This is a bit belated but it’s been a busy week and I was hoping to incorporate this information in a longer post about what I’ve accomplished on this blog so far, but I’ve really haven’t accomplished anything yet except maybe stir the pot a little and hopefully raise a little awareness, so I will save that post for a later time.
In the mean time, I will just thank everybody who voted for me last week, helping me win the Blog Post of the Month for June in the South Florida Daily Blog monthly contest.
It was the second time in five months one of my posts was chosen. In February, I won the very first SFDB Blog Post of the Month contest.
Both times, my posts included video, photos and commentary, allowing me to demonstrate my multimedia skills. And both times, the topic was on protests, a fundamental First Amendment right I will always cherish.
In fact, this whole blog is an ongoing protest against authorities who have no respect for the First Amendment when it comes to photographers. Or bloggers for that matter.
I would also like to thank Rick from the South Florida Daily Blog, who in his own words, “sifts through and reviews most of the blogs based in South Florida and highlights those posts that stand out from the rest of the day’s traffic.”
It is a grueling task, but he manages to do it every morning and evening without fail, even while he is traveling. Somebody should give him an award.
And while I am being sentimental, I will also thank Henry Gomez from Babalu, who proved he was a solid blogger by not only attending my trial, but hanging out for more than two hours during jury deliberations and then posting the verdict on this blog (starting on comment 24) from his laptop immediately after it was announced. Then he posted his perspective on the trial on Babalu.
Anybody who is familiar with the South Florida blogosphere knows that Henry and I stand at extreme opposite ends of the political spectrum, but the First Amendment is something we completely agree on.
Below is a picture I took of Henry in the courthouse with my Canon TX1, which did not get me arrested (by the way, the TX1 has been repaired and returned to me!).
From Henry’s comments, the news was picked up by my friends at Democratic Underground, who continued to spread the news on the Internet.
As a blogger who spent years working for daily newspapers, it was a very telling moment for me.
It showed me that we, the people, are the real media, not the corporations.
And that is something the authorities do not like, which is why they keep trying to restrict our photography and our blogging and our protests.
And that is why we must keep fighting.
