EMPATHY
Nous sommes l'un l'autre.
DC resident, Anastasia, adjusts the lipstick of Rhett Workman, dressed as French Queen Marie Antoinette, at a Bastille Day block party in Washington, DC (July 14, 2010). Bastille Day is the national holiday of France and commemorates the start of the French Revolution in 1789. What does the holiday mean to them? "My mother's French," said Anastasia, "so Vive la France!" And for Rhett? "Champagne, champagne, champagne."
Jim Ball, co-owner of L'Enfant Cafe and Bar in Washington, dressed for the occasion as French King Louis XVI. Bastille Day, he said, was, "a bad day for the king and queen, because they lose their heads, but it was a good way to go out." (Although the French royals were not executed until 1793, the storming of the Bastille Prison in 1789 is celebrated as the start of an uprising that would result in the king and queen being tried and executed four years later.)
On this Bastille day, more heads were coming together than falling off.
Andres, from Madrid, celebrates outside the Embassy of Spain in Washington, minutes after Spain won the World Cup (July 11, 2010). "It's the best time ever," he said, adding, "we needed something like that, now that we are in this economical crisis in Spain. It's like an air balloon."
Revelers in Washington's Dupont Circle fountain celebrate Spain's victory over the Netherlands in the World Cup, July 11, 2010.
We can't really drill our way to the future. Instead, we need to invest in more clean energy sources. It's just not a long term solution to this problem.
-- Heather Matheson (Repower America)
A mason jar containing oil-tainted water from the Gulf of Mexico, at the offices of The Alliance for Climate Protection , July 7, 2010, in Washington, DC. The sample was taken from waters off Grand Isle, Louisiana, on June 13th. The Alliance for Climate Protection is a non-profit organization working to spread the message about the need for action to combat climate change. According to Heather Matheson, Virginia Communications Director for Repower America (one of the Alliance's campaign projects), "94 local officials, businessmen, fishermen, tour boat captains, restaurateurs and ordinary citizens from oil-stricken states on the Gulf of Mexico (Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama) flew to DC and went before Congress Wednesday June 16th to push for a new energy and climate change bill. The focus for the program was on showing the Senators how the spill is currently affecting their communities and show firsthand how America’s dependence on oil and other fossil fuels hurts their economy, environment and the unique way of life in the Gulf. The jars of oil were brought along to show the firsthand impacts of the oil spill when they met with the Senators." The Alliance helped with the logistics of the trip, including arranging meetings with Senate staff.
..Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me...
-- from "The New Colossus," by Emma Lazarus (1883)
A U.S. quarter dollar coin, depicting the Statue of Liberty over a map of the state of New York (June 17, 2010). 125 years earlier, on June 17, 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor. According to the National Park Service, the statue "was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States and is a universal symbol of freedom and democracy." France had been a strong supporter of the American Revolution and the statue was commissioned in 1876 "to commemorate the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence." Officially dedicated in 1886, the Statue of Liberty quickly became a welcoming symbol, as well, for the legions of immigrants who would arrive by ship in New York Harbor. American poet Emma Lazarus anticipated that spirit in her 1883 sonnet, "The New Colossus," which she submitted to be auctioned as part of a fund-raising effort to build a pedestal for the new statue. Her poem, which envisions the statue as the "Mother of Exiles," was later engraved on a plaque inside the monument.
This is awesome. This is what the World Cup's all about--just everybody coming together, having a great time.
-- Tyler Savoy
USA soccer supporter Ben Partington and England football supporter Tyler Savoy share headlocks prior to the start of the USA vs. England World Cup soccer match, at an outdoor viewing event in Washington, DC (June 12, 2010). England and the US would tie 1-1.
More...
Comments? Send e-mail to comments@empathy.com
Copyright 1996-2010 Empathy.com. All rights reserved.