Miscellaneous Recent Photographs

THUMBNAIL ETHICAL RULES

From the "Ethics" section of a personal collection of quotations called THE KNAPSACK SUNDAY BOOK (that is, some portable sources of essential thoughts):

In truth, the earth can be a treacherous place, and people who are morally untested may find themselves unprepared for the most extreme situations that are possible. On a television program about the Holocaust, three offspring of Holocaust survivors gave what seemed a good thumbnail ethical guide. (It is not surprising that two of them have a totally pessimistic view about human nature). Note the word "try." My notes or my memory are inadequate so I will word what they said in two ways:

Try not to be a perpetrator. [Try to never be a perpetrator.]
Try not to be a bystander. [Try to never be merely a witness.]
Try not to be a victim. [Try to never be a victim.]

FIRST LT. EHREN WATADA AND THE WAR IN IRAQ

When Mark Twain said, “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare,” he must have had in mind someone like First Lt. Ehren Watada, who is being threatened with court marital because he is opposed to the War in Iraq and refuses to be serve there. Normally shy of publicity, the Nikkei community came out to support Lt. Watada:



Reverend Lloyd Wake was among many speakers, including veterans opposed to the American War in Iraq and those who had refused to serve in the American War in Vietnam:



Before the event, the Raging Grannies entertained:



Aimee Allison, running for supervisor in Oakland in 2006, was, as usual, very eloquent:



Finian Makepeace sang one of his songs:



Lt. Watada could not be at all of the demonstrations being held around the U.S.A. in support of his stand, but people listened and were moved by his recorded message, and he came across as a gentle, intelligent, true patriot:



MARCH AGAINST THE WAR. Vote with your feet. TAKE to the STREET! Saturday, 28 October 2006, 12 Noon, U.N. Plaza, Market between 7th & 8th Streets, San Francisco.


The giant flag belongs to Bob Miller, a member of LMNOP (Lake Merritt Neighbors of Peace), who have marched around Lake Merritt in Oakland carrying peace signs every Sunday since 9/11 at 3 p.m. Oakland motorists honk continuously in support of their opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

07 October 2006 in Golden Gate Park, San Fancisco

In the Conservatory of Flowers...







...and in the Conservatory's Butterfly Room...the "White Peacock" Butterfly....







At the De Young Museum...the quilt of an African-American woman in Alabama...



At the De Young Museum...In the Chicano Exhibit...Patssi Valdez' Cuarto al Borde...




At the Orchid Show, an orchid and other plants...

OCTOBER 2006 PHOTOGRAPHS

DAVIES HALL, SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY, just before Joshua Bell played the Beethoven Violin Concerto.