Fourth of July celebration and naturalization ceremony at Monticello earlier today.
The years I’ve attended the candidates for naturalization stand on the stairs of the nickel porch,
a grand stage from which to step into citizenship.
The only problem, the angle of the July sun during the ceremony challenges attendees.
Looking down is easier than looking into the sun.
They make these clever things called hats.
The event at Monticello is beautiful, it is rich with memory and promise. It is free. It is highly recommended.
Monticello, Saturday July 4, 2015?
Note to self, hat & sunglasses.
Category: culture
the culture or the madness?
Indeed, as important as it is to understand Rodger’s actions within the context of the mental illness he clearly suffered,
it’s just as clear that his delusions were inflated, if not created, by the entertainment industry he grew up in.–Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
65th Annual Dogwood Festival Parade
The annual Rorschach test, the Dogwood Festival Parade, took to the streets yesterday. What makes a parade? Fine looking people in uniforms, dresses, martial music, hillbilly music.
Many of my favorite law enforcement officials and politicians participated in the parade.
Buster Ball, the spokesphere for Putt-Putt was followed by the Mountain Dew can with hands. While employing images
that have a national profile many of the companies participating in the parade have deep local roots.
The Jessups of our local Pepsi had a long interest in Riverview.
Charlottesville is the crazy salad without trying.
Little Miss Scottsville
Last year’s parade
day of rest
Kyuyo Street
Litwalton
witnesses
Two Jehovah’s Witnesses dropped by yesterday. They stood on my front porch and talked about Jesus. They read several passages from the Bible.
They were very kind. They left a copy of the Watchtower. They headed on down the road.
too close to the truth
American Proverbs
You dig your grave with your teeth.–A Dictionary of American Proverbs edited by Wolfgang Mieder, Stewart A. Kingsbury, Kelsie B. Harder
scabies
In Virginia, car owners have the opportunity to “Create a plate“, Identity plates, vanity plates, license plates that tell the rest of the world something about the interests of the owner of the vehicle.
Usually the choices are idiotic, but on occasion, the message is intriguing. Eight characters to say something really important.
respect, choice, options
Senator Mark Warner was in Charlottesville yesterday at the ribbon cutting for Blue Ridge PACE.
The last of seven to address the assembled crowd, following celebratory remarks, Warner spoke from personal experience about our society’s view of aging. The Senator’s comments begin at 25 minutes (see player below) . Warner spoke for fifteen minutes.
At the end of the day I think a society is judged most not by what they say but how they treat their youngest and how they treat their oldest.– Senator Mark Warner
Speakers at the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
“We saw lots of things wrong with the debate around health care reform. But to my mind, the single most insulting point of the health care debate was when people were legitimately talking about how we ought to allow families to have the kind of counseling that they should all go through, as an option, not forced upon anybody but as an option, and even the notion of those kind of conversations was labeled by some as death panels which was outrageous, beyond the pale… This is an issue… that is more than a policy issue, it is a personal issue, it is an issue of faith… it is time again I believe to start this conversation.”
Crowd assembled for the ribbon cutting at Blue Ridge PACE. Monticello Mountain in the background.