celebratory parade of affirmation - Sikh religious communities of Michigan come to Lansing

Looking up from the bookstore/cafe at Lansing Community College one spring day in 2014 (4/26), the lines of people of all ages in ethnic clothing and ordinary clothing walked by en route to the state capitol building one Saturday morning. Generally there is not a lot of public visibility of Sikhs on the airwaves or public spaces, so this event was a good chance for those walking to affirm their place in the state; and a good chance for those passers-by to see them, as well.
     How might the role of public visibility differ in a society other than USA, where such public statements are allowed, routine and perhaps expected as a way of self-assertion and existential expression?

Voting culture - high school civics classroom podium (poster)

Rural high school classroom podium in history/civics class lists a series of consequential decisions that happened by a margin of one vote. Since the youngest tend to be the least politically involved; instead self-involved or friend-involved, it makes sense to dramatize the power of a single vote to decide the outcome of a proposed law.

flag avenues

Evening view of Mt. Rest Cemetery on May 30, 2014 in St. Johns, Michigan 48879

So far there are 570 flags at the city cemetery, “Mt. Rest,” in St. Johns, Michigan. Four times a year the poles and flags are unfurled: Memorial Day (not the 3 day weekend that varies its date each year, but rather the May 30 date of the traditional Civil War holiday), Independence Day on July 4, Labor Day (the first Monday of September), and Armistice Day (the World War I cessation of hostilities, November 11). This panorama stitches 2 photos to show the view south and east from the paved road that runs along the west side of the 1919 era mausoleum located at the center of the present grounds, but at its beginning it was near the eastmost edge of the burials made between the early years of the city in 1856 and 1919. Tombstones of that early time often were large, while those of the recent generations are normally more modest. Some burial grounds specify flush to the ground must be made to facilitate easy lawn mowing.

    What will future observers and inquiring minds think about the ceremonial handling of the national flags, the Memorial Day speech-making and frequent references to “freedom” [but whose? and under what terms] and “freedom is not free” (but rather has been paid for in the blood of the draftees and volunteers and career soldiers and sailors and aircrews).
--see also video clips from the remembrance ceremonies

--see also the July 2016 display:
Avenue of Flags - set of cemetery festooned with U.S. flags
[at Memorial Day and again at Independence Day the hundreds of flags are placed]

http://miserybay.usanethosting.com/indylite/archives/3460 =article
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lywSMljkiTU =slideshow of scenes