The Great Security State
Just Statues Lincoln and Reagan
At the entry to the Fountain Hills Park are a number of statues, some seated on benches, some standing, all with commemorative plaques and praising comments. The figures cast shadows, some longer than others. Most of the statues are of men and most have...
Flying Home Another trip into the books
Airports are transitional. In airports we are moving to someplace new or returning to someplace familiar. We are waiting interminable hours then squeezing into airplanes that take us 35,000 feet above the Earth and show us movies. We are victims of...
Camel Talk Smoking room, Santo Domingo Airport
Smoking has taken a beating in the United States. Most smoking in America has been banned from public buildings. All tobacco packaging has to contain scientific warnings that tobacco products are not good for your health. Tobacco is taxed at an...
Calle Estrellita In the neighborhood
Yes, there is trash on the sidewalks. Yes, you have to watch your step. Yes, people live close together with no yards,few garages, a myriad of empty buildings waiting for bank money and investors to fix them up. Yes, there is noise and congestion. Yes,...
Mr. Postman utility bill delivery system
There is a Postal Service in the Dominican Republic but it is either not used, not trusted, or not helpful to the citizens in this old colonial neighborhood. In the United States, our Post Office is maligned with carriers driving expensive Post...
Fixing a Leak Plumbers are needed
The main water supply line from the street to the house is accessible from the sidewalk. You lift a little metal door in the sidewalk and quickly find a leaking coupling that joins the city part of the water line with the homeowners part of the water...
Police Band Zona Colonial Plaza Santo Domingo Event
The last police band i saw was in Cuenca, at a celebration for ex-pats and foreign business development in that Ecuadorian city. This Santo Domingo events aim is to support women and fight domestic violence in Latin America.This police band provides some...
Talking Man Newerk Airport
We listen to a lot of talking heads but this guy actually makes sense. As an employer, you don't have to pay his wages, retirement, medical benefits or deal with his personal issues that cost you money. Fred stays where you put him and does as he is...
Airports I Have Known Newark, New Jersey
Before you get somewhere you have to go somewhere. The collection of airports this trip will be those in Albuquerque; Denver; Newark, Houston and Santo Domingo. With checking in, security, eating, waiting, layovers, flight time, twenty hours will go by...
Little Girl on her Wrist Phone Scotttreks at work
The map on one of the Starbuck's walls shows several continents. When you spread the world out, pin it to a wall, you take out all its bumps, contours, unknowns, inconsistencies. When Columbus laid out his world map on the sturdy table in his Captain's...
Controlled Violence Lunch at Dion's Pizza
Eric, a retired Army Ranger, who patrolled streets of Iraq in full battle gear, has told me violence is a way of life and controlling or neutralizing it was once his mission as well as his livelihood. When I talk with a man who has had to take...
New Mexico Rail Runner Rapid transit in a horse and buggy state
The New Mexico Rail Runner is New Mexico's foray into mass transit in a state that is rural except for four larger cities along the Rio Grande north to south. In 2018, our entire population was just over two million. The impetus was to spend federal...
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