© Dan DeMarle 2017

There’s nothing like walking in someone else’s shoes. So today I ran home, got changed and headed back to work on my bike, with a stop at the Y to go swimming. Accidentally left my wallet at home. Was hungry and was going to pick up cash for the SW Rochester Market later in the day. No wallet, no ID, no cash. Then was feeling a bit hungry. No wallet, no ID, no cash, no car.

So try this experiment, leave y©our wallet or purse, ID and cash at home. Have someone drop you off before lunch a few miles from home. You can bring your phone, I had mine. Then head home. Then after you experience this, think about if this was how you were going to spend the next month.

Now you might think this little experiment is about being homeless, and it is.  Yet it is also about the experience of being a refugee.

© words by Dan DeMarle 2017

 

© words and picture by Dan DeMarle 2017

© words and pictures by Daniel DeMarle 2017

A recent study found that people who have dogs walk more every day and at a faster pace then the average non dog owner.

So the question is,

If I walk my dog.

Am I walking the dog,

or is the dog walking me?

Who needs to be walked more in the morning,

the dog or me?

Technically since the little bitch is usually in front of me,

she is walking me.

Occasionally I am in front of her, so I am walking her.

So whose life is being improved,

hers or mine?

Of course technically, she is not my dog,

She is my daughter’s dog.

So why am I walking her, or she walking me.

Of course we only walk because time has advanced.

Enough seconds have passed that a new day or evening,

has arrived.

So is time walking the both of us?

or are we simply marking time?

Regardless, since my life will be longer than hers,

She is the third dog to cohabit with me,

I will let her walk me.

After all, her days are marked shorter than mine.

© words by Dan DeMarle 2017

 

Following the Civil War, the country went through a period of Reconstruction. During this time blacks in the South gained new rights and political power. This period ended with the development of new very conservative political parties that opposed these freedoms, and sought to turn the tide back and to suppress the gains made in Reconstruction. The deal was sealed when the rights of Southern Blacks were traded away in a political deal so that Rutherford B Hayes could be elected president.

We are now in the post Obama world, and the Congressional republicans are treating this just like the white Southerners at the end of Reconstruction. The Republican party is trying as hard as they can to erase any remnants of civil right gains, health care gains, LGBTQ right gains, environmental gains, that they possibly can that were achieved by the first Black President. They don’t care what they are, they just can’t stand that we had a Black President. The parallels are to obvious to not draw those conclusions.

© words by Dan DeMarle 2017