Minnesota – JJ's World Views

North Minneapolis Police Shooting

I just saw a news report about another black man being shot by police in North Minneapolis on Saturday Turman Blevins. There was something that caught me off guard from the report. That is that the officers involved in the shooting get to look at the shooting before they give their statement. This to me seems a wrong does everyone accused in a shooting get to see the evidence before they give a statement? No. Why should the police be able to? We are supposed to be living in a society that has equal rights. This means that the police have the same rights as everyone else, not more rights. This makes it seem as though the police are getting their story straight before hand.

Now I want to believe that their are good officers out there. But over the past 5 years I have seen an abundance of police shooting where they nothing is really done. No officers have been jailed because of the laws and their authority over the public. I feel that they should not shoot unless shot at. This makes it clear that they were in danger. We have become a society that lives in fear from the police. We should not have to fear the police we should be able to embrace them. But unfortunately, their actions speak loud and clear. If you are black you will be shot whether you are innocent or not. It feels like we are in the movie Judge Dredd, where the police are judge, jury and executioners. We need for this type of mentality to end. We need to make sure civilians are treated with as much respect and dignity as the police.

Now I am not a reporter I just heard something that did not sound right. I want justice and the truth. One thing is for sure is that we need major reform in policing throughout our country. When Dylann Roof shot up a church with a black congregation the police did not shoot him and I feel he was far more dangerous than many of our black brothers and sisters out there who have been shot by police. This double standard needs to stop.

The image above is from the Star Tribune.

June 25, 2018

Minnesota River Valley National Wildlife Refuge

Me and my friend Amber went for a 7 mile walk at the Minnesota River Valley National Wildlife Refuge in Bloomington, Minnesota. Here are a few of the i

mages I took from today.

June 11, 2017

Normandale Lake Park

I drove aimlessly until I stopped at Normandale Lake Park in Bloomington, Minnesota. The park has 1.9 miles of walking and biking trails with plenty to take in.

May 28, 2017

A Walk on 7th Street

Today I went up to St. Paul to shoot. I initially went up there to walk around photographing sculptures. I saw the Schmitt Brewing company sign and felt nostalgic for when I was a kid. My mom used to take us up to my Aunts work as kids to pick her up sometimes when we had plans. In fact I got a photo of the place where she used to work years ago. It used to be a Super Value if I remember correctly. Here are the best Photos from today’s outing.

My aunt used to work here.

May 5, 2017

Final Project for Photography

This is Photoshop project I had to take 3 pictures and a scan of a 3D object. You might recognise the object, If you’re old enough. It started out as an homage to one of my favorite 80’s Sci Fi movies, “They Live”. The project kind of went south when I realized I could not use any words in the project. If you have seen “They Live” you know what I am talking about, if not watch it. The movie is a Metaphor for so many things in our society today. From companies controlling how we live from day to day and how we blindly follow those we don’t really know.

Dancing Statue

Eye

Desk

Mr. Bill

Mirror Dimension

May 4, 2017

Schedule for the Summer

I am writing this out in order for me to keep up on my site. I have a tendency to do a whole bunch of post in a short amount of time and then flake out. Not this summer though. I am going to post on every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday by 11:59. This will also help keep me on schedule for the fall semester. I cannot believe I will have my AA in Liberal Arts at the end of this year. I am also taking two classes this summer Intro to Creative Writing and Adult First Aid and CPR.

Coming up I will be posting projects from my Photography class and my last history paper I did on the four largest race riots of the 1960’s. I am taking a Creative Writing course this summer. So, expect me to be practicing on here. I will also be doing a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for a study abroad trip I was invited on next summer. I chose from China or South Africa I will do a poll to see where my subscribers sit on this issue. This Friday I am planning to upgrade my site from free to the personal plan. Another way to get me more active on here as well. The weekends are set aside for cracking out the camera and working on becoming a better photographer. I want to make sure I have a diversified skill set. A jack of all trades, master of none. I just cannot handle be strapped down to one profession the rest of my life. The only traveling I will be doing is in the greater Twin Cities area.

The last thing is on August 12 I will be going to the St. Paul Aint’s game. This is a minor league baseball team normally called the Saints. The Freedom from Religion Foundation and Minnesota Atheist’s is sponsoring them for one night. It is a night dedicated to Atheists, of which I am, watch baseball and make fun of ourselves. This is to show Minnesota that atheists are just like everyone else, we just don’t believe there is a god of any sort. We have morals and ethics it is just we set them for ourselves, not a book.

If you have any comments or would to request a location for me to photograph that you would like to see here in the Twin Cities leave a comment below. I will see what I can do.

April 24, 2017

Earth Day 2017: March for Science St. Paul, Minnesota: Everywhere signs

April 23, 2017

Journal Entry 7

It is quite disturbing to me, as a student of history and culture, that our current administration denies scientific facts. The last time something like this was going on Europe was in the dark ages. Disease were rampant like the Black Plague and Leprosy. This was at the time the Catholic Church’s doing. While Europe was going through all this it was the Arabic Empire in the middle east that was advancing thing like medicine, navigation, philosophy, and alchemy (the beginnings of chemistry). Now we have an even bigger crisis on our hands, Climate change, and we now have people in power who is stuck in the area of Dark Age Europe. This time it is due to straight up greed. For thousands of years the rich have ruled over us with money, knowledge, and might. The people of the United States were starting to take the power away from the elites in the mid to late 20th century. Then we allowed the greed back in to our political arena.

This time like no other time before we have a tool that can help defeat the power grabbing sycophants, the internet. With this tool we are more connected than ever. We can become better organized and educated if we the people are willing to work for it. It is days like yesterday, when I was up at the March for Science that gave me hope for the human race. 10,000 people marching in the streets of St. Paul, Minnesota and millions though out the country and around the world to say “Stop with your ignorant policies. We need real change, not just lip service.” Making money is not the end all be all to life. It is but a part of life. It is the experiences that make life worth living, not how much stuff we have. We have been trapped in this mind set that “money makes the world go round.” It is not it is us the people who give meaning to our lives, not some pieces of paper that are back by nothing but trust in our leaders.

We the people have worked to hard to bring this society to where we are today technologically and socially to let it slip away. This I feel is just the beginnings of a battle for our world and every living thing on it. We must be willing to give up our conveniences and lives to bring about a better world for the future. We have a chance to create a peaceful revolution on our end. If we stay strong and are committed to peace those who are in power will have to listen. it will be a long and hard battle this way. But in the end we will be able to look proudly at ourselves for sticking to out convictions.

Remember we are not alone in this.

There are millions around the world waiting for us to take the lead

and show them it can be done.

I know this is Idealistic but with out Ideals we are just as bad as those we oppose.

April 23, 2017

Earth Day 2017: March for Science St. Paul, Minnesota: Characters

April 22, 2017

Practicing with my camera in Low Light

All these images were caught in low light and hand held. I am testing to see how long I can hold the it steady without much blur. These are the best I caught at the Minneapolis Art Institute.