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Press Release : Article : Denver Colorado

        The Magazine

I Shot the Mayor…
by Bev Saidel


I am never surprised by the amount of change that can occur barely before we know it. When I started thinking about how to write this article I lived in a world where the aspect of many things as we knew them had suddenly changed. For example, the federal government determined it would set aside the Geneva conventions and allow torture; the Supreme Court ruled to allow blanket eminent domain over the sanctity of the home; and my friends were talking about the Patriot Act and the apparent loss of personal freedom.
 
In the midst of all of this, I met with a friend over the course of a beautiful fall weekend and our conversation led to an interesting point about how our conversation could, if overheard by certain governmental elements, be construed as “treasonous.” I was abased. How was it that I now lived in a country where conversation might be construed as treasonous? “Incredulous” might be the best word to describe my feelings. Surely my friend must be wrong. After all, I have always been political and have always spoken my mind freely with barely a thought. And I lived in a free society didn’t I? And this wasn’t the ‘50s. McCarthy was long dead and this was America, home of the brave, land of the free. What happened?

Our weekend conversation never strayed too far from politics. The corruption of the Bush administration, the lies and the deceit, the death toll of innocents who appeared to be dying for revenge or oil or who knows what. Certainly freedom was touted as the point of the war, but then how was it that American freedom appeared to have become moot and something that I needed to question?

I began to feel a bit paranoid. After all, I had grown up in a country where I was told that I could do anything, strive for anything and be free to enjoy the openness of conversation, of writing, of thinking. Suddenly I found that I was living in a country where paranoia reigned on a lot of different levels. What did my friend mean when he said we could be thrown in jail for our conversation and possibly become one of the “disappeared?” No, no! This is America, my home; the country that was formed out of dissention to allow its people life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, with freedom reining above all.

I began to ponder my feelings. I began to wonder why “created equal” didn’t really mean “created equal.” And I began to wonder why we, the citizens of the United States, were allowing this to occur.

I began listening to public radio and Air America and the BBC news and I began hearing things that I had not heard before. I heard discussions about “water boarding” and about a new law that basically said people who were “suspected” of being terrorists could be held indefinitely without due process. What happened? Didn’t those who voted for this bill understand that in the worst of times, this could mean that they or their loved ones or friends or colleagues could be interred and that there was no “get out of jail free” card?

Then I began to realize that I might have to change my thinking on a more personal level. Being a photographer I had often told friends that I had plans and was going out to “shoot film” or “shoot John Doe” or was just “going shooting” somewhere. Of course, anyone who knew me understood that I was talking about photography... but what about all those who don’t know me?

Imagine what you might construe if you overheard the following conversation:
“Hey Susan, what are you doing this weekend?”
“I don’t have any plans. What were you thinking about?”
“I was thinking about doing some shooting?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Well there’s a rally downtown. Perhaps I could shoot the mayor…”
You get the point. I suddenly began to realize that the world wasn’t what it once was.

And just when I was getting used to this uncomfortable, paranoid, un-American America, the mid-term elections were held. Suddenly, all of the citizens who had been sitting on their couches, watching their favorite television programs, got up, went to the polls and voted! And boy did they ever vote! Suddenly, the Democrats had control of the House and then almost as quickly, they controlled the Senate and then, without warning, the Secretary of Defense was fired or allowed to resign. Suddenly everything looked different.

People were talking about the election. People were watching the national results. People were amazingly excited about politics and were talking about how voting could make a difference, especially when the world was watching. Yes, there were problems with voting machines. But we had learned from the past. The citizens appeared to agree that they would no longer remain quiet when it came to faulty machines and questionable ballots or the fact that some ballots were just not counted. The citizens reared up in their own mini-revolution and said, “we’ve had enough!”

Over time, we will learn whether the Democrats can make a difference. We will learn whether gross corruption exists in both parties and if personal and corporate greed continue to reign over the land. We will be able to see first-hand if the government ceases to use “fear” to manipulate Americans and if true freedom replaces the acts that turn its people into second-class citizens and traitors. And if we are very, very lucky, we will be able to see the changes in the tide called America. And who knows… perhaps one day, in the very near future, we might even find that we feel comfortable enough to use the word “shoot” in conjunction with photography.

 Beverly A. Saidel is the owner of Cheap Shots Photography in Denver, Co. (303-331-9932)