I fear we do not clearly understand what social equality is and why it has value here and now. I fear I will not leave this earth a better place for the generations after me.
Through these images and fictitious stories, I begin to process and bargain with social pressures and expose them for what they mean to me. These images and accompanying vignettes reveal a duality between the strong, the more effective, and the more privileged exerting control over the less privileged. Where the equal are treated unequally, and the unequal are treated equally.
The other side of the tracks
One hundred years in the future, there was an outpost known for designing and manufacturing the first affordable battery-powered aero car. This city was all too typical, except for its ugly side. Like towns of the past, it had two sides of the railroad tracks. The wealthy and influential lived on the west side, while the less privileged lower-income people lived on the east side. Barry, the wealthy mayor of this city, lived on the west side and was also the CEO of the Aero Car Company. Barry needed a low-paid workforce to assemble his aero cars, keeping his profits high. Unsurprisingly, this workforce primarily lived on the east side of the tracks. As mayor, Barry went to great lengths to oppress the people on the other side of the tracks. One day, a delivered aero car had a battery fire and killed all but one of the occupants. The survivor filed a lawsuit, and just like that, Barry and the Aero Car Company were bankrupt. After the dust settled, the Aero Car Company rebooted as an employee-owned company. The tracks were removed, and the town's people lived in harmony. As for Barry, after failing to meet the quality standards in the door assembly area, he found a home in battery testing.
The Path Taken
Ronald was a wealthy businessman, used to getting what he wanted at any cost. He was a charlatan and grifter and believed only in self, destroying anybody who got in his way. You were his best friend until he’s gotten what he wanted from you, then you were cast aside and duped. Needless to say, Ronald made a lot of enemies. One day Ronald suffered a severe stroke and found himself in the presence of two gatekeepers. One gatekeeper dressed in a high-priced suit, the other in rags. Both gatekeepers tell Ronald that their gates lead to heaven, and both say the other entrance leads to hell. Ronald must choose his path. He selects the gate guarded by the well-dressed gatekeeper since the keeper dressed in rags must be the lesser and not the path to heaven. It turns out that both gates lead to hell, and to the great amusement of the gatekeepers, Ronald is returned to the physical world, unable to talk, unable to move. Unfortunately for Ronald, his mind was unaltered.
Love for the Lost
Beverly and Jim are a happy couple with two young children, David and Kattie. Bev is a stay-at-home mom, while Jim works in the financial world. Jim and young David are constantly at odds with each other. All very typical until a pandemic rocks their world. In the spring of 2020, Jim contracts the virus, possibly from someone on his daily train ride to and from work. Little is known about this virus, but it is very transmissible. This virus is brutal, and all four family members are infected. After two weeks of illness, Beverly and Kattie are admitted to the hospital ER on ventilators. Just one week later, both succumbed to the virus and are gone. Leaving Jim and his son David constantly at odds with each other.
Plumber by Day
Lyel is a middle-aged, educated man. He has a slender build and is quite handsome. Lyel is a plumber by trade and is routinely on job sites away from home and his wife and children for days at a time. While away, he engages in illicit relationships. Lyel is a womanizer. These women pose a danger to him and his life. They encourage him to gamble, spending much of his money. He drinks too much when he’s with them and continues to drink when he returns home to his family. At home, Lyel is abusive to his wife and is not much of a father to his kids until he leaves again on the next job assignment and charms another woman in red shoes.
Extinguished
Hundreds of millions worldwide have been forced from their homes because of political conflicts. One such person, I will call her Maye to protect her identity, traveled for weeks before arriving at the U.S. border seeking asylum. She was exposed to physical abuses during her migration to the border in exchange for passage. Maye thought she was being processed for asylum at the United States border. Instead, she was transported to another region of the United States and left to her own devices with little to no humanitarian services. At this point, Maye has little to no chance of being granted asylum without a lawyer, which is beyond her grasp as she has only the clothes on her back. A confused Maye is taken back to the border country from which she entered. The flame is extinguished.
TWO PEOPLES
In a land not too far away, there existed two peoples: the Perquisites and the Impecunites. The Perquisites oppressed the Impecunites in every conceivable way, and farm animals had more privileges. No one knows where it came from, but a virus spread across this land, killing millions. What was unusual about this virus was that it was highly contagious and affected only the Perquisites. The Impecunites seemed to be immune to this deadly virus. Even while the Perquisites were dying exponentially, they refused help from the Impecunites, primarily because of misinformation spread by extremist Perquisites. This was most unfortunate since every Impecunite had life-saving antibodies that could have saved many lives, but instead, the Perquisites ceased to exist. With the following generations, the Impecunites grew and prospered as a single people, but eventually, greed and the lust for power divided the Impecunites. In a land not too far away, there existed two peoples.
