Chamblee54

This content was originally published July 31, 2009. … I couldn’t decide whether to go on the beltway hike. The weather radar showed a lot of red and yellow moving into Atlanta. Finally, at 9am, I decided to take the plunge. When I called Angel to confirm the hike was going ahead, the sun came out. I got to the West End station first, but did not have to wait long. The other seven hikers arrived shortly. The first part of the walk was down West Whitehall Street. The hike made a slight detour to see part of the beltline site. It is a kudzu theme park.
… The sixteen legs moved past Adair Park, and down Allene Street. This is where they first walked on railroad tracks. The story is that, while this is an active track, it only gets about one train a month. This is the same story as the walk a few weeks ago, where there were four trains to go by. The end of Allene Street was the first time anyone heard thunder. Unfriendly clouds appeared at the end of the horizon. The first bridge was over Stewart Avenue Metropolitan Parkway. …
… As the crew moved down the tracks, a few drops of rain arrived. On the left appeared a large tract of unused land, waiting for development. In the distance was the overpass for i75-i85. Angel said ” we can take shelter under the freeway”. The bottom dropped out. After taking a break under the freeway, the rain slacked off and the hike continued. We went over Pryor Street, on a vintage bridge. Approaching the tunnel under McDonough Boulevard, the rain was back. This tunnel was a joy to walk through, a high arch lined with bricks. …
… The good news is that the rain showers, though sometimes intense, did not last more than a few minutes. The tracks went by the site of Stanton Park, another project waiting for the future. The rain returned again, and the hikers took shelter in an abandoned city warehouse. After the clouds passed the third time, the sun came out. Before long, the problem was heat from the sun, compounded by soggy clothes. Going south of Grant Park, I could see condos in the distance. Somewhere behind Girls High, the group got off of the tracks and moved onto the Glenwood Road Connector to cross i-20. …
… Passing through a development off Glenwood Road, the team stopped for a break at a coffee shop. Back on the path, there was one last stretch of old railroad land on the other side of Memorial Drive. Soon, this was impassible, and the crew walked around it on a side street. Angel showed where he had been attacked by bees while trying to clear some of the weedage. By this time, I was struggling. The heat and the long walk left me feeling ragged. To my delight, before long the Inman Park Marta Station appeared. The bench in the air conditioned train felt so good.
This content was originally published July 3, 2008. … Patriotism is one of the games that almost everyone plays. The rules seem to vary. In 1967, John Sidney McCain was flying planes in Nam. I was in the eighth grade. Barack Hussein Obama was in the first grade. BHO was in Hawaii, which might have been where JSM went for R&R, if Hanoi did not have other ideas. America was about to hit a turning point about the Vietnam War. At first people were supportive, albeit without much enthusiasm. Opposition started to arise, and was frequently confused with treason. …
… As the war dragged on, the homefront began to see things differently. The patriots of 1967 were the ones who opposed the war. The conflict in Indochina was to cause many problems for the United States. Eventually, Richard Nixon got a fig leaf treaty, that he called Peace with Honor. The early opposition was heard, but not after losing more than 58,200 Americans. That is the first way to be a patriot…to keep an eye on the government, and speak out in opposition when it is needed. …
… The war in Babylon was an experiment in war without sacrifice. There was a tax cut, when it was apparent we were planning an invasion. The national debt has gone out of control, and the dollar is not worth as much as it once was. The oil market is based on the dollar. Oil is just as valuable as ever. The dollar is not, and it takes more dollars to buy a barrel of oil. This is an important factor in the rise of gas prices. … · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025