empathy

EMPATHY Nous sommes l'un l'autre.

The worst thing that can happen to an artist is social acceptance. -- James Agee

Whenever the people rebel, the people are right. -- Goethe

Protest banner outside the White House. June 20, 2009.

A tribute to Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, outside the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, June 12, 2009. Information on donating to a fund to benefit the family of Officer Johns can be found on the museum's website or by calling 877-91USHMM (877-918-7466).

From morning suns and evening dews
At first thy little being came;
If nothing once, you nothing lose,
For when you die you are the same;
The space between is but an hour,
The frail duration of a flower.
-- Philip Freneau, "The Wild Honeysuckle"

Honeysuckle Stigma (100x). May 31, 2009.

Memorial Day 2009

World War II Memorial. May 25, 2009, Washington, DC.

David Axelrod, White House Senior Advisor, chats with Katie Couric, Anchor and Managing Editor of CBS News, at a roast held in her honor by the American News Women's Club, May 20, 2009. Earlier in the evening, we floated the idea to Mr. Axelrod that President Obama nominate a computer to replace Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. He offered no comment.

Patriotism begins with empathy, with people caring about each other.
-- George Lakoff

A hostess offers sample flags at the annual open house of the Embassy of Iraq. May 2, 2009, Washington, DC.

Staff, volunteers, and guests join together in dance at the Embassy of Iraq's open house. May 2, 2009, Washington, DC.

Singer Mounir Al Acheq and band perform at the Embassy of Iraq. May 2, 2009, Washington, DC.

Notwithstanding the pain and sickness that one must endure in the journey of cancer, I am here to tell you tonight that I am a blessed person. I am blessed because I have family and friends here this weekend. I have friends from high school, college and law school who have traveled all over the country to be here.
-- Jeanette A. Michael, Esq.

Jeanette Michael, speaks at the Sixth Annual George Washington University Cancer Gala, April 25, 2009. Ms. Michael received the Spirit of Life Award at the gala, for her courageous personal battle as a cancer patient.

Jeanette Michael celebrates with GWU President Steven Knapp, left, and former Washington Mayor and current member of the D.C. City Council, Marion Barry.

Steven R. Patierno, PhD, Executive Director of the GW Cancer Institute, with Dr. Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen, principal benefactors of the gala, held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington, DC.

Rachel Brem, MD, Director of Breast Imaging and Intervention at the George Washington University Medical Center, with her husband, Henry. Dr. Brem received the Commitment to Overcoming Cancer Award.

Allie Rubin and Rebecca Kelner, GWU undergraduates, talk about their volunteer work with Camp Kesem, "a free one week sleep-away camp for the children of cancer patients."

Easter Sunday 2009

Former U.S. Secretary of State, retired four-star General Colin Powell and his wife, Alma, listen to mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves sing at the Lincoln Memorial, April 12, 2009, in Washington, DC. The concert marked the anniversary of a performance by the African American contralto, Marian Anderson, at the same location, 70 years earlier. In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution denied Ms. Anderson permission to perform at Constitution Hall, because of her race. In response, then First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt immediately resigned her membership with the DAR and enabled Ms. Anderson to sing, instead, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Of that 1939 concert, held on Easter Sunday, before an integrated crowd of 75,000, Ms. Anderson would later recall:
"All I knew then as I stepped forward was the overwhelming impact of the vast multitude. There seemed to be people as far as the eye could see...I had a feeling that a great wave of good will poured out from these people, almost engulfing me."

After Denyce Graves' tribute performance, Michael Aytes, Acting Deputy Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, administered the oath of allegiance to a group of candidates for U.S. citizenship.

Luigi Oberon, left, an immigrant from Peru, celebrates with his family, moments after being sworn in as a new U.S. citizen. April 12, 2009, Washington, DC.

Dancers at the 26th convention of the International Association of Gay Square Dance Clubs at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.
April 11, 2009, Washington, DC.

There's hope for a better world. There's hope for a better tomorrow. Without hope, not only gays, but those blacks, and the Asians, the disabled, the seniors, the us's--the us's--without hope, the us's give up. I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but, without it, life is not worth living. And you, and you, and you have got to give them hope. -- Harvey Milk

Stopping genocide is everyone's business.
-- Madeleine Albright

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, speaks at the Elliott School of International Affairs on the 15th anniversary of genocide in Rwanda. April 7, 2009, Washington, DC.

Cherry Blossom Queens. April 4, 2009, Washington, DC.

Alex Trebek, Cherry Blossom Parade Grand Marshal, rides in a vintage Cadillac. April 4, 2009, Washington, DC.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, marching down Constitution Avenue with girl scouts from the nation's capital. April 4, 2009, Washington, DC.

