said...

And of course Trump just shrugs it all off. The man disgusts me.