{"id":972,"date":"2007-11-08T15:57:32","date_gmt":"2007-11-08T20:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/11\/08\/taking-pictures-from-a-train\/"},"modified":"2007-11-08T15:59:01","modified_gmt":"2007-11-08T20:59:01","slug":"taking-pictures-from-a-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/11\/08\/taking-pictures-from-a-train\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Pictures from a Train"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is absolutely terrible<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The train is a half hour west of New Haven when the conductor, having finished her original rounds, reappears. She moves down the aisle, looks, stops between our seats, faces the person taking pictures. \u201cSir, in the interest of national security, we do not allow pictures to be taken of or from this train.\u201d He starts, \u201cI\u2026\u2026.\u201d but, without English, his response trails off into silence. The conductor, speaking louder, forcefully: \u201cSir, I will confiscate that camera if you don\u2019t put it away.\u201d Again, little response. \u201cSir, this is a security matter! We cannot allow pictures.\u201d She turns away abruptly and, as she moves down the aisle, calls over her shoulder, in a very loud voice, \u201cPut. It. Away!\u201d He packs his camera.<\/p>\n

Within a minute after our arrival in New Haven, two armed police officers entered the car, approached my neighbor\u2019s seat. \u201cSir, we’re removing you from this train.\u201d \u201cI\u2026.;\u201d \u201cI\u2026\u2026\u201d \u201cSir, you have breached security regulations. We must remove you from this train.\u201d \u201cI\u2026,\u201d \u201cI\u2026..\u201d \u201cSir, we are not going to delay this train because of you. You will get off, or we will remove you physically.\u201d \u201cI\u2026..\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearby passengers stir. One says, \u201cIt\u2019s obvious he doesn\u2019t speak English. There are people here who speak more than one language. Perhaps we can help.\u201d Different ones ask about the traveler\u2019s language; learn he speaks Japanese. For me, a sudden flash of memory — a student at International Christian University in Japan, I took countless pictures without arousing suspicion.<\/p>\n

The police speak through the interpreter, with the impatience of authority. \u201cThe conductor asked this man three times to discontinue. We must remove him from the train.\u201d The traveler hears the translation, is befuddled. Hidden beneath the commotion is a cross-cultural drama. With the appearance of police officers, this quiet visitor is embarrassed to find he is the center of attention. The officers explain, \u201cAfter we remove him from the train, when we are through our investigation, we will put him on the next train.\u201d The woman translates. The passenger replies, \u201cI\u2019m meeting relatives in Boston. They cannot be reached by phone. They expect me and will be worried when I do not arrive on schedule.\u201d \u201cOur task,\u201d the police repeat, “is to remove you from this train. If necessary, we will do so by force. After we have finished the investigation, we\u2019ll put you on another train.\u201d The woman translates. The traveler gathers his belongings and departs.<\/p>\n

My earlier suggestion that you imagine being in his place leaves you free to respond and draw your conclusions. Remember: you\u2019ve been removed from the train, are being interrogated, perhaps having your equipment confiscated; while I continue to do what I take for granted \u00ad traveling unimpeded, on to Providence.<\/p>\n

The more I replay the scene, the more troublesome it is. It is the stuff of nightmares. Relations between people and countries lie at the heart of the issue. The abstract terms that inform political and social debate appear, as if in person, unexpectedly, near enough to hear, touch, feel. Taking no position is not an option. As an educator, I would prepare and deliver a lecture on how others perceive America in the world community, then seek an audience. I’ll spare you. But — I just watched armed police officers remove a visitor from the train for taking pictures. I don’t understand this. I\u2019m disturbed \u00ad no, shaken \u00ad to bear witness to these events.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The original (full) post is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I very nearly broke into tears when I read this. It is just… unbelievable. Terrible. And sad. Very, very sad. People used to clamor to come to America. It used to be a great honor, to visit this wonderful country. To see the sights. To be impressed by both the landscape and the variety of people.<\/p>\n

Now, people will stay away – because of stupidity like this. What the hell is going on???<\/em><\/p>\n

I will say it again – this kind of paranoia does not make us any safer. <\/em>By being afraid like this, the terrorists have “won.”<\/p>\n

I don’t like the idea of terrorists “winning.” Do you?<\/p>\n

Apparently, we do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is absolutely terrible: The train is a half hour west of New Haven when the conductor, having finished her original rounds, reappears. She moves down the aisle, looks, stops between our seats, faces the person taking pictures. \u201cSir, in the interest of national security, we do not allow pictures to be taken of or… Continue reading Taking Pictures from a Train<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[385,26],"class_list":["post-972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-society","tag-politics","tag-security","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-fG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1056,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/03\/03\/focus-focus\/","url_meta":{"origin":972,"position":0},"title":"Focus… Focus!","author":"Keith Survell","date":"March 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been fiddling around with my camera again lately, and my feature-of-fiddling has been aperture, as it relates to the focus of the camera. Like a lot of people who get into photography (or so I assume), it's a little mind-bending at first with all the terms... focal length, depth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pictures"","block_context":{"text":"Pictures","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/pictures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"lettuce closeup","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2236\/2303305594_0a3a224749.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1054,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/02\/20\/eclipse-pictures\/","url_meta":{"origin":972,"position":1},"title":"Eclipse Pictures","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 20, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"So I thought I'd try taking photos of the lunar eclipse. After all, I've got a camera, a nice view of the sky from my porch, and the patience to try, so why not? Well, since this is really only my first time taking photos of the moon at night\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Pictures"","block_context":{"text":"Pictures","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/pictures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"eclipse progresses 2-20-2008 11-27-41 PM","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3012\/2280312647_6fb27f25e0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":865,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/04\/18\/gus-and-betsy\/","url_meta":{"origin":972,"position":2},"title":"Gus and Betsy","author":"Keith Survell","date":"April 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Just some pictures of our favorite bunnies being... well, bunnies!","rel":"","context":"In "pets"","block_context":{"text":"pets","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/pets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":261,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/10\/14\/inside-the-districts-red-lights\/","url_meta":{"origin":972,"position":3},"title":"Inside the District’s Red Lights","author":"Keith Survell","date":"October 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Part 1 of a 5 part series (be sure to read all 5 parts) focuses on radar cameras. The whole thing (the cameras, not the story) just stinks IMHO. But, alas, it'll only be a matter of time before there's a camera on every traffic light, taking your picture...","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":541,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/06\/13\/more-bunny-pictures\/","url_meta":{"origin":972,"position":4},"title":"More Bunny Pictures","author":"Keith Survell","date":"June 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Everyone loves da' bunny!","rel":"","context":"In "pets"","block_context":{"text":"pets","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/pets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":478,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/05\/29\/some-pictures\/","url_meta":{"origin":972,"position":5},"title":"Some Pictures","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 29, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's some fun pictures of Gus (the bunny rabbit we \"adopted\") that I've taken recently.","rel":"","context":"In "pets"","block_context":{"text":"pets","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/pets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/972\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}