inkbluesky

Skid Row Notes: The Place of Rhetoric

 Life once spent enjoying the richness of community has increasingly become life spent alone behind the wheel. Lacking a physical framework conducive to public discourse, our family and communal institutions struggle to persist in our increasing sub-urban surroundings. And suburban growth seems to have also drained much of the vitality from our inner cities, where a carless underclass finds itself with diminishing access to jobs and services.

Part of a longer academic thesis that attempts to connect the problems society is having in participating in a true public discourse and how we have placed a focus on city planning that  places such a strong emphasis on security. Not only are public places in the true sense of that word disappearing, but whats left is frequently somewhat sterile. The situation is exacerbated by the little capsules of space that so many of us occupy - we exit the house, enter the car, exit the car, enter the urban work space, exit, enter the car, then exit back into our nest. Little wonder that so many Americans see poverty or lower working class America as a televised phenomenon that they are not personally familiar with. As usual when it comes to these longer articles my little commentary doesn’t do all the details justice.

autumn blur 

Henry Moore’s Falling Warrior,

 Moore imbues the work with neither heroism or cowardice, success or failure.

Photos at the link.

rest stop or if this van is rock’n it means VWs can come back from the dead. (an anonymous contribution all credit to original photographer).