St. Petersburg's King Parade

I figured I'd post some of the photos I took from St. Petersburg's Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade. The parade took place on January 19, 2009. One of the largest in the southeast, there were fewer bands in attendance this year, as many of the bands were in Washington, D.C., gearing up for the next day's inauguration of Barack Obama.


Florida's Buffalo Soldiers.



Roy Nixon, Buffalo Soldier



Close up of the Buffalo Soldiers

I'll post a few more parade photos at a later time.

Historic Inauguration

I watched last Tuesday's historic inauguration of Barack Obama during a Visual Communications class. About ten minutes into class, the instructor asked if there were any questions.

"Yeah, can we watch the inauguration?" someone asked. It was the question on everyone's minds.

A computer hooked up to a projector came on so we could watch.

I've watched my share of inaugurations on television, been aware of others. When one has lived over five decades, one does notice a few things.

There were many historic aspects to this inauguration, though. Of course, there's the obvious: the first African-American to become elected president. Backing up to the election, it became clear early on that the Democratic nominee would be a first: either the first African-American or woman as a major party's nominee. That alone seemed to get many people's attention.

Then there is the number of people who flocked to Washington, D.C. to watch Obama's inauguration in person. According to The New York Times, "An estimated 1.8 million people watched the inauguration of Barack Obama in person, the most for any inauguration. At least that is what the mayor of Washington said; the Park Service, no longer in the head-counting business, won't contest that number."(1) (Referrenced footnotes at end of today's blog.)

According to The New York Times' article's multimedia segment, 44,000,000 people watched on their computers using live streaming web videos. This broke down to 26.9 million watching CNN, 9.1 million on MSNBC and 8.0 million on AP. (2)

These are record breaking numbers. This alone would indicate interest. I do know that those around me were excited. Almost everyone I spoke with over the days surrounding the 20th mentioned excitement, hope, a sense that our collective lives had taken a turn for the better. Yes, there are nay-sayers, but they seem to be in the minority.

When Obama was sworn in, those in the class room cheered. We watched President Obama's speech in its entirety. I mention this because the speech ended at 12:30, fifteen minutes after the class ended. Only one or two students left at the end of the class period; the rest of us watched, enraptured, at history taking place.

My oldest son, Jason, lives and works in Knoxville, Tennessee. He does phone tech support. He told me that an older African-American lady named Anne works there. Everyone calls her Ms. Annie. She works part-time; as a part-timer, she doesn't always get to sit in the same place. But she usually tries to sit next to Jason.

Tuesday morning, Jason managed to save a place for Ms. Annie so she could sit next to him. Just before the inauguration was to take place, Jason and Ms. Annie left their phones, along with several other employees, so they could watch Barack Obama sworn in.

"Tears just rolled down Ms. Annie's face," Jason later said. Ms. Annie told the small group watching the inauguration that her father had been beaten up years ago for not crossing the street fast enough to let several whites pass, that he'd been hurt several times because of his skin color. "She told us, 'And now, we have an African-American president.' I wish my daddy were alive to see this."

So do I, Ms. Annie. So do I.


(1) "Streaming Onto the Mall, and Into Laptops," by Brian Stelter and Noam Cohen, January 24, 2009; Week In Review; http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/weekinreview/25stelter.html?_r=1&scp=8&sq=inauguration,%202009&st=cse

(2) http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/01/25/weekinreview/20090125-stelter-graphic.html

St. Pete protest

On January 14, 2009, a group of protesters gathered outside Congressman C.W. Bill Young's St. Petersburg, Fla. office to bring attention to Barack Obama's heath care plan. Following the hour-long protest, the group of twenty-five then had ten MoveOn-ers deliver 392 signed petitions to Young's secretary, Yvonne. (Young was out of his office at the time.) Joe Illingworth of MoveOn addressing protesters. Illingworth presenting the petitions to Rep. C.W. Bill Young's secretary Yvonne.

Tennessee Spill

I was surprised this past Monday when NBC Evening News broke the news of the coal ash spill in Roane County, Tennessee. Since then, it has become apparent that the spill was far worse than first reported.

I plan to write more on this over the next few days. In the meantime, I have posted several links to check:
From the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/us/27sludge.html
From International Herald Tribune (the Global Edition of the New York Times: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/25/america/25sludge.php
From The Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kevin-grandia/massive-coal-ash-spill-in_b_153172.html
From United Mountain Defense web site: http://unitedmountaindefense.org/
From United Mountain Defense blog: http://dirtycoaltva.blogspot.com/
From Environment News Service: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2008/2008-12-23-091.asp

Death of a Role Model

A Pinellas County (FL) icon passed away Sunday, December 14, 2008. Her name was Emily Coeyman.

So what? you might ask. So what, indeed.

I first read about Emily in a 1999 article in the St. Petersburg (FL) Times (http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/41049266.html?dids=41049266:41049266&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=May+2%2C+1999&author=ADAM+C.+SMITH&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=1.B&desc=Keeping+them+honest). There was a photo showing an older woman being helped into or out of a cab enroute to/from a St. Petersburg City Council meeting. The article, written by Adam C. Putnam, begins, "Many government officials have come and gone, but St. Petersburg resident Emily Rogers Coeyman remains. Few mortals achieve the status of single name stardom: Cher, Prince, Madonna, Fabio. For Pinellas County bureaucrats and politicians, there is another: Emily.

"As in, 'Emily, your three minutes are up. Emily?. . .' Or, 'Do we have anyone who wishes to speak at this public hearing? Okay, Emily. . .'"

