 I am putting together this editorial on the road and on the fly,
so to speak, as my business travels for the magazine have taken
me on a giant loop around the country, or if you are into the car
racing world, a lap.
     No one's happy with anything, a generally fearful and
apprehensive mood grips the business community and workers are
getting laid off in record numbers from companies that they
worked for and gave everything they had and wonder why they got
the shaft as the company PR/Spinmaster talks about Downsizing and
 Rightsizing the company in the background.
     The spirit of decline and decay pervades the country and
institutions and nothing gets done, except taking care of
politicians and their benefits from holding office.
     As I drove toward each new destination I had the time to
reflect upon what was ailing our land and its people. I do not
want to be overly negative, but a month plus on the road gives me
the advantage of direct contact.
     What is desired most of all by the American people is the
ability to have some kind of trust and faith in their leadership,
yet they can never seem to be able to trust their leaders and
have faith in their ability to lead because they were put into
office by special interest money and apathetic non-voters. Caring
voters will examine the issues and vote in such a way that
emphasizes solutions and not rhetoric and the character of a
candidate over a fleeting advertisement urging trust for the sake
of having it look good on television.
      Our system is out of control on all  fronts because we
expect democracy to work  like one of our pieces of machinery. It
doesn't. Never has, never will work that way. To extend an
analogy, democratic government requires as much investment in
time  to run properly as one must put in for maintenance of a
high performance sports car to go back and forth to work. An hour
on the road and two weeks in the shop. Yes, it  is frustrating
and a seeming waste of time, but a younger generation growing up
needs to learn civic responsibility and carry on democratic
traditions in this country.
     Currently we are seeing the rise of extremists of all
persuasions who use extra-legal, illegal and immoral means to
promote their  political agendas and goals. There is no debate,
no exchange of ideas, just one long and dreary drone of
unyielding and  uncompromising  screaming and sloganeering on
every level of  communication. These former fringe groups smell
power like hyenas for carrion. The times we inhabit give them
fuel and sustenance and an all important reason to exist. Another
two years of mismanagement and abuse of the public trust will set
us up for the first democratically elected dictator in American
history. After our home grown tyrant takes office there will be
no further American history, just the jotting down of the daily
execution of democratic traditions. 
     If you want the above scenario to keep on course, don't
vote, never take an interest in your community, keep your eye on
the bottom line to the exclusion of all else, watch plenty of
television and go to as many motion pictures as possible.
     Not to digress, but I am sure many readers will note that I
have an intense dislike of the television and motion picture
industries. That particular dislike comes from experience and an
inside view of the process of how these business entities really
work.
     The most important film in this century is not Gone With The
Wind,
but Triumph Of The Will, by  Leni Riefenstahl and her crews.
Triumph Of The Will  is the finest example of the total
enshrinement of pure evil ever made by human intelligence. The
film is the work of genius in the depiction of the Nazi
domination of thought and reason by substituting ceremonies and
spectacular events, all with one purpose--POWER.
      What twin businesses use the same techniques in modern 
America? Is a video necessary? The Allies won the physical
struggle against the Nazi war machine, but the spirit of Adolf
presides over our daily lives in the way and manner we are ruled
by images and messages from mass communications networks that use
the same techniques Goebbels did fifty years ago. Who really won
the war?
     Why bring this up? Because everything we do affects the
climate of business and art and the rights to express ourselves
without fear of retatliation for our views and the responsible
conduct of business. If we don't take care of the problems we
face and sit down and hammer out our demands as citizens to our
elected leaders as to what we will see be done or  they are out
of office; then we deserve our tyranny, for we shall have earned
it by the studied efforts of our indifference to democracy and
freedom.
      I attended the P. P. of A. convention in Nashville,
Tennessee during my long business trip and I did receive an
education in the fine art of the true rip off. Take one hotel
dedicated as an enshrinement  to bad taste, a trade show
bedeviled by complaints and double-bookings, and absolutely
outrageous prices for convention services, with a group of pretty
confused and bewildered officials and you have a recipe for
disaster.
      Every morning before the trade show began, the exhibitors
had a two hour confessional and complaint  session. It
accomplished absolutely nothing other than a venting of much
pent-up hostility and anger. Not one thing was changed after all
the cries of abuse and injustice. My own response was,  What do
you want to have happen after you give away practically
everything catering to the professional photographer and his
wallet?  Do you really believe someone is going to buy your
product when a bigger exhibitor hands it out for free? 
     Do you like to do battle with human nature?  How about
recognizing  that  if something can be gained by a give away or 
by outright  theft there are no customers? All my experience has
taught me that the human animal always goes for  the handout and
shirks the nobility of paying  for a service or product. In other
words, the exhibitors were dealing with the cheapest of the cheap
and going against the brick wall of why pay,  when I can get it
for  nothing?
     Is it so hard to recognize that free is not free? When a
major manufacturer of  film,  cameras, or  equipment raises
prices,  do you think the price is raised just because of the
head honcho's whimsical nature? It is raised to cover, amongst 
other  things, convention freebie hand outs. The next time, don't
stick your hand out  too quickly at a photo convention or
meeting. The object placed in your hand will be paid for one way
or another by you.
     A remarkable facet of modern American life is that we hear
all this noise about a free market economy and capitalism and
that's  the way we run things here. Not! If you want to test  the
water and see how well our  fellow countrymen know our purported 
economic system, ask them to tell you how to read the NYSE
Composite in  the financial section of the daily newspaper.
Better yet, ask someone about the true purpose of a stock
exchange and how it works.  A real test  would be on what  is a
capital gain or  loss. The  final exam  is: What  is a profit and
what  is a loss? I would be willing  to bet  a  bundle that  at 
least  seventy  five  per  cent 
( 75%),  don't know  or  can't tell you what you are asking
about. I will wager that  the same 75% knows how to get the best
hand out in town or  how  to expect something for  nothing, and
that they are fully deserving of  being taken care of  for  their 
daily needs by the rest of the remaining 25%. The new national
symbol should be a cow with every hand on the udder.
     I would now like to welcome some of our  new talent  to the
magazine-Jules Warren and her fabulous techniques for make-up to
give your photography the added punch it needs and Fred Morales
of San Francisco for his beautiful travel portfolio of which you
are seeing only a  fraction.
Michael de Rosa and his headshots in the style of old Hollywood
glamour photographers is someone who we would like to continue to
publish. I also want to thank William Povse for another
interesting and thought-provoking commentary he prepared for the
magazine, which reinforces what the Hurth's have been saying for
the past year. 
    This magazine is the most democratic of the glamour
photography magazines available. The only thing that is
recognized is merit and your hard work  to do the best you can
with the equipment you have to produce the best images possible. 
   And if you have been reading through the lines, a
democratically run magazine can suffer the same fate as the
citizens of a democracy when they take a thirty year vacation
from responsibility. There is no excuse for your glamour
photography not  to be published anymore, you have the forum, now
make use of it! FL
