Mike Maney

My mom and I were talking on the phone this afternoon. I was in the car driving to provide photojournalistic cover for one of the local activist organizations staging a sit-in to support a local business under fire from the Republican Party for the owner’s public support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

She told me to be safe, as a mother is required to do. And I do prepare my equipment and mind when I grab my camera to go into these increasingly volatile environments. I also reminded her that it was my duty to use my talent to contribute to others who need it. It’s all of our responsibility, frankly, to find within us that thing we do well and apply it to serve the greater communal and societal good. Not for compensation, but because it’s the right thing to do.

My parents raised me to think of others. They modeled the behavior for the man I’ve become. From something as simple as volunteering for school functions or coaching sports teams, to taking a scared kid in when he knocks on the door in the middle of the night holding his dad’s pistol that he took away to protect his mother.

Thinking of others isn’t something you think about. It’s just something you do.

Anywho, here are a couple of images from this afternoon.