It is rare to get my two border collies still in the same place long enough to get a still shot of them. Fate is moving every second, Red is always happy to look at the camera. But I have very few shots of these two wonderful creatures together. After we do our morning chores, Red sits by the door waiting to go inside and get to work with me.
Fate is usually sitting by the pasture gate, or eating chick food, or sniffing out the tracks of the rabbit, her new obsession and nemesis. I made a strange clucking sound – animal photographers learn to do this – and Fate froze, trying to figure it out. It might be awhile before I get this kind of shot again.
If you’d like to fight back in a positive way and stand behind our American values, you can help by going to the Amazon gift page set up by the U.S. Committee On Refugees and Immigrants who are seeking to assist the refugee families that arrived in the Albany, N.Y. area before many were banned from seven countries whose people are seeking asylum here and a new life.
I think there is no more powerful message than for these refugees – and the world – to see our true hearts and souls.
Volunteer officials tell me your donations are pouring in and being rushed right out to newly-arriving families in the greatest need. These are inexpensive gifts ranging from $7 to $30. These are good people, women and children mostly, who lost everything, have suffered greatly and have lived on the hope of a new life in America. Some have been in refugee camps for three or four years.
I can tell you they are here legally, they have been thoroughly vetted by four or five different agencies, they are no threat to you or to our country. They have been waiting years to come to America. They are the victims of terrorism, not terrorists. The refugee officials tell me there are a number of new babies coming coming, there is a need for socks and diapers and baby items.
On the gift page, there is also an option of a $20 Amazon gift card, the warehouse is filling up with Amazon boxes, so the card is another option that can save space. The boxes won’t stay long, they are being rushed out to frightened and exhausted newcomers arriving in the United States to an uncertain welcome in the middle of an upstate New York winter.
Many are frightened and bewildered by the government’s recent actions.
These families need everything, pots, pans, silverware, towels, blankets, and, as mentioned, items for baby care. Some of these refugees are participating in an art show to be held in Albany on March 30. Maria and I will be there and will be participating, details to come.
You can be angry or you can live by example and be proud. It is not what others think, it is what you think.
You can argue or use our energy to do good. I believe our better angels are coming to raise an Army of Good and call us to remember what we are truly about. You can help the refugee families here. If you get a message box, you can write in ATTN: Jake. If you can’t, don’t worry. There are Amazon boxes all over the warehouse, more on the way.
As I travel through different American cities and towns, I often get the feeling that our urban centers have forgotten what people are for. I see so many box stories, so few people on the streets. Everyone is in their own space, usually disconnected from one another.
Cities, like the rest of America, have been corporarized, People are either afraid to go downtown, or can’t afford downtown, or there is no downtown. Real people have all been driven off, replaced by box stores or the rich. Somehow, Brattleboro has escaped that awful fate.
People still rule there. It is not uncommon for someone to walk up to us on the street and smile, and say how nice it is to see a couple in love.
Maria and I have been going to Brattleboro, Vt. for some years now, it has become one of our favorite places to go to get a way, or have a short vacation. The city is compact, diverse, full of people, all kinds of people. They often seem very connected to one another, they smile, nod chat about life and the weather. People with berets, kids in tattered jeans, people with bears to their waists, artists, writers, poets, people with beads that rattle when they shake their heads.
When we first came to Brattleboro, the downtown was devastated by a fire that gutted the massive Brooks Hotel, right in the middle of town. The hotel has been renovated, and a bunch of good new restaurants and idiosyncratic businesses have opened – a Gold and Platinum specialist right next to a fine Turkish restaurant.
There is even a big old pharmacy in a former church or school where people come out to meet you and talk about the best medicine for your cold. They even go find it for you.
There are all kinds of funky businesses and cafes and even one of the last mystery book stores in America, always open but mysteriously free of people. The town is overrun with people, street people, hippies, bearded prophets, people walking pigs, many dogs, free spirits, runaways begging for money.
Our favorite restaurant, I think, is the Korean restaurant called Shin-La, the zucchini pancakes and chicken rice soup are incomparable. The side streets are filled up with giant used bookstores and specialty stores – great baby clothes and toys, falafel palaces, music shops, an organic bagel emporium, junk and antique stores, psychics and gemstone sellers, one of the best food co-ops in America, art galleries, a vast hospice thrift store where Maria often pulls some strange fabric out of dusty corner, consignment shops with amazing socks and hats.
We love to stay in the Latchis Hotel, an amazing Art Deco restoration project that is a crown jewel of the town.
You park in the lot next door, if the lot is full you get a lesson in working the parking meters on the street.
The rooms have huge ceilings, the walls are solid, each room has its own name and identity. The old hotel is a work in progress, every time we come something new has been added or fixed, the rooms are always clean and fun. It is a work in progress. The Latchis has its own hotel dog and is closed between the hours of noon and l p.m. while the staff has lunch.
