Blog Author Richard Newman

Let’s review: the month started with torches, hate and heartbreak. We looked hard at ourselves and we saw division. Then, nature took over. In one week we saw the sky turn to night in the middle of the day. Next the sky opened like never before. What’s the connection? The power of the images we saw. 

The images from Virginia have already settled deep into our collective souls. We were reminded of our history and heritage. The images are difficult to write about. They made me question a lot of things, like neighbors and even some friends that I’ve never questioned before. We saw true hate.

Then, the sky went black in the middle of the day across the entire country. The images we saw from it were striking in their technical achievement, and gazillions of them were taken from cell phones. They compared in quality to those taken of space from the world’s largest telescopes when I was a kid in the '60s and we first walked on the moon. We also saw a country that was captivated by the event. It seemed like everyone took the day off to celebrate the planet and its wonders. People wore boxes on their heads and stared at shadows on the ground and they ALL posted pictures on the Web.

As we reveled in the wonder and the science of a total eclipse, we saw an image of a weather map with a spinning tropical depression. It didn’t look good and it wasn’t.

It seems trite to talk about Hurricane Harvey, but I’ll talk about the images and the personal effect they have had on me. I saw love and a true America where we are all equal. I saw an America where even under the most horrific and tragic conditions, our spirit was never in question. I saw photographs. 

There are no images for this months blog……I still need to digest what I’ve seen.