Archive for February, 2016

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Construction Supervisor, New York, New York © Jim Korpi

“The driver sat in the iron seat and he was proud of the straight lines he did not will, proud of the tractor he did not own or love, proud of the power he could not control. And when that crop grew, and was harvested, no man had crumbled a hot clod in his fingers and let the earth sift past his fingertips. No man had touched the seed, or lusted for the growth. Men ate what they had not raised, had no connection with the bread. The land bore under iron, and under iron gradually died; for it was not loved or hated, it had no prayers or curses.” ~ John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

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Street Nap, New York, New York

“The industrial age itself, as we have known it, can be described as a period of technological entrancement, an altered state of consciousness, a mental fixation that alone can explain how we came to ruin our air and water and soil and to severely damage our basic life systems under the illusion that this was ‘progress.'” – Thomas Berry, The Dream of the Earth

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Tourists in Fountain, Milan, Italy © Jim Korpi

After seven months I still flick the middle switch in the hallway and realize it turns on nothing, and that the one on the left turns on the bathroom light.
After seven months I still stand in the shower for the first two minutes either tense from the cold water or from avoiding the scalding hot as I adjust the handle to 7 o’clock and pull it halfway out.
I should know this by now, but for some reason it has taken my brain this long to adjust to a new place.
Every new hotel I visit or friend’s house I intrude on, I stumble in the dark to find a light switch and panic from the half-asleep feeling of being blind and lost.

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Arm Floats, Fourth of July, Barnstead, New Hampshire © Jim Korpi

“They shed their sense of responsibility
Long ago, when they lost their votes, and the bribes; the mob
That used to grant power, high office, the legions, everything,
Curtails its desires, and reveals its anxiety for two things only,
Bread and circuses.”
Juvenal, Satire X, Translation

Presidential Candidate Claims on Campaign Websites

Ted Cruz:
“Led the way to preserve the words ‘under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance at the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Hillary Clinton:
“After eight years of Bush foreign policy, Hillary was instrumental in the effort to restore America’s standing in the world.”
Donald Trump:
“A nation without borders is not a nation. There must be a wall across the southern border.”
Bernie Sanders:
“Standing up against the major pharmaceutical companies, Sanders becomes the first member of Congress to take seniors across the border to Canada to buy lower-cost prescription drugs.”