Spruce Series ... and a long rant

Hello Friends,

I shot these images on a recent road trip up the west coast. These were shot in Oregon and Washington, and I believe all three are of various types of spruce trees. When looking for shots I'm mostly looking for fascinating shapes and structures in nature. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. They were shot with a Panasonic Lumix GX7 with 3D lens, using frame sides for phantogram processing

Rant Warning!!!! Might be time to skip the rest.

If you've recently started getting my image-of-the-weeks you may not know that occasionally I rant political. Its inappropriate for a 3-D photography blog, but I wouldn't do it if I didn't feel I really had to. Silence is weak and a path to complicity. If what I say bothers you, I apologize for it bothering you, but not for what I say.

First off I loathe DJT, hia MAGA cult, and what they stand for, idiocracy and power. Contrary to MAGA's assumptions, I believe many to most Americans loath this con man and fear seeing him regain power. Below I frequently use "We" instead of "I" supposing you agree with me, which is not necessarily the case.

We're horrfied by what we see from Ukraine. Most of my grandparents came from around Odessa, one of the disputed territories. We need to support Ukraine and thwart Putin's ambitions.

We're wrenched by what we see from Israel. I am a Jew. I've been to Israel and have cousins there. Jews know from thousands of years of horrors brought down on us by others. Despite Hamas' provocation, how we can inflict horrors onto others on this scale is to me unthinkable. I am naive enough to hope, but not to expect any real solutions in my lifetime. We need to support Israel. We need to support Palestine. We need to support peace.

We're mortified about what's happening with women's rights to make their own decisions, a battle that was hard fought and won, and now might be slipping away. We need to stand up for women's rights and against those who oppose them.

We're appauled at the demonization of immigrants, whose principal crime is daring, against all odds, to come here in hope of staying and living here to build a better life for their families. Unless you're pure blood Native American, your ancestors were immigrants. We're a country of immigrants. Immigrants make our society and economy diverse and strong. We might not be able to accommodate all who wish to come here, but we are bound by human decency to treat those who do with sympathy and respect.

We're aghast at a the Christian sects who feels the US government should reflect and favor their specific brand of Christianity. I was raised to believe that in the USA we have the right and freedom to choose and practice religion as we wish, and the government has no business showing preference of one over another.

We're stricken that the gains made for sexual identity rights are being overturned by these very same Christian sects and are abetted by a politicized and corrupt supreme court.

2024 is an election year that presents a clear, black-and-white, good versus evil choice. At least it is to me. I'd love to believe that America is smarter and better and stronger than to reelect Trump and succumb to his autocracy, but having elected him once I don't have the faith in our American electorate not to do so again.

Trump and his allies to this day continue to repeat his big lie about voter fraud, that Democrats stole the 2020 election. DJT lost the 2020 election and failed in all his efforts to overturn it, but he and his minions are working very hard for succes in 2024 regardless of the how the vote goes. It will probably get very ugly.

This years election could make or break, prove or destroy the sacred institution of democracy that as patriotic American children we were taught to cherish.

So what should we do? I don't know. I wish I did.

If you agree with me, I'd be glad to hear from you. If you disagree with me, please write me back and explain to me the error of my ways.

Best regards,

Barry Rothstein

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