These idiots have absolutely no idea what they’re in for. The alcohol might help cushion the crash. They’re going to need something.

We all have idiot friends like this who think they’re offering us something so wonderful.  Helll, we’ve all BEEN idiot friends like this.

I recently committed a massive faux pas by asking a Makah elder to “include in the funeral photo the most important members of the family.”  She bridled, “They’re ALL important.”

As a white (or Vaguely Ethnic; ie by 19th-century standards) person, raised white, I don’t understand a fully extended family, that thing we call a “tribe.”  I soon understood that if I was to take a picture of the family for the newspaper, I would have to photograph the ENTIRE mass of people in the hall.  And the official in charge of outside relations had asked me to photograph the family after the ceremony.

The editor was furious.  I was supposed to photograph a funeral service — as one could at any white funeral — but the tribe’s representative had asked me not to.  I finally ended up accompanying the family to an outside ceremony, and very shame-facedly begging a pose from the few who had gone out in the rain, including the widow clutching the flag from her husband’s coffin.  They were extremely gracious in posing for me, probably more in recognition of the passed elder’s work with so many outside forces to make things better for his Family.

I’m not such a great journalist; I interview and photograph like a writer, which demands far more depth and sensitivity, and what I’ll always be.  I don’t butt in if I can help it, but the editor is sitting back there fuming for a photo I should have turned in hours before.

All this for a $20.00 photo fee… I think I’m getting paid about $2.00 an hour. At least they pay mileage — IF I BEG.