Photography Banned in Downtown Silver Spring, Maryland | The News is NowPublic.com

Don't Shoot!

Freiheit

Wings of Peace And Freedom

images above taken at the Wings of Peace and Freedom monument, Dixon IL

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Photography Banned in Downtown Silver Spring, Maryland The News is NowPublic.com

You're going to want to read the following two paragraphs twice because you're not going to believe them.

"This past Tuesday I went to downtown Silver Spring, had lunch, and then took out my camera and standing on Ellsworth Avenue, I began taking shots of the buildings with the blue sky and clouds as a backdrop. Almost immediately, a security guard approached and told me 'there was no picture taking allowed in Downtown Silver Spring.' 'What do you mean?' I said, 'I am on a city street, in a public place -- taking pictures is a right that I have protected by the first amendment.' The guard told me to report to the management office."

There, Stacy Horan informed me that Downtown Silver Spring including Ellsworth Avenue is private property, not a public place, and subject to the rules of the Peterson Companies. They have a no photography policy to 'protect them from people who might want to use the photographs as part of a story in which they could write bad things about us.' And she told me that many of the chain stores in Downtown Silver Spring don't what their 'concepts' to be photographed for security reasons." ...



When the president declared in November of 2005 that the US Constitution was just "a goddamned piece of paper" red flags should have gone up all over the country. Obviously, they were never raised. And why should any of us be surprised? No one has been asked to sacrifice for the "war on terror." Well, not more than paying higher gasoline prices. Unless, you have a loved one who was killed, the cost for domestic freedom seems to be at an all time low.



What I find unforgivible is that even among those with whom I talk to in my beloved Sauk Valley; very few have any inclination or desire to question the powers that be! This is not what I gave 8 years of my life to defend. I would go so far that it was not what generations of my brothers-and-sisters-in-arms fought and died for over the course of this country's history. It is from a veteran's perspective as well as an artist's viewpoint that I decry the privatization, socialization, and corporatization of this land.



Next year, 2008 will see the passage of the REAL ID ACT . This will effectively take us back to 1939 Nazi Germany; "Show us your papers!" And all done legally in the name of sacrificing freedom for security. Hmmm, perhaps we should take our pictures while we can my friends. Next year may be too late.



Yours, under the all-seeing eye,

-Wayne