Freedom

Popular Photography Magazine has an article in their current issue that is dedicated to photographers being hassled by law enforcement officials, threatened, and bullied. If you have not read the July issue, get it and read this article. It is important that you know about this and what you can do to prevent being a victim of this sort of intimidation.

If you want to know more about this check this website: http://www.freedomtophotograph.com/ and read about events of this ilk around the globe.

I don't want to copy-cat the PopPhoto article and I won't quote anything in it or the website. I am just urging everyone to buy the issue of PopPhoto and check out the website. You need to know how people are being hassled and why. You also need to contact your congressional leaders and complain about it.

I am writing this from the United States of America. I am currently in Ohio. While I have never been hassled, I don't shoot downtown and I don't shoot along the freeways, oil depots, or powerplants. I shoot mostly landscapes and portraits. But, this issue is very important to me. My family came to these shores at the first English settlement, Jamestown. A few others came via New England. More than a hundred fought in the Revolutionary War and three signed the Declaration of Independence. Like many other patriots of the time, they helped build a country where people could live FREE from tyranny, free from oppressive government and the arrogance of monarchy.

When I first started this online publishing venture I envisioned creating the photography magazine you are now reading. I chose a theme for the website that reflected deep ties to the America we all knew in the pre-Vietnam age. I grew up living in a New England Colony. We were a few miles from New York City and we were surrounded by historical landmarks. Even in my childhood I photographed them and loved what this country represented in the cause of liberty.

I used to look out my bedroom window and see the Empire State Building. What a beautiful monument it was through the eyes of a child. I was awed by it. The World Trade Towers were not even a "vision" in someone's mind, yet. We never thought of terrorism and the need to protect our historic sites or towering office buildings, airports and bridges, tunnels and stadiums. America was lucky. We were isolated from most of the world's strife. We were, indeed, free and safe. We only had one enemy at the time capable of striking us with an ICBM (inter-continental ballistic missile). My school even had a few bomb drills where we'd crawl under our desks, but, it seemed like a game to us. We never really felt threatened. After all, we were Americans and we were safe.

"9-11" comes and the bubble bursts. America is attacked from within. We are told that terrorists hijacked airliners and flew them into the Two Towers, the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon, and tried to hit the Capitol or the WhiteHouse with the fourth plane. Nineteen stupid men, we were told, were willing to die for their twisted interpretation of a major world religion just to plant seeds of terror in the Land of the Free. Yes, their goal was to change America. They wanted people in the USA to live in fear and uncertainty. They wanted us to live in a land devoid of freedom, a land where law enforcement controls everything and keeps the locals in line by threats and heavy-handed ways, just like they have lived for five thousand years.

In that way, the terrorists were successful. We can march downtown half-naked and the law will not stop us, but, heaven forbid we actually take a photograph of the Capitol or the airport flight tower.

With law enforcement using such heavy-handed tactics on citizens of the West, one has to say that the terrorists did succeed in bringing tyranny to the free world. Whether they realize it or not, they were more successful than they imagined when they planned their attack. We are now looking over our shoulders as we carry our cameras to and fro. We worry that we will lose our favorite camera as we are approached, not by a neighborhood thug or gang member, not by a thief, but a government agent or some bully in a blue uniform hiding behind fear and a badge.

Spread the word. Copy this article and publish it everywhere. Send it to your representative in Congress. Send it to the president. Send it to local law enforcement. E-mail it to the world. Hey, you have my permission. Just do it.

Get the message out there that this has to stop. We love the FREEDOM that we used to have and we want it! We want to live the way it used to be. We don't want to forget September 11th, 2001, but, we must not let it rob us of the freedom we have always enjoyed. YES, be cautious, but don't over-react. We have security in our airports and subway stations. We have police departments in every municipality across the continent. We don't need them chasing people with cameras when they should be chasing criminals.

Pass the word.