Category: Social Issues - trish hermanson

The Peril of Tagging

10/9/2020

If you’re getting your kicks out on America’s iconic Route 66, here’s one scene you don’t want to miss - Cadillac Ranch, classic Cadillacs buried nose down in a barren pasture outside Amarillo, Texas. Bring spray paint, and you can be among the thousands who have tagged these Caddies since they were “planted” more than four decades ago.
     When I saw this, I wondered what profound thing I could write about this public art display. Such as: “all our treasures eventually turn to rust,” but who doesn’t already know that? Then when I lifted an aerosol and sprayed a car, the truth smacked me in the face. The wind whipped the paint back at me, and if I hadn’t ducked, I would have become as colorful as the cars.
     The lesson? “What goes around, comes around.”
     So in these days when slanderous political poison pollutes our atmosphere, perhaps I’d better be careful what I say. It might blow back on me.

Why Steer Clear of Purple Cows

9/17/2020

Some humor as we step around the dung that’s slung during election season:

My mama taught a little rhyme when I was just a yearling.
She had a beef with purple cows: “Beware of them, my dearling.

I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one.
But I can tell you anyhow I’d rather see than be one.”

But then one day a steer appeared so luminescent bright.
And I believed that he was here to give me new insight.

I got behind this champion, so wise and strong and tough.
My heart he charmed, my vote he won, with all his righteous stuff.

I thought he’d open wide my eyes to things I did not know.
Then bovine bright, to my surprise, gored me with a blow.

His words turned out to be pure bull. I’d trusted every lie.
And all the promises he made were nothing but cow pie.

So in these days when doo-doo flies from both the left and right
I’ll try to keep my head up high and stay above the fight.

And thank you, Mom, from head to tail for warning me when young,
For purple cows do cross my trail. I’ll side-step purple dung.

Why a Different Point of View Matters

7/31/2020

Meet my neighbor Joe Razes, who’s willing to get up close and personal to catch the best perspective for a photo, even when it means the risk of becoming a floor mat for a stampeding steer. Joe’s audacity pays off. He captured an award-winning portrait of longhorns that displays both their strength and their vulnerability. It turned out they were more frightened of him than he was of them. The only damage Joe incurred during several photo sessions was when a bull named Shoot ’Em Up eyed him, pawed the ground, then lumbered over and nibbled on his fallen hat.
     Which is how our biggest fears are sometimes, aren’t they? From a distance, they stare at us like raging bulls ready to charge. But when we dare to face them and work through them, they aren’t so frightening after all. Sometimes what we need is to view our problems from a different angle.
     So during this time of Covid, what’s the big fear staring you in the eyes?

Joe Razes's award winning photo

Do We Have a Defective Gene in Our Nation's DNA?

7/10/2020

We’re proud of our American heritage of “don’t tread on me,” but has this attitude become a defective gene in our nation’s DNA today?
     What I mean is this: Some nations quickly and easily adapted to wearing masks and social distancing because of their ingrained value of community. But not us. The knee-jerk reaction from some has been “nobody’s gonna tell me what to do. Don’t mess with my rights and my convenience.”
     The result? We have less than five percent of the world’s population, but we’ve suffered a quarter of the COVID-19 cases. Our rugged individualism - what we usually consider a strength - has rendered us selfish - sometimes stupid - as we endanger ourselves and others.
     I’m grateful for our liberties. For the right to practice religion, but what a travesty if I abuse that liberty by gathering at the peril of others. For the right to protest, but what a travesty if I abuse it by destroying property. For the right to free speech, but what a travesty if I abuse it by belittling others.
     Liberty is an upside-down concept: I’m not really free unless I’m willing to set aside my rights for the good of others. Otherwise, I’m in bondage to my freedom.
  Then I may as well sing the refrain from “Me and Bobby McGee”: “Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose.”    Am I willing to bridle my rights for the good of others?
***
     Photo: 2019 winner of Texas Sand Sculpture Festival, text added.

The Whack Heard 'Round the World

6/27/2020

Danuta Danielsson had nothing but passion and a purse when Neo-Nazis marched through her Swedish town in 1985. She was infuriated because her mother had been imprisoned in a concentration camp during the Holocaust, so she took what she had and acted.
     The whack of this ordinary woman was seen around the world and was eventually recognized with a statue.
     Is Danuta the kind of person we should memorialize? I don’t condone violence during protests, not even with a handbag, but isn’t it better to honor bravery like this rather than that of Confederates who enslaved people for their profit?
     We can laud ordinary heroes even if we don’t raise a memorial to them. We can revere people like Patrick Hutchinson, a black grandfather who carried an injured white man in London over his shoulder during a protest to get him out of harm. What he had was strength, and with that he crossed cultural lines to do what was right.
     I’m as unremarkable as Danuta Danielsson or Patrick Hutchinson, and I sometimes wonder whether anything I do could make any difference. But perhaps the real question is whether I’m willing to step out of my comfort zone to do what is right when I hear of or see wrongdoing. I could at least speak up.
     Would I dare?
     Or am I afraid to be an ordinary hero?    ***
Photos: top, Hans Runesson; middle, Romea.cz; bottom, Dylan Martinez, Reuters.