I began driving for DART (Demand Response Transportation), Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority's (PSTA) service for people with physical or mental handicaps around this time. This was how I met Emily. I made the mistake of calling her "Ms. Coeyman." "It's Emily," she corrected me. That's what everyone called her, even though she was in her late 70s.

She went to St. Pete City Council meetings, Pinellas County Government meetings, anywhere where she felt that the voice of reason (not to mention the voice of the people) needed to be heard. Emily spoke up for all of us.

One day, I picked her up from a city council meeting. The mayor and city council were considering selling the city-owned hospital (Bayfront Medical Center) to a health-care group run by the Catholic Church. This infuriated Emily.

Why? I asked her.

Ms. Coeyman--sorry, Emily--had nothing against the Catholic Church, but she did have something to say about women's rights. "Did you know that when the Church owns a hospital, that hospital's ability to provide abortions goes right out the window?" she asked. Rape victims would have problems getting the morning after pill; talks about birth control would be severely limited. "It's not right." She was 79 at the time, well beyond needing birth control, but wanting to keep it accessible for other women.

"I asked them (city council) if they knew that what they were thinking of doing would hurt the women in Pinellas County, especially the majority without millions of dollars to go elsewhere for reproductive services."

The city backed down.

She also challenged the Pinellas County School Board (http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/51852412.html?dids=51852412:51852412&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jul+28%2C+1994&author=ANNE+LINDBERG&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=3.B&desc=Tax+increase+for+Pinellas+schools+gets+early+okay), as well as the Pinellas County County Commissioners.

She was a strong woman who stood up for the little people, who learned how to speak up. Her epilogue from the St. Petersburg Times ran this morning. (http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/1614156811.html?dids=1614156811:1614156811&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Dec+18%2C+2008&author=STEPHANIE+HAYE&pub=St.+Petersburg+Times&edition=&startpage=B.1&desc=USING+HER+TIME+WISELY)

Emily Coeyman was 87 when she passed away Sunday. She was my hero, a role model for us all.

Peace, Emily. You rocked!

Why journalism, why now?

I'm a writer. I've been a writer most of my life, though I didn't always think of myself as one. At one point, shortly after graduating high school, I'd thought of going into journalism. Even took a beginning reporting class at what was then St. Petersburg Junior College (now St. Petersburg College ). Unfortunately, I didn't finish the class; the day I was due to take the final, I was in the hospital giving birth to my oldest son. Never did make up the final; I had other things on my mind.

Life has a funny way of changing things. You figure your path is going to go one way and some bump in the road alters your life. (The old joke: How do you make God laugh? Tell Him your plans.) I had several children with my first husband. Somewhere along the road, I became a fire fighter/paramedic trainee. Women, unfortunately, are still greatly unrepresented here, as we are in many fields. True, there aren't as many men in, say, nursing as there are women, but in jobs that have been traditionally held by men, the pay tends to be better. I also tried going back to school, trying the pre-med path. Got a divorce, drove cab, got remarried.

It's funny, but my second husband pointed out that I was a writer, that I was, indeed, happiest when writing, whether poetry, novels, short stories, screenplays, the occasionally letter to the editor about something I felt was wrong (or right) with some segment of society. So when I went back to school, I decided to go for a journalism degree.

Journalism, though? Why not some other form of writing? After all, I still intend to write novels, screenplays and poetry about the hard truths. But journalism?

There are journalists who report the news. After all, a true democracy can not possibly hope to function if its citizens are kept in the dark. We need to know that certain things happen. The drunk driver who had his third accident while driving inebriated in four months? Oh, my. The high school teacher who has had affairs with several of her students? Tsk, tsk. The Washington insider who has used his or her influence to (fill in the blank)? Hmmm...

Then there are journalists who are a little different, either by where they work or by writing columns on what he or she percieves as right or wrong. As citizens, we need to decide if these journalists are telling the truth. If the columnist is too one sided ("All men/women/blacks/whites are bad/good/etc."), then we can call their views into question. But if they give us well thought out reasons for their beliefs of right and wrong, then we tend to listen and learn. ("Mrs. Jones was a great teacher because she motivated poor students into achieving their true potentials" or "Smith is wrong because he pays his farm-workers the equivalent of $2 an hour, then charges the same people $20 a night for cot to sleep on and $5 a meal.")


Two journalists whose truth-telling inspire me are Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and Bill Maxwell of the St. Petersburg Times. They both tell the hard truths. It is, in part, because of Goodman and Maxwell that I decided to major in journalism.

Can the system be changed by the average person--you and me? According to Harry Glenn, Representative C. W. "Bill" Young (Florida's District 10's U.S. Congressman), we can affect change. During a recent phone interview, Mr. Glenn stated that on more than one occasion, Young has championed a bill because of comments from his constituents. If it's important, Mr. Glenn told me, Rep. Young wants to know. And much of what we find outrageous (the drunk driver, the $2 farm worker) is because of what we've learned from journalists. If we know about these problems, then we can work to change them. Make phone calls, write letters, pressure Those In Charge to change the system.

That, my friends, is what a democracy is. And a good journalist, one who tells the truth, is a big part of that democracy.

My plans for this blog

As a journalism student (undergrad) with one semester left before graduation, I felt it would be in my best interest to begin a blog that dealt mainly with my thoughts, writings and photos along the journalistic vein. My other blogs have been for specific reasons; this one will be, too.

The two photos posted today are from a boat fire several months ago in the Vinoy Basin of St. Petersburg, FL.

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA--St. Petersburg Fire Department works to put out a boat fire in the Vinoy Basin located near St. Petersburg Pier, assisted by U.S. Coastguard and Hillsborough County (Fl) Fire Rescue. No injuries were reported.