Freedom Train!

Last Monday the 21st, (MLK Day), I traveled from San Jose to San Francisco on the Freedom Train, chartered by the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Association of Santa Clara Valley. It was a good opportunity for the younger generation to learn about Dr. King's life and work, through trivia games and the reading of speech excerpts. It was a joy and honor to photograph as well.


Waiting to board the train in San Jose.





Young girls respond enthusiastically to trivia questions about Dr. King.





Back in San Francisco.


Reverend Cecil Williams, pastor of Glide Memorial Church, met the Freedom Train in San Francisco and then led a March to Civic Center.

First Gig

A good friend of mine's new band performed their first gig at a swanky private party downtown.

SF Right to Life

Yesterday the pro life folks came to San Francisco to march down Embarcadero by the thousands. And, this being the City by the Bay, large numbers of people came out to protest them. I showed up for a while in case a 'news event' should occur, but everything was peaceful, if not jovial.
Here, briefly, is what I saw.




Pro lifers gather downtown before the march.

Plenty of police where on hand to ensure both sides stayed on good behavior.

A Pro Choicer argues her case.


Police effectively controlled interaction between the groups.

Ave Maria

Ave Maria, the brainchild of Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, is a catholic mission town located more or less in the middle of nowhere 45 minutes East of Naples, Florida.
It is designed in the style of an Italian hill town, with a HUGE church in the center. It is also the home of a Catholic University and K-12 school.


The streets are named appropriately.




2006, the year the church was built, marked in classic roman style.




"The Bean", a coffee shop and one of the few businesses open, features images and statues of catholic iconography, and Fox News.





Students exit the K-12 school. Enrollment was six hundred this year.






Many dead end streets where, someday, residents will live.