Diane, who cleans our floor, remembers us from the last visit, and she is happy for me to take her portrait sometimes.
Our hotel bill for Saturday night was $124.
The Latchis has an exotic history – it fell into disrepair and has been reborn – it is thick with atmosphere, friendly people, great prices, rooms where the old bathroom fixtures have been deliberately preserved, it is not for snooty four-star people (I give it five stars on Trip Adviser) but a treasure for everyone else. I can’t recommend it highly enough. At night, I imagine running into ghosts from the grand old ballroom, now four cinemas.
The Latchis movie complex and theater is in the ground floor, you can just walk down the stairs and go see a first run movie or some cultural event (last week a testament to Hieronymous Bosch) and ogle the beautiful painted ceilings at the same town.
Brattleboro fairly bristles with character, and writing this, I realize just how much Maria and I love it. So many upstate New York and Vermont cities are in awful shape, casualties of the loss of manufacturing jobs and mills that we keep hearing so much about. Brattleboro has been saved, and is giving rebirth to itself. You feel good just walking down Main Street. It is an inspiring place for us.
I imagine the politics are insane there, it is one of the few small towns with a foreign policy. I don’t want to know any more than that. The newspaper has been taken over by the reporters after the owners fled long ago. It is hanging on. Sitting on the New Hampshire and Massachusetts border, the town has a drug problem, like all Vermont cities. But is is unquestionably vibrant and ascending.
The downtown is very much and fascinating to walk around in, it is lined with gorgeous old brick and art deco and mill factories and apartment buildings, yet it has not lost a shred of it’s greatest draw, it’s humanity. Everything is within walking distance. I always stop to take photos at The People’s Apartment house, just off the center of town. There is always somebody highly photogenic sitting on the corner, usually with a dog, happy to pose for one or two dollars, or for nothing, if it comes to that.
And there is someone sitting with a beret or magazine or book at almost every window. People reading books are ubiquitous in Brattleboro, and are almost as welcome as dogs. Some people are strange, they talk to themselves and speak in tongues. They are almost always friendly.
Almost everyone who walks by smiles, says hello, or nods. That matters. You end up smiling back.
Mostly, I love that Brattleboro has remembered what people are for. Somehow, they have kept the box stores out, it doesn’t look like every other place, it doesn’t look like any other place. I do all of my clothing shopping – jeans, socks, underwear, shirts at Sam’s, the block long clothing and outfitter’s store where you can always get a small bag of fresh popcorn, and the floor manager remembers my name and jeans size.
Maria I both love the different people in the town, the architecture, all of that brick, the gorgeous murals, the very wonderful Latchis, and the general feeling of the place.
If you wish to remember what people are for, you might want to go visit.
My granddaughter Robin and her mother went to Battery Park in New York City this afternoon to protest the government’s neew restrictions on refugees and immigration. Thousands of people marched with her, Robin is getting used to marching, and i suspect that’s a good thing, I imagine Emma will be marching a lot. I love the idea of a new hell-raiser in the family. Robin seems to take all this excitement and everything else in stride.
I am proud of these strong and compassionate women.
An idea for being positive and doing good and feeling good.
If you are sick of dissembling politicians and pompous panelists and various angry people on social media ranting about the left and the right, here is a surefire way for you to feel good: Check out out the U.S. Committee on Refugees and Immigration Amazon gift page, set up to provide aide to the scores of refugees, some from Syria, who made it into the United States before the government slammed the door shut.
I know a good deal about these refugees, most are women and children, they have been exhaustively and repeatedly vested, some for two to four year in refugee camps, they have suffered greatly, lost everything. I will promise you that they are no threat to you, or too your country. I am quite astonished to see all of these tough and tough-talking politicians terrified of these battered women and children.
If you knew these people, you would hardly believe what you are hearing and seeing from our government.
They need towels and plates and blankets and pillows, teapots and silverware and cups and saucers.
They have arrived in America with a very small stipend (much of which they have to pay back in the middle of an upstate New York winter.) They have come straight from refugee camps and have lost everything. If you would like to help them, inexpensively and easily, please check out the Amazon refugee gift page. The gifts range from $6 to $30.
Some of the refugees are presenting an art show in Albany on March 30, Maria and I have been asked to help promote, which we are very happy to do. I will also soon be meeting the family that Maria and I will be helping to mentor. I am glad they got through before the gates slammed. I hope they will one day be reunited with their families.
Skip the arguments and rationalizing. You can just help, it costs little and does much good. They need everything.
Maria and I were in Brattleboro, Vt. yesterday, one of our favorite towns. I saw this doll in a store window and was struck by the image. Dreamy and mystical.
