ColourTime

FTLComm - Tisdale - Friday, September 21, 2001 to hear this story click arrow

Though fall, in the last few years seems to drag on and on, the painted trees are with us for sometimes less than a week. The leaves dry and the wind sends them hurling across town to be deposited on our lawn. Even though we had some pictures yesterday of fall colours the dramatic sky and late afternoon sunlight seemed to be a natural to set these scenes off best in pictures. These images were all gathered between 6:00 and 6:30 Thursday afternoon. It had been a dreary cloudy day

but a few minutes before six the West wind tossed the overcast sky asside and a cold front marched past with the dark clouds moving East and the low angled sunlight pouring in from the West. This picture was taken from the Post office parking lot and shows a remarkable low level cumulus cloud perhaps less than a thousand feet above silently making its way to the Atlantic. The picture below is the same street scene as seen at the top of yesterday's story, "Compensation" only with a

bright sky and this picture was taken while the photographer was riding a ten speed bicycle. It is remarkable how a slight change in light affects everything. It is not only how you see things, but what is revealed by that light. In the light of the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington our attitudes toward security, authority and perhaps a great deal more, are forever changed. We can no longer afford the luxury of a carefree society

when someone says this you can do and this you can not, you now know the reason, and if you don't, terrorism has forced us all, to accept authory far more than ever before. I was talking to a school librarian last night about policing the rules, no food or drink in that area and how high school students like to push the limit and become indignant when told they can not have a pop in the area. In our discussion it became clear that we have to change our view of personal liberty and the implication of security rules. Two weeks ago one would be more tollerant of the hotty high school princess who considers it her God given right to sip a juice in the libarary, but things have changed. The implications of a catastrophy of this magnitude ripple through a society to every facit of life. Particularly when the leader of the world's most powerful country says clearly, "If you are not with us against terrorism, we must consider you on the side of terrorism." In the context of his speech he was referring to nation states, but we all interpret a harder line and I am certain we will adopt a harder line toward a huge range of things, including soft drinks and sandwiches in the library. It will be the duty of our schools to condition the students of the free world, that they "must comply" to regulations and rules regarding all conduct that might in one way or another, endanger others or property.