Showing posts with label National Mall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Mall. Show all posts

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Another day on the National Mall




Lynda Farley of Edmonton, Kentucky stopped traffic on the National Mall Wednesday with her message about smokers' rights/Patricia Leslie

 
On the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol before several thousand Wednesday, Michele Bachmann waxed poetic into a microphone for a few minutes about the evils of the Internal Revenue Service.  Mrs.Bachmann went to work for the IRS after she finished law school so she could work inside the enemy and find out exactly what was going on, she exclaimed to the throng.  (Then, why did it take her 20 years to reveal her discovery?)


Tea Partiers covered the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday and listened to Michele Bachmann, among others, talk about the evil of taxes. President Ulysses S. Grant presided from his horse (on the left)/Patricia Leslie
 
Save the world, Michele Bachmann shall!  But not from her seat in the U.S. Congress since she's quitting.
 
A van with a message/Patricia Leslie
 
Meanwhile, a little further west, beyond the Capitol Reflecting Pool and parked on Third Street was a well-decorated (every spare inch) minivan occupied by Lynda Farley of Farley Road in Edmonton, Kentucky. 
Mrs. Farley's vehicle gained some attention on the Mall Wednesday/Patricia Leslie
 
 
Mrs. Farley, an advocate for smokers' rights, sat in the driver's seat puffing away on one cigarette after another, and giving to anyone who stopped at the passenger's window for a few seconds, a little American flag with her website printed on the wooden stick:  libertyvan. com.
 

Lynda Farley of Edmonton, Kentucky, funds her smokers' rights campaign with money from retirement and inheritance/Patricia Leslie

 
She has taken her smokers' rights message to 49 state capitols (Fairbanks, Alaska is the exception) and put more than 367,000 miles on her car ("two engines!") but a traffic citation for "books on my dashboard!" will keep her in Washington at least through her court appearance on Friday.
A dashboard of books violates the law in Washington, D.C./Patricia Leslie

 
(First we have national surveillance of every email and phone call we make. Next, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to inspect every morsel of food New Yorkers discard, in addition to checking trash, and that's just the beginning!  The government wants our light bulbs, and you better watch out for your coffee before it's taxed or banned, and now, it’s books we read!  Or pile on our dashboards.  Just like Orwell wrote about in 1984 whose sales, by the way, are up 3,000 percent ever since the national surveillance story broke.  Thank you very much, Edward Snowden.)

 
Anyway, Mrs. Farley, who left her husband at home with the dogs (18 Afghans which they breed), said the traffic cop tried to give her a ticket for obscured rear visibility until Mrs. Farley pointed out she has special cameras to show the view of the rear, so the traffic cop cited her for a crowded book dashboard, instead.  (Try Googling that.  And, if they wanna get you, they're gonna get you.  After all, this is a police state.)

"Look," said the tourist.  "Do you see what I see?" An large metal eagle with wings spread, and other items, on the minivan's attached wagon/Patricia Leslie
 
 
“Look,” said Mrs. Farley, lighting up another weed and proudly showing her copy of Rand Paul’s new book, Government Bullies, to an inquisitor:  “It’s autographed.”
 
A line of antique cars on the Mall piqued interest/Patricia Leslie
 
 
A few feet away and lined up on the Mall's gravel path were antique cars for passersby to photograph and envy. Nearby, the cars’ owners sat in lawn chairs on the grass or milled about while they piled hot dog lunches on paper plates.  They seemed somewhat dazed by all the activity and the Mall's competing factors.
 

Identification on this car said Dodge, but it looked like a Rolls Royce/Patricia Leslie

Little do they know what goes on here every day.  It's a great place to be. On the National Mall. 
God love it!
And us!
And them.
God bless the USA.
Anybody here old enough to remember the Corsair?/Patricia Leslie



Sunday, May 19, 2013

Police cars on the Mall

Police cars at the National Mall last week/Patricia Leslie

A line of classic police cars was on display at the National Mall last week, transported from around the U.S. for the annual convention of National Police Week, held every year in Washington.

From the New York Police Department/Patricia Leslie

In 1962 President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation designating May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the following week as Police Week, according to the Police Week website.
 


From Trumbull, CT/Patricia Leslie
 

Between 25,000 and 40,000 from the U.S. and around the world were expected to attend all or part of the convention which included the National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service and candlelight vigil to honor officers who have given their lives in service. Last year 40 officers died while in service, according to preliminary estimates, an increase of 18 percent from 2011.  California had the most number of law enforcement deaths (7), followed by Arkansas (4).
From Peekskill, NY/Patricia Leslie
From the Wyoming Highway Patrol/Patricia Leslie
On the rear window of the Wyoming Highway Patrol car: In Memory of Trooper Peter Visser End of Watch 10-12-81 and Heroes Live Forever nearby/Patricia Leslie
Another car from the NYPD/Patricia Leslie
Inside the NYPD car/Patricia Leslie
 

patricialesli@gmail.com
 

Monday, April 15, 2013

Crosses on the Mall


Crosses on the Mall April 12, 2013/Patricia Leslie

After a 24-hour vigil and the reading of victims' names, volunteers on Friday began removing from the National Mall, 3,300 crosses, Stars of David, and Islamic insignia, reminders of those killed by gun violence since the Newtown murders on December 14, 2012.

Crosses on the Mall April 12, 2013/Patricia Leslie

Groups which participated in the placement of the temporary grave markers on Thursday included the Sojourners,  Park View Kids Zone,  Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and PICO National Network (People Improving Communities through Organizing).
Crosses on the Mall April 12, 2013/Patricia Leslie

Their members were part of hundreds who converged on Capitol Hill to urge Congress to act to curb more gun deaths, and they made a difference:  16 Republican senators voted with 52 Democrats to continue the gun control debate, no small feat in times of heady money and influential lobbyists for the gun industry.

Crosses on the Mall April 12, 2013/Patricia Leslie

patricialesli@gmail.com