Assignment: Flag Day

Small isn't always associated with New York, especially when it comes to parades. But this 69th Flag Day event, from City Hall Park to historic Fraunces Tavern, celebrated the 236th anniversary of the adoption of the American flag. With just a handful of units, from diverse public schools and color guards, to traditional followers of American symbols and history, handfuls of people in lower Manhattan watched as this perhaps ten minute parade interrupted their day just long enough to wonder what it was all about. 

As people walked to and from their offices this lunchtime, sometimes through the parade column itself, they wondered allowed what was going on. "Oh, right...Flag Day.." was the usual response, followed by a smile towards the phalanx of marchers, and then an about face with quick steps back to work. 

For a moment, the fast-paced world of the Financial District slowed, but just a little.

 

 

Photos © 2013 by Craig Ruttle 

  Photos ©2013 by Craig 

take the A train (again)

IN announcing the return of A train subway service to the Rockaways after Superstorm Sandy, the MTA rolled out one of the oldest subway trains still operating to mark the occasion. The ceremonial train left the Howard Beach station carrying MTA brass, employees, NYPD officers and many members of the media. Once reaching Rockaway Park Beach 116th station, there were speeches and song, feeling perhaps a bit like a bannered celebration of the early 20th Century.

The celebratory nature of this day probably won't solve transportation problems that the Rockaway peninsula has always faced. Surely this was the MTA's best face on announcing a many million dollar repair that involved extraordinary efforts by it's track workers and engineers. But for this couple of hours, at least, most were swept up in the moment, free of the skepticism and the critical eye
that will continue to focus on the workings of the MTA after this train departs.

As for this vintage A train: it delivered real Rockaway residents to their destination after it left the station.

Photos ©Craig Ruttle 2013

For Marine lost in Afghanistan, a living room.

Greg Buckley of Oceanside, Long Island, holds a portrait of his eldest son, Marine Lance Cpl. Greg Buckley Jr., as he stands amongst a vast display of special photographs put together buy family and close friends now in their home barely a week after Greg., Jr. was laid to rest. Buckley was fatally shot by an Afghan police officer in Afghanistan on Aug. 10th., 2012.

For Syrian Refugees in Turkey, A Fragile Peace

As an April 10th UN deadline for a cease fire has come and gone, Syrians continue to flee the country across the Turkish boarder. For over a year, as neighborhoods in Syrian cities like Homs, Idlib and Latakia have been attacked by the forces of President  Bashar al-Assad, residents have sought safe haven in Turkey from the bloodshed. Home for more than 23,000 refugees has become tent and container cities along the border in Reyhanli, Kilis, Bohsin, and farther north in Islahiye.

Some of the severely wounded have found refuge at hospitals in the Turkish city of Antakya, but only after sometimes harrowing journeys over the remote mountains.  Some were carried by comrades across the border to safety, only then getting medical care for life threatening injuries.

With hostilities seemingly without solution, some Syrians are trying to carve out a normal life in and around the camps. A building has been rented in a suburb of Antakya and is now a school for Syrian children, run by Syrians who are just trying to normalize life for their children. Others find refuge in the simple pleasure on a crisp, sunny day, sipping coffee and spending time with their children, like the Wazzen family, who use an abandoned stable as a place to relax. Their carpentry business and home they left behind in Idlib, Syria, they say, is now occupied by Assad's forces.

Many of the Syrian refugees seem calm as they deal this desperate situation, but continue to worry about those still back home as fighting, although possibly halted for the moment, still threatens neighborhoods across the country.

Asking many what they hope for in the future and you find a common, simple answer; they just want to go home and live in peace.

Moorad Saleh, 3 months old, and born in a camp to Syrian parents Ismail Turky Sheikh Saleh and wife Jasmin, sleeps on a blanket in an unused stable near the Syrian refugee camp in Yayladagi, Turkey, just under a mile form the Syrian border.  Moorad was born in the camp and the family goes to the stable as a place to enjoy time away from camp, using it as a spot to relax. April 4, 2012.

