Tag: architecture

The President Speaks: September 11

It’s our 23rd anniversary of September 11. I stand on this boat looking into the magnificent skyline of the most dynamic and creative city in the world.

From the ashes of terror a wonderful building has risen. It is a monument to freedom, not just for those who died here but for those who get to look at it, and most especially for those who work in it.

America could easiy have built a fortress of mistrust, ill will and arrogance. Thanks to the cosmoplitan vision of New Yorkers, we have a building which oozes confidence and lightness, inviting one to marvel from a distance or to linger outside for hours and feel relaxed.

When I strolled the grounds today I wondered what the deceased would think seeing a free-flowing garden filled with people who have no fear.

I was assured by several of the families that though nobody can know what the victims would think or feel, the families are pleased that the grounds are vibrant and free, that the interior of the building brings one’s spirit to life and that the building’s owner and manager are determined not to have cameras recording everyone and police intimidating everyone.

There’s an inscription in the lobby. It reads We are Americans. We will not live in fear. It disappoints me that the rest of the country does not feel this way.

I dearly wish my countrymen refused to live in fear. I wish too that my countrymen lusted for freedom. I wish my countrymen hated having police, cameras and security guards everywhere.

We need to think about what 9-11 means. It was an attempt to make Americans live in fear. The terrorists knew that the Justice Department would attempt to limit civil liberties and that most people would accept the limitation.

The terrorists were correct. We are afraid. We have no problem living in a police state.

I wish you, my fellow Americans, would become arrogant and belligerent, demanding that the Patriot Act be repealed. I long for 300,000 people marching loudly on Washington for an end to our police state. It would show that all your concern for the victims of 9-11 and your claims about America’s greatness are more than the puffery they have been.

We ceased to be great with the passage of the Patriot Act and the invasion of Iraq. We stopped being great as a government and as a people.

That is why I speak to you today – to inspire you like this skyline and this building inspire me.

This skyline and this building can propel our nation back to greatness, to rise from the ashes of cowardice, conformity, gullibility and the betrayal of our Founding Fathers to be a fearless, intelligent, magnificent people.

This new building I look toward does not lose its appeal when you see it up close or enter. It’s appeal increases. This is rare for buildings.

This building was not constructed to be only a photo-piece. The intention was that the building be substantial, that it have soul, that humans in it and outside it feel vibrant, beautiful, proud, confident; that they increase the size of their soul here, that they begin to feel free and freely speak with accuracy and with meaning.

There is a lightness here that we Americans desperately need. But you have to ask yourselves how badly you want your souls back.

Would you rather risk a violent death because you trusted yourselves and others and felt beautiful, or do you want to continue to live the metaphoric death we’ve been living since October of 2001?

The inscription in the lobby – it does not ignore the potential of evil. It is saying that police states make people live in fear so this building will not be like a war zone. It is also saying we know what could happen but we will take our chances.

It is time for you to stop living in fear, to expect police to do their job of protecting you without assuming you are a criminal.

Rise up my countrymen. I ache to lead a great people.

Copyright © 2025 by David Vaszko

The President Speaks: Energy

As I stand outside of this new energy efficient industrial complex, I want to thank Congress for its timely legislation. I was never so proud to sign a bill that benefitted so many people throughout the world.

But I also want to thank the owners of this complex, who went above and beyond federal requirements. Not only will this complex produce less pollution than any plant in the world, the products produced here will be some of the worlds most efficient. On top of that, when the product no longer works or you the customer can no longer use the product, it can be easily recycled in a quick and efficient manner.

But what interests me the most about this complex is its architecture and landscaping. It is not beautiful, yet it feels good to sit outside during lunch. One does not moan as one approaches the building like when going to work at most places. Once inside there is no shortage of breathe or an oppressive stimulation of the senses.

When you are inside you feel alive. You breathe deep. Your stimulation comes from feeling good, not defending the assault on your body.

In a sense, this complex is creating energy efficient renewable people that are difficult to wear out. This is a tremendous accomplishment, a world with increasingly less pollution and increasingly more energetic people.

Our natural world will retain and regain its splendors. Americans willl look better and feel better. We will become as beautiful inside as people working inside can. The challenge is to make this beauty endure. Business has to stick to creating superb products and healthy work areas. It must not change its focus to pleasing investors, but must retain its focus on making quality merchandise.

Investors must not seek to get rich quick, or utilize methods to cover up what they are doing with their money. Investors need to think in the long term. Reasonable long term gains expected from an investment in ecologically efficient companies will ensure that an investor’s wealth can be spent in a world that is a pleasure for an old person to live in.

I have great faith that business leaders will continue to rise to the occasion. I am not so certain of our investors. That is why I try to persuade them to have restraint.

This is a new era for the nation. Seldom is the working person presented with a work environment like what we have here today. There will be more of these environments, ushering in a new sense of happiness and optimism.

It is important for Americans to build upon this happiness and optimism, to share the good will their bosses are exemplifying. The new sense of relaxation, health and constructive stimulation can do wonders for individuals, famlies and the nation. Everyone must let these benefits take root.

It might be tempting to abuse the good will of the employer by calling in sick like you have always done. Now that you feel better, it is important that you mature so that the nation comes to feel and be as good spiritually as it does physically.

Our environmental crises is also a social crises. In addition to businesses cleaning up the environment and making work a healthy place and no longer a nightmare, the American citizen must do his and her part to rid themself of the bitterness and mistrust that has plagued our nation for so long.

