In 2008 I bought a digital camera, but found I couldn't make too many good pictures with it. It was almost as if, with every frame costing me nothing, I couldn't make a picture matter. But it was OK for collecting. A digital camera makes a good sherpa; it can carry your necessaries. On the news on the way to these small cities, the Republicans were blaming the poor for the financial meltdown. Seems they had gone and bought a bunch of houses they couldn't afford. Neil Cavuto on Fox News came out and said it, "Loaning to minorities and risky folks is a disaster."

But on the achy streets of Newburgh and Scranton and Pittsfield and Troy, it became obvious that very few of these "risky folks" owned their own homes. Mailboxes were festooned with immigrant names and coated and recoated with paint as families moved on. People rented, and their mailboxes told tale of just how hard it can be to get housed.

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