The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?
-- Jeremy Bentham

Cheetah reclining at the Smithsonian National Zoo. March 29, 2009, Washington, DC.

Wendy Jordan, National Zoo volunteer, displaying the pelt of a clouded leopard, March 29, 2009. Such pelts are often sold illegally on the black market. This one, however, came from a leopard that had died of old age at the zoo's conservation center in Front Royal, Virginia. Native to forests of southern Asia (from the Himalayas to Malaysia), the clouded leopard is threatened by deforestation as well as poaching.

Slider turtles basking in the sun. March 29, 2009, Washington, DC.

St. Patrick's Day 2009

Front Lawn of the White House. March 17, 2009, Washington, DC.
To celebrate the day, the fountain water was dyed green.

Boots with the fur.

Grimaldi, a Labradoodle, enjoying the sunshine. March 7, 2009, Washington, DC.

The little white clouds are racing over the sky,
And the fields are strewn with the gold of the flower of March,
The daffodil breaks under foot, and the tasselled larch
Sways and swings as the thrush goes hurrying by.
--Oscar Wilde

Daffodils in Rock Creek Park. March 7, 2009, Washington, DC.

Sunshine cannot bleach the snow,
Nor time unmake what poets know.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nate and his owner out for a walk in the snow. March 2, 2009, Washington, DC.

Ruby. March 2, 2009, Washington, DC. Rescued from a South Carolina shelter one week prior, she had never encountered snow before.

Members of Ruby's family, sledding at Tregaron. March 2, 2009, Washington, DC.

Oscar, clearing the snow outside Vace Italian Delicatessen. March 2, 2009, Washington, DC.

South lawn of the White House. March 2, 2009, Washington, DC.

Oh, my luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June;
Oh, my luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.
--Robert Burns

Rosa 'Mister Lincoln,' a hybrid tea rose, February 12, 2009 (200 years to the day Nancy Hanks Lincoln gave birth to a son, Abraham, in a log cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky).

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate. --Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America, January 20, 2009.

The National Mall. January 20, 2009, Washington, DC.

The King in a carriage may ride,
And the Beggar may crawl at his side;
But in the general race,
They are traveling all the same pace.
-- Edward FitzGerald

Old Carriage Wheel. January 1, 2009, Charleston, SC.

Season's Greetings

Taft Bridge Lion. December 25, 2008, Washington, DC. Christmas morning is one of the few times Connecticut Avenue takes a traffic holiday. A moment after this first photograph, though, a black Mercedes pulled up. The driver got out and walked towards a homeless man, who had appeared on the sidewalk. "Can I give you something?" the man asked, holding out his wallet. "I hope you have a merry Christmas," he added, handing over some cash.

The car drove off as the homeless man walked down under the bridge.

Elephant Bath. October 5, 2008, Etosha National Park, Namibia. A few days later, a two year old elephant died at a neighboring waterhole (in Okaukuejo) of dehydration and emaciation. A herd of elephants came and touched it.

If there's a chord in us that kittens strike, maybe there's one for justice, and for mercy, for sacrifice and reciprocity, kindness and respect.
-- John Leonard (the late critic and novelist)

Juvenile African Wildcat, outside Windhoek, Namibia. October, 2008.
We had just passed a police checkpoint, as we were leaving the city for the Namib Desert, when we noticed this cat, stranded in the middle of the road. We decided to stop. It had clearly been hit by a car and was unable to move its back legs. At first it hissed at us and tried to get away, dragging itself forward with its front two legs. We quickly bundled it into a shirt (to avoid getting scratched), and it calmed down. We took it to a veterinary hospital back in town. The staff were very nice; after examining the animal, though, the vet said it had a broken back and would have to be euthanized. H. cried. The receptionist handed her a box of tissues. We paid a small fee (equivalent to about six US dollars) and left the cat at the hospital in a cage. Back on the road, we decided to name this animal that we'd never see again Checkpoint Charlie. We thought it might have been a stray farm cat. However, down in the desert, a tour guide told us that from the picture it looked like an African Wildcat. It has been hypothesized that all domesticated cats around the world are descended from African Wildcats (although more recent research points to their cousin, the Near-Eastern Wildcat as the ancestor).

The Sphinx of Connecticut Avenue. November 15, 2008, Washington, DC.

Veterans Day 2008

Tomb of the Unkowns. November 11, 2008, Arlington National Cemetary, Arlington, VA.

There’s a lot of talk in this country about the federal deficit. But I think we should talk more about our empathy deficit – the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes; to see the world through those who are different from us – the child who’s hungry, the laid-off steelworker, the immigrant woman cleaning your dorm room. -- Barack Obama