 

 

A Syrian child stands along a road near a camp run by the Turkish government that houses Syrian refugees near the town of Reyhanli, within a few hundred yards of Syria. April 3, 2012.

Camp at Reyhanli, Turkey. April 3, 2012.

Camp at Reyhanli, Turkey. April 3, 2012.

Camp at Reyhanli, Turkey. April 3, 2012.

Camp at Reyhanli, Turkey. April 3, 2012.

Children wave a former Syrian flag, a symbol used in protest, at the Camp at Reyhanli, Turkey. April 3, 2012.

Unknown where it came from, a bullet pierced the windscreen of this car that was traveling towards Turkey in Syria near the border, slightly injuring the driver. Who or why the bullet was fired was unclear, but the bullet lodged inside the car's roof, Cilvegozu border crossing. April 3, 2012.

The Turkey (left) Syrian Border near Reyhanli, Turkey. April 3, 2012.

Holding prayer beads, a man who was shot four times while trying to rescue another person wounded on the street during government attacks in Idlib, Syria several weeks ago, lay in a hospital in Antakya, Turkey still healing only after leaving Syria illegally by getting a car ride up a mountain and then carried by four men across the border to Turkey. In Turkey for a number of weeks now, he went without treatment for a period time before making it to Turkey and getting medical care.April 4, 2012.

Recovering in Antakya, April 4, 2012.

Once a tobacco processing facility, a woman peers from a window of what is now a refugee camp in Yayladagi, Turkey, just under a mile form the Syrian border. April 4, 2012.

A Syrian woman and a child wait near a processing office after arriving at a refugee camp in Islahiye, Turkey, about 110 kilometers north of the Syrian border. April 6, 2012.

A tent filled refugee camp in Islahiye, Turkey, about 110 kilometers north of the Syrian border. April 6, 2012.

Syrian refugee children sing and dance during a music class at a school that was started by Syrians in Antakya. The building houses students of all ages is still being refurbished by Syrian adults who fled the violence from many parts of their country. April 4, 2012.

Syrian school, Antakya, Turkey. April 4, 2012.

Syrian refugees make the best of their situation not far from their tent camp in Bohsin, just several hundred feet from the Syrian border. April 5, 2012

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Jasmin Saleh, who used to live in Latakia, Syria before fleeing the violence there, relaxes with her child Moorad, 3 months old, in an unused stable across a road from their Moorad from their refugee camp in Yayladagi, Turkey, just under a mile form the Syrian border. Moorad was born in the camp. April 4, 2012.

Camp in Yayladagi, Turkey April 4, 2012.

Syrian refugees arrive at a refugee camp in Islahiye, Turkey, about 110 kilometers north of the Syrian border. The Turkish government said today that 2,300 Syrians fled into Turkey in 24 hours, and have arrived at camps in different areas of the region April 6, 2012.

Syrian refugees at a refugees at the Islahiye, Turkey, camp about 110 kilometers north of the Syrian border April 6, 2012.

A popular activity with the children, a Syrian child holds up a peace sign at a Syrian refugee camp in Yayladagi, Turkey April 4, 2012.

               All Photos © Craig Ruttle 2012

Mothers' Gift Fulfills a Need

Jay Snyder, father of Jackson James, left, and Reverie Vivian Snyder, lost his wife Michal in childbirth 3 1/2 months ago on Thanksgiving. With breast milk being Michal's primary choice of food for her children, the Manhattan father was left to uphold her wishes. With the generous aid of mothers in the area, breast milk has been continually donated so Snyder can provide the children's nutrition he and his wife discussed and planned before her death.
With the help of mothers, family and friends, like Snyder's sister in law Maitreya Rich of Los Angeles (in town to help Snyder with the children in photos during feeding ), he moves forward under difficult circumstances knowing at least this important component of his children's needs are being fulfilled. 

 

Photos © Craig Ruttle 2012