Photo & Audio Winners

I'm back. I hope the silence wasn't too deafening.

World Press Photo of the Year winners for 2006 were announced last week, now displayed at http://www.worldpressphoto.com/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=blogsection&id=17&Itemid=146&bandwidth=high .
Some astounding photos, especially those portraying human suffering and the depravity of man. Make sure that you see inside all of the Stories portfolios. And of course if you have time you can go back in time thru the WPP gallery links. No time now, but I would like to view them.

Perhaps a shocker for some readers who know me, but congrats to the Dixie Chicks on their Grammy wins (5!) Sunday night. I am not a fan of much secular music, and not country music (is theirs still "country?"), and I certainly disagree with the Chicks' politics. BUT I agree with their right to speak what they want, and their right to suffer or enjoy the consequences. I have heard only a few songs from their album "Taking the Long Way", but the one that hit me was their first hit.
Why I like their song "Not Ready to Make Nice" (lyrics here, video here) is the middle verse:
I made by bed, and I sleep like a baby,
With no regrets and I don't mind saying,
It's a sad sad story
That a mother will teach her daughter
that she ought to hate a perfect stranger.
And how in the world
Can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they'd write me a letter
Saying that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over.
No, I don't like to hear what they said, because it is a sad story that this happens. Especially from small "c" conservatives and suupposed "Christians". When I first heard this song, and every time I heard it, these lyrics hit me. And I was sad, because I know it was true.

Engage in dialogue, give correction: yes. Spew hate and breed it in our kids: Absolutely not.