Wrong place, Right time
Bryan is young and, while on travel, went for an evening run. While on this run, Bryan ends up being in the wrong place at the wrong time and is arrested and accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Because he is ethnically different, this young man is assumed guilty and up to no good. Bryan is poor and doesn’t have the resources to be appropriately represented, and he is being pressured by his court-assigned lawyer to plead guilty to minimize his prison time. Bryan now has to decide, fight the charges, and likely be found guilty resulting in a lengthy prison sentence, versus pleading guilty in exchange for a shorter sentence. The alarm rings, and Bryan, the young man, wakes up, puts on his suit and tie, grabs a quick bite to eat, and heads to court to uncompromisingly represent young men caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Different
Suza was born to mixed-race parents in a small segregated town. Students in high school can be cliquish and cruel to others that are different from themselves. Suza was no exception and was on the receiving end of this form of harassment. She was excluded, snubbed, and made fun of because of her parents' ethnicity. Suza was hard-working, had an after-school job, and got excellent grades. Suza was different and could look beyond the continual barrage from her fellow students. Suza graduated at the top of her high school class, went on to college, and then to a prestigious medical school. Suza WAS different, she pioneered medical treatments that improved lives, including the lives of her fellow high school students.
Justice is Served
Susan is driving across the United States to attend a business meeting in Florida. Along the way, she is stopped by the police for no apparent reason. See, Susan is a minority and has been stopped in the part of the country where discrimination against minorities is unfortunately common. Aware of her situation, Susan becomes incredibly nervous. The officer senses her nervousness and presses her even harder with questions to expose any criminal activity. This further questioning causes her to get even more nervous, resulting in a rapidly escalating cycle. One thing leads to another, and the officer wants to search her vehicle. Susan knows her rights and refuses. The officer gets Susan out of the car with her hands on the hood, arrests her for some bogus made-up reason, and takes her in for processing. Her constitutional rights have been clearly violated. Later that day, Susan was released, and the trumped-up charges were dismissed. Unfortunately for the police officer, she recorded the whole event on her cell phone. Even more unfortunate for the officer and the department was that Susan is one of the top attorneys for the United States Department of Justice. Up and down the chain of command of this town's police department, justice was about to be served.
Kill it Before it Grows
Tim struggled with gender identity ever since grade school in the early 70s. Tim’s parents attributed his behaviors to adolescence, feelings, and emotions that would pass as he got older. In high school, Tim began expressing his identity publically, for which the world was not ready. Tim was called names, made fun of, and discriminated against. Tim’s parents could not accept that Tim was transgender, a term that was not widely used until the 90s. Kill it before it grows was Tim’s parent’s instruction to the countless psychiatrists enlisted to fix Tim. Tim’s parents never accepted Tim’s struggles and ostracized him from the family. They even went so far as to wipe Tim from the family photo albums. Tim’s purpose was now clear. He went to college, became a lawyer, and started a human rights foundation that worked to change laws, policies, and attitudes toward all people, regardless of their identity. Today, Tim fulfills his purpose many times over.
Love's dark side
It was tough to find anything going well globally. Peoples that were once brothers and sisters were at war with each other. Sasha and Kira were twins. As young children, they played for hours with each other, all for one, one for all. When the sisters got older, they exerted independence and lived in neighboring lands. Years later, Kira became the leader of her country. She minimized the rights and democratic freedoms of the people she alone ruled. Sasha also became a leader of her country. Unlike Kira, Sasha governed a democratic society boosting equality and freedom. Kira became increasingly jealous of Sasha and commanded her military to invade the land that Sasha led. Kira made a tactical blunder during the invasion and bombed a nuclear power plant, producing large amounts of released radiation. Unfortunately for Kira, winds blew radiation clouds over her own country, killing many people, including Kira. Jealousy, the dark side of love.
THE PRICE PAID
Luke is on his way to work, walking among the buildings of a small American city. He sees what appears to be a mass shooting in progress down the street. Luke has a concealed carry and extensive firearm training from many years in the Marines. Luke instinctively draws his pistol and approaches the scene to confront the shooter. Just as Luke arrives on the scene, the police arrive. Seeing Luke with a weapon, the police fire at Luke, thinking he is the shooter, killing him. The actual suspect escapes during the confusion and, thankfully, is later apprehended. Luke paid the ultimate price for exercising his constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
The Experiment
Earth and its tenants are under tremendous pressure. Volcanos violently erupted, global warming is ever-present, a pandemic has killed more than six million people, and the nations of the earth are on the brink of another world war. This is not about good versus evil but a disregard for the earth's environment and apocalyptic behavior among its inhabitants. Earth has been under observation since the beginning. It is evident that its human residents are making little to no effort to live beyond the present and are not securing a thriving future. The earth experiment will most likely fail!
