![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.thelifeliterary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/IMG_8450.jpg\" "\\"Let")
<\/a>Still not free?<\/p><\/div>\n
I continue to toy with possible captions for this photo, such as, “Still has a dream,” or “Still dreaming the fences (barriers? walls?) will be torn down.”\u00a0\u00a0 How about “Fenced, yet”?\u00a0 The scaffolding adds another layer of enclosure, adding to the sense of captivity, being held back.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
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<\/a>Azaleas: Safe!<\/p><\/div>\n
Since 9-11, our country has become extraordinarily security-minded, almost, I sometimes think, obsessed with safety.\u00a0 I worry that we risk losing sight of what makes for real security: strengthening our institutions, cities, schools, government, families.\u00a0 Of course we need a certain amount of law enforcement, military, and border security, but those can become the goal instead of the support for what ought to be the goal.\u00a0 Fenced-in azaleas, harmless, beautiful bushes kept safe and sound by a fence, speak to the dangers and absurdities of focusing on our safety without nurturing our well-being.\u00a0 Fertilize, don’t fence!<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Transparent, Accessible Government<\/p><\/div>\n
One of my favorite buildings in this grand Federal City is the Old Executive Office Building, located immediately west of the White House.\u00a0 When it was first built, it housed entire Executive Branch agencies such as the State and the War (later Defense) Department.\u00a0 Now, it contains offices that support the Executive Office of the President.\u00a0 Humorous, especially now with an administration that has worked so hard to improve people’s access to and knowledge about what the government is doing, that this magnificent old building, a symbol of U.S. government, is almost completely obscured by both a fence and sturdy scaffolding.\u00a0 You call this transparent?\u00a0 The clear shot of the American flag fluttering atop the building is the cherry on the\u00a0 sundae, a symbolic denial that anything is hidden from sight.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Utopia: No more buying, selling, and amassing wealth?<\/p><\/div>\n
I imagine a world with no commerce, no need for the business of buying and selling, no drive to get rich.\u00a0 In my vision of utopia, people would produce what they could and share as they were able.\u00a0 Not only would the shoemaker trade his handiwork for food, but corporations and large businesses, needed to produce cars and computers and provide insurance and more, would limit the profits they keep, sharing their excess with people who have less.\u00a0 I almost laughed when I first saw the Department of Commerce building, undergoing major renovation, boarded up and surrounded by a fence with barbed wire, even!\u00a0 Was the perfect world I envisioned at hand?\u00a0 Had generosity and charity finally won out over greed and selfishness?<\/p>\n
<\/a>Closed for business<\/p><\/div>\n
Here’s a second shot of a fenced Commerce building.\u00a0 I like it better because it shows the boarded-up windows, but less because the name of the building is harder to read.\u00a0 The first photo is a little more artsy, the second, more expansive.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>I liked the lines<\/p><\/div>\n
There’s no symbol of anything bigger and more significant here.\u00a0 I just liked the lines of the fence and the\u00a0 barriers, and in fact, used the central part of this image as an early header for this blog.\u00a0 I snapped the shot before embarking on the Fences of Washington project.\u00a0 Nothing more sinister than a construction crew taking over a portion of a public street to create a place to store and stage their equipment.\u00a0 Wait a minute!\u00a0 A faceless, nameless conglomerate construction firm taking over needed public property in the name of societal improvement?\u00a0 Yikes!\u00a0 Maybe this does convey something more…\u00a0 I better look at this one a little more carefully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It started with a picture, a simple photograph.\u00a0 A few days before the Cherry Blossom Festival on a windy Wednesday evening, we were among the very few people walking along the Tidal Basin, enjoying the just-emerging blossoms.\u00a0 Behind a fence … Continue reading