Volume II, Issue XLII
Road Trip!!!
The 'other' Weekly News Magazine [click to read] parodied US! [get it, American JOURNEY]?
Joe Klein boldly says: "Road trips are nourishment for the mind and the soul, if not the body (given the quality of roadside food); from Huckleberry Finn to The Hangover, they have been a classic American pastime. The trip exploded my personal Beltway Bubble, which turns out to be more a state of mind and a set of habits than an actual place. Driving 6,782 miles in four weeks, I was forcibly weaned from my usual engorgement of newspapers, magazines, blogs and books. I watched no more than 15 minutes of cable news per day but listened to music obsessively. I was cleansed and transformed, a news junkie freed from junk news, and able to experience Americans as they are — rowdy and proud, ignorant and wise."
But it's obvious from the above quote that poor Joe never found his way to such establishments as Rowes or Kathy's. He probably didn't ask the locals and simply picked the most 'local' looking place... [remember, Joe thinks we all look like 'Cooter' from the Dukes of Hazzard], too proud to ask the locals, and too proud to simply make the safe choice and go to Cracker Barrel, old Joe must have picked some real dives just off the interstate... but I speculate too much.
He could have saved his poor innards, and a lot of gas money. Joe, let me tell you about all the times the people came to you!
The People Come to Washington 09/12/09
Busses from across the country arrive in Washington for the 09/12'09 Rally...
And thousands of us begin to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.
You didn't have to listen long to hear what they were saying.
They gathered at the Capitol...
...from around our nation.
I didn't see anyone who looked like 'Cooter,' but 'Daisy' might have been there.
The People Come to Washington 12/15/09
Again, the message is clear.
Hands off my health care.
The People Come to Washington 04/15/10
Thousands gather at the Washington Monument.
Get the message?
They paid their own way to get there. They picked up their own trash.
The People Come to Washington 08/28/10,
The People Come to Washington 10/02/10
The aerial photographs speak for themselves. Consider the fact that all of us paid our own way to 08/28 and people were offered free transportation and meals for the 10/02 event. ht/Phil.
Remembering the Restoring Honor Rally
Arriving at the Lincoln Memorial for the Restoring Honor Rally...
...and the crowd stretches all the way down the reflecting pool to the World War II Memorial.
The crowd from the air... ht/Mike
...there are people crowded UNDER those trees as well.
More Photos [click to view].
Lynn Has More on the Rally [click to read].
Thoughts from the Side of the Reflecting Pool
Here I am at the rally. Photo by T. Barbour.
At today's Restoring Honor Rally, Glenn Beck pointed out the scar in the Washington Monument. Far down the reflecting pool, the mighty obelisk rises as a pure form of ancient architecture. Look closer and you see a change in the stone color, about a quarter of the way up the Monument.
That 'scar' marks the point where work was stopped as North and South fought the War between the States. This bloody conflict might well have ended the American experiment... but the Nation survived and became the great Nation we live in today. When work was resumed on the Monument, the builders went back to the original quarry but were unable to match the marble exactly. The change in color bears silent testimony to one of our most perilous times.
Beck asked the thousands listening to him to look beyond the scars of our differences and see the good that is in our Nation.
Joined by Governor Sarah Palin and Dr. Alveda King [neice of the great Civil Rights Leader], Beck led a call back to the foundations of good in our Nation... the sure step to do the right thing when no one is looking, the value of individual honor in service to one's fellows.
Aaron Copeland's 'Fanfare for the Common Man' played over the Reflecting Pool as the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity were celebrated. That piece had become a theme piece as I visited the Memorial on the July 4th weekend. It was on Xaver Wilhelmy's demonstration DVD played on the glass organ pipes! It was a nice departure from the 'Rocky' theme as I trotted up the steps of the Memorial to watch the morning light illuminate the shrine to Lincoln.
Now it became the theme for honoring people who exemplified the virtues.
Under the trees lining the Reflecting Pool, ordinary Americans came together to affirm the foundations of this country's greatness.
Vulpephobia
THYME Coins a New Word
Vulpephobia [click to read], n, fear of Fox. The President and Barney Frank are known to be Vulpephobic.
A Tocqueville Tour
Celebrating the Most Famous American Road Trip
Bob's photos celebrate the America that Tocqueville observed in the Nineteenth Century. He wrote Democracy in America [click to read], a look at American institutions and society that is still referenced today.
"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." -- Alexis de Toqueville
The Valley Railroad, a branch of the B&O, once passed through our area.
Torrey Furnace is an example of early American industry...
...as is Chapman's Mill...
...McCormick's Mill...
...and the town of Ellicott's Mills.
The first thirteen miles of the B&O railroad ended here.
B&O bridge cornerstone in Ellicott's Mills, dated 1829.
