Dems work to keep subsidies for agribusiness

Early and late in the day weren't the only times I shot photos of Rex. These were taken in the late morning. The "rules" tell you to avoid shooting pictures with the sun overhead and that is certainly good advice if you want to photograph people. Sunlight overhead tends to cast dark shadows on the faces of your subjects that can distract from their features. Although the light at that time of day can be harsh, casting strong shadows, if you have the right subject, the shadows can make a photo more dramatic.

This day with this subject was one of the times when the rules were meant to be broken.

As the construction progressed, photographing the site became more interesting and fun. One aspect of photographing Rex to be that I enjoyed the most was looking for the patterns that began to appear among the repeating structural elements. The interplay between the structure and the light caused the patterns to vary as the light changed with the time of day. Early mornings and late afternoons were the best times to stop by because the longer shadows lent a more dramatic look to everything.

Photos taken 2/4/2007

That's what the sign said and by February of last year you could see that they meant it. The first floor walls had plywood on them and the frame for the second floor was going up.

The weather continued to cooperate with the builders so construction was moving along at a good pace. One sunny Sunday in early Ferbruary I stopped by to take these photos.

I'm taking a class at Sonoma State, EDUC 570, The Reflective Educator. One of the goals of the class is to have students examine their philosophy of teaching and then try to determine how that philosophy came to be by examining the personal belief system that underlies the philosophy.

As part of the process of examining our philosophies, we are exploring the history of the public school in America. One of the dominant themes in the history of education in America has been that those in power are the people who decide what will be included in schools' curriculum. In the early days of public schools, the majority of Americans were white Protestants. As the American common school system came into being, it was the white Protestant world view and moral order that dominated how the purpose of schools was defined and what was taught in school.

Those in charge of the piper were the ones who called the tune. How the educational decisions made by the dominant majority impacted different cultures (Catholic Irish or African Americans for example) was of little concern to those in power. Indeed, the firm conviction of their cultural superiority led those in power to believe the best thing for other cultures was to abandon their ways and adopt the beliefs and values of the Protestant majority.

I was reminded of how the shortsightedness of those in power can affect lives after reading an article titled 'Names with an apostrophe do not compute' in today's paper. Apparently something as small as an apostrophe, space or hyphen in your last name can be enough to prevent you from being able to vote, make it difficult to rent a car or book a flight or interfere with your college exams. This happens because some of the people who program computers don't seem to realize that not everyone has a single-word last name like White or Smith. A name like O'Connor or Van Kemp can confuse some computers or even corrupt the system.

Rather than deal with the problems or try and change the system, many people have chosen to change the spelling of their name by removing the offending character. Dropping an apostrophe from your name may not seem like much of a sacrifice for the convenience gained. But what if you are faced with the choice of abandoning your cultural heritage or religious beliefs in order to "fit in"?