Protest Easy Guns

I had my day all planned out today. I was going to stay home, do laundry, and wash dishes. Maybe make some home-made granola. But when I was in the shower this morning, WHYY mentioned something about an anti-gun protest today on Independence Mall. I looked up the details online, grabbed my camera, and headed downtown.

The protest was by a group called ProtestEasyGuns.com (their name is their address), largely in response to the shootings at Virginia Tech.

It was a smaller group than I'd hoped, but it was a Sunday, and the weather forecast called for thunderstorms today, and it was already raining a little bit by the time the protest started. At least there were a couple of tv filming crews there (one from Fox29, and I'm not sure about the other one), plus a reporter from KYW1060 News Radio.

There were about 32 protesters (plus maybe an extra supporter or two)--mostly women-- dressed in black with "Outrage ribbons" in Virginia Tech's school colors, maroon and orange. I believe I heard someone say that the scarves were made by a mother who lost a child at Virginia Tech, but I can't be sure. Leading up to noon, they handed out flyers titled, "Did you know that in Pennsylvania" to passers-by, listing some disturbing facts about buying guns in PA (There is no waiting period to buy a gun. No training is required to obtain a permit for carrying a concealed weapon. You are not required to report a lost or stolen gun to police.) and giving information on contacting legislators, and on organizing your own protest.

At noon, the group formed into 2 lines. Hope Bennett, one of the organizers of the protest, read a short speech explaining what the event was about. She summed up her own involvement by explaining: "I have sat at home and expressed my outrage to my family and myself. After the Virginia Tech incident, we can no longer stay on the sidelines. Enough is enough; it's time to try something else."

She also made a good point when repeating the arguments made by the gun-lobby: "Guns don't kill people; people kill people. Absolutely, so we invite the gun lobby to stand shoulder to shoulder with us in the fight to keep guns out of the hands of those people."

The 32 people (symbolizing the 32 victims at Virginia Tech and the 32 people who die every day in this country from gun violence) then lay down on the sidewalk for a few minutes, symbolizing the amount of time it took for the VA Tech shooter to obtain his gun.

Afterward, I talked briefly with Hope Bennett. She'd been hard to hear over the Market Street traffic, so she kindly gave me a copy of her speech.

Penn Alumni Day 2007

Saturday, May 12 was Alumni Day at the University of Pennsylvania. It's a fun event for any alum, with a chance to see old friends and remember your college days. And it's a great event for any photographer, bringing together a number of interesting elements: college students present and past, music, children, free food (I had a hot dog and cherry water ice), parades, parties, campus tours, and other special events. It climaxes (well, "climaxes" might be too strong a word) with the parade of classes down Locust Walk, focusing primarily on the major reunion classes--especially the 25th and 50th reunions, who natually give the most money. As you can see, fun was had by all.

Drumtime for Bongo

This man was at Broad and Sansom Streets, just across Sansom from the Union League. He shook my hand and introduced himself as "Bongo." "Appropriate name," I said to him, and he smiled a toothless grin before returning to his instrument. He wished a happy Mother's Day to some passing women while I snapped a few photos of him before heading to Border's Books for a cup of coffee.

May 13 MOVE Protest

As anyone who was alive in Philadelphia in 1985 knows, on May 13 of that year, the city's police department dropped a bomb on the roof of the MOVE house, in advertently igniting containers of kerosene, and subsequently burning down an entire block of 62 houses and killing 11 of the 13 people who were inside the MOVE house. I remember watching it on TV when it happened, even though I was only 13 at the time. It remains a divisive issue in the city, with people taking sides either with the police or with MOVE. Today is the 22nd anniversary of that event.

Every year the survivors, other MOVE members, and their supporters stage a protest. These photos come from the event at Broad and Walnut Streets. An angry young man was shouting through a megaphone to anyone who would listen about the evil system of government we all live with. Most people seemed to ignore what was going on, although I saw a few people stop and take literature from the protesters.





This man, along with a few others at each of the four street corners at Broad and Walnut, was handing out literature about Mumia Abu Jamal, another issue which MOVE has associated itself with. I talked with him for a few minutes, during which time a passing pedestrian shouted "Cop killer!" as he passed. The man responded with a quick "Fuck you!" before resuming his conversation with me:





Another man approached me while I was taking photographs and stared at me in an unfriendly and highly suspicious way. I finally said, "hi there," and he asked me who I was taking photos for. And I told him about Philly Happening.
"Are you sure it's not for a guy named Tony Allen?" he asked.
"Who's Tony Allen? Some guy who doesn't like you?" I responded
"You seem to know all about that then," he said, as if confirming his suspicions.
"No, you just seemed really suspicious about him, so I assume he's not your biggest fan."
I don't think he believed me, but he dropped the subject and we talked for a few minutes more before I moved on.

[update: I looked up Tony Allen, and indeed, he is no fan of MOVE. He runs the "Anti-MOVE/Mumia Blog" Like I said: highly divisive.]

Dadvail Regatta 2007

Dad Vail is the largest collegiate regatta in the country, bringing thousands of rowers from over 100 college and universities to the banks of the Schuylkill River. And for me, it's like the first robin of Spring: Finally the weather gets nice again, and I can emerge from my winter shell and head out across the city with my camera, take photos, and make new friends. This year was no exception. It was really inspiring, too. Actually made me want to go down into the basement and row on my Concept2. Of course, by the time I got home, the feeling had passed. :)

As my friend would say, "My, there certainly are a lot of white people out today." And it's true. The crowd at Dad Vail was easily 99% white, with a few Asian rowers visible, and almost nobody black or latino. It's rather striking when you're used to the much more racially mixed Center City and West Philadelphia. It's a little surprising when you think about it. There are plenty of cities with rivers and large non-white populations (Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Washington DC, etc.), so I'm not sure why rowing has remained such a racially homogeneous sport.

There was a huge crowd at the regatta, and there was a lot of energy. Lots of shouting spectators and fans near the finish line, and then each college had an area devoted to it, where they kept the boats, and the teams and their coaches and families hung out and ate their picnic lunches.

People raced and people rowed:

People carried boats (which admittedly wasn't very exciting, but it did make for some good photographs. I particularly like the symmetricality of when the team lifts the boats straight over their heads, as in the 2nd and rd photos below. Here are some of my faves:

And people rested. Who can blame them? Hell, I was tired just from WATCHING all that rowing.

There was a parking lot-turned-vendor area, where there were free samples galore, t-shirts, cheese steaks, rowing-related art for sale, Verizon (for some strange reason), and yes, even the Peeps-mobile was there:

One woman brought her 2-month-old chihuahua, which was absolutely adorable. People kept swarming around her to get a look at the cute little dog.

But people were doing more than just rowing (and resting from it) on this beautiful day. They were riding bikes, walking their dogs, spending time with their children, and... engaging in... some sort of... sword play...for some reason:

We also ran into Kyle Looker, who was walking with some friends along the bike path on Kelly Drive when all of a sudden he leapt from the path to the rock face and started climbing. Once he got to the top, he needed a little help from below to find a good place to come back down. Kyle and his friends, who graciously posed for a photo, were rowers from California who made it as far as the semi-finals, but now that they had some free time while the finals were being decided, they went for a walk.

And that's it for Dad Vail for this year. I'm sure we'll be covering other events on the Schuylkill later in the summer.