Spend more time talking with each other now that you are not stressed and the grounds around work and the rest areas at work are conducive to conversation and mental health. With less stress and more healthful stimulation, you can discard your old habits of being busy and acquisitive.

You can begin to show the faith in each other and consequently the nation, that more and more employers show in you. Where employers are more willing to give up absurd profits, Americans need to stop buying so much and be content with much less. When you do this, you will have less of a sense of self-importance and be more willing to see others as friends rather than as threats or someone to outdo.

This faith in each other will be the bedrock of a great new America.

We are not great now.

If we rid ourselves of our toxicity, then thrive on healthy stimulation, we will develop good habits that we can vow to keep even when times become difficult. For it is the average American, not business or government, that determines our character.

Copyright © 2025 by David Vaszko

Thanksgiving

Dear Jim,

I´m sitting at the Sacramento River listening to the freeway and watching the water. It´s overcast but not cold, so I will be able to stay out for at least three hours.

Every time I come down to watch the water there are slobs. It´s creepy. Between the homeless, the freeway, the ugly skyline behind me and just plain rude people, it usually is not enjoyable.

But once in a while I need to see the river, especially on cloudy days like today and when the river is high in winter. I like to watch logs float down after the rain. One time there were birds standing on a log pecking at it as it floated.

When I got here today there were two slobs with their pit bull sitting where I wanted to sit. I walked until I saw a nice spot to lean on the rail to watch the water.

Just as I got comfortable putting on my ski cap and head phones, three 20 year olds passed on their bicycles. As they rode by, one of the guys patted me on my (a woman just rode by with her husband and yelled, ¨Happy Thanksgiving!¨ I turned. We waved as we looked at each other. I said, ¨Happy Thanksgiving!¨ She made me feel good) butt where my wallet was. He said something that ended in ´ay´. I don´t know if he was saying have a nice day or perceived me to be gay.

My first thought was ¨That asshole.¨ My second thought was ¨My wallet!¨, but it was there. Then I took it out to put in my front pocket. The nerve of the bastard.

I don´t know what I would have done if they wanted to beat me up or hassle me for money. I tell myself to be careful. I say stay calm and breath deep. But something like that! If they had stopped I would not have known what to do, even if I had been breathing deep.

Something like this happened on light rail four years ago. I was sitting in an aisle seat wearing my sun hat when a black kid tapped my brim – he flicked his fingers up from underneath it. I almost got up to punch him, but the light rail company probably would have blamed me.

I´ve been gone from home an hour forty-five minutes and I still do not have to pee. I was peeing all day Tuesday and yesterday.

You know the song Yesterday by The Beatles? 3,000 singers recorded it. That´s amazing.

I´ve been reading a lot. I´m still reading biographies for children in Spanish. Tuesday I read about The Beatles. Yesterday I read about Neil Armstrong – the guy who walked on the moon.

It´s good for me to read about people whose field does not interest me – Walt Disney, Einstein, Steve Jobs, Neil Armstrong. It makes me face the fact that I hate these times while they thrived on them.

Jobs, Armstrong, Disney help me put my youth in perspective. I will never like movies, but I wish something could have happened in the eighties to get me interested in computers. How much more confident and happy I would be. How much more money I would have.

When I read about Armstrong, I was fascinated by the simple diagrams of the trip to the moon. They showed the orbits and the separation of the different parts of the rocket and the rejoining of them for the return to earth. When they got to the moon Armstrong had to use his training to search for a place to land because where they expected to land was not flat.

What do you think of this? Armstrong had a speech prepared to deliver to us when he landed on the moon. He was going to say, ¨A small step for a man, but a giant leap for all mankind.¨ However, his words got garbled and what was recorded was, ¨A small step for man, a giant leap for all mankind.¨

Reading about Armstrong got me interested in flying, so I ordered a short adult book about the Wright Brothers.

My butt´s getting sore. I´ll write you when I get to another spot.

My Coffee Shop

I walked most of the way from the river to here. Boy is Sacramento eerie. It´s one thing to have weird people at the river or in parks, but it´s another to have so many one and two story ugly piece of shit concrete office buildings across from a row of beautiful old houses, and then another thing to have a ton of sterile new condos and apartments that nobody who is already here can afford.

Downtown, Midtown – it is stifling, soul-killing, phony. Remember the saying Are we having fun yet? Well, Sacramento is trying desperately to be a big city and a cultural center. Are we world class yet? Do we have soul now?

Even with all our trees we are nothing. A movie came out about the time you died – Edward Scissorhands. At the beginning was a panorama of an unbelievably sterile suburb with unreal trees. It terrified me. That´s how I feel about Sacramento. It´s unbelievably sterile.

I´m terrified of being old here. The beautiful trees in this ugly town make my bitterness worse. What happened to America?

I was reading a travel book about Russia. There was a lot of history in it. One of the things the book said was that Russia looks upon itself as female – Mother Russia.

That got me thinking about America. I can´t imagine referring to America as the motherland or the fatherland. There is no deep unfathomable American soul that I want to go down to the river on a sultry night to revel in as the water of my ancestors passes.

Wouldn´t it be nice if America had a connection to the earth and a connection to the great beyond?

We´re nothin´.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Love,

Dave

Copyright © 2021 by David Vaszko