Category Archives: Creativity

Shots at Large: Scenes from Abilene
Posted on January 3, 2017 by CHC   ᐃ ᐁ

Last month I traveled to Manhattan, Kansas to visit a dear friend who I had not seen for 40 years.  He lived and taught there for a couple of decades until his recent retirement.  During my visit, I attended his retirement reception and helped him a bit with his move — but more importantly, we shared great times, memories old and new.

I had never been to Kansas before and I assumed I would probably not return, so I tried to make the photographic best of it.  Here then is the first installment of my two-part series of shots-at-large from Kansas — this one focuses on my side-trip to Abilene, birthplace of Dwight D. Eisenhower, population 6,800.

[wppa type=”slide” album=”6″ size=”auto” align=”center”]Any comment[/wppa][wppa_set name=”wppa_slideshow_timeout” value=”15000″][/wppa_set]

My main impression of Abilene was that the downtown streets were much wider than they needed to be and much quieter than one might expect them to be.  Perhaps things liven up a bit in October, which is President Eisenhower’s birthday month.

To momentarily pause the slideshow, move your cursor over the image.  Click the image to see a larger version, and click the photo number to start and stop the slideshow.

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Doctrine Do Little
Posted on September 26, 2016 by CHC   ᐃ ᐁ
Monroe over South AmericaA few years shy of two centuries ago,
a slave-holding president named Monroe
declared that no other power shall interfere
in the affairs of states of this Hemisphere.

His doctrine was not then deemed imperious
as his powers to enforce it were hardly serious:
The Royal Navy held primacy over the seas,
invaded the Falklands, did what they pleased.

It seems Monroe’s words were meant to constrain
not so much Britain but, rather, France and Spain
in their quest to retain their colonies.  How ironic,
then, that the U.S. itself would grow Napoleonic.

Chileans and Argentines were rightly suspicious
of this “line in the sea” that was mostly fictitious.
And Dominicans felt the force of its text when
President Grant sought to use it to annex them.

The doctrine’s true gist would become well known
as Uncle Sam’s fist would land blow after blow on
unfriendly navies across faraway waters —
“Only in our sphere shall we not abide slaughter.”

Today, Monroe’s doctine of no interdiction
in American interests is in contradistinction
to how the U.S. conducts its own foreign policy,
adventurous wherever it damn well wants to be.

Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia,
Panama, Cuba, Chile and Grenada,
Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil,
involved in them all,
ignoring them still.

Doctrine indeed.

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I’ve Seen Enough
Posted on September 11, 2016 by CHC   ᐃ ᐁ
 

I've seen enough sunsets,
done enough roller-coasters.
I've smelled enough flowers,
watched enough bees.
What happens to you
is what matters to me.

So many feel powerless
and so we all are.
Democracy's promise?
not much promise at all.
If you were my neighbor
our differences would fade
Which of us shall drive the first nail?

I had hoped, hoped, hoped that
September eleven
would bring us together.
But what was I thinking?
We all love firefighters
and that's about it.

Don't show me
the planes crashing
again and again and again.
I've seen enough.

 

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