Don Brown
gettheflick.bsky.social
Don Brown
@gettheflick.bsky.social
1K followers 350 following 2.9K posts
Retired ATC (ZTL) -- NATCA founding member Amateur Photographer Joe Biden Democrat Should have been a cowboy. Ask an ATC question (or about a Photography Park) at your peril.
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Funny. You're so used to these kind of videos airing the ignorant citizens it's kind of wild watching them talk to somebody that seems to be paying attention. :) #VoxPopuli
Reposted by Don Brown
Does this sound familiar? We could be twinsies.
...curable. You may not enjoy the process, but you'll enjoy the results.

Never stop learning. Never stop trying to be better. Never stop.
...public figure so I don't know if you'll be interested or not. But I really enjoyed her podcast with Andrew Young and Al Sharpton.

The Reverend Al Sharpton is harder for me to love. He's not from The South. I don't connect with him like I do Black people raised in The South. Ignorance is...
Rachel Maddow in Discussion with Civil Rights Leader Andrew Young
Podcast Episode · The Rachel Maddow Show · 10/16/2025 · Bonus · 1h 33m
podcasts.apple.com
...I was stupid or something. I'm not stupid. But I was ignorant.

And that was pretty much how I was about the Civil Rights movement. Ignorant. (You thought I'd lost the flick didn't you?)
I enjoyed Rachel's special about Andrew Young. But I lived in Atlanta with Ambassador Young as a...
And then there was the time I was in Sanford Bishop's office and he asked me about some training initiative in the FAA. It wasn't a big deal to me. The Black air traffic controller I was paired with jumped in and explained it really was a big deal. Congressman Bishop looked at me like...
Sanford Bishop - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
..stupid or something. "Uh, some folks aren't real comfortable with Black guys in the woods."

I felt like an idiot (with reason). And then I got mad. I *love* being in the woods. To be denied that joy because of the color of your skin? How damn stupid are people? Pretty damn stupid.
...got us. But back to my story.

My first inkling about the injustice of race relations came from a Black air traffic controller. He knew I spent a lot of time in the mountains -- hiking and camping. He asked if he could go with me. "Sure, but why wait. Just go." He looked at me like I was...
Because that's what good Southern boys said. I was wrong. Mostly because I was ignorant. But, like Sir Winston, "I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught."

3 years later I was helping form a union. Union folks have a saying. "You get the union you deserve. The FAA...
www.faa.gov
But thanks to my union -- The National Air Traffic Controllers Association -- I got educated. About a lot of things.

Now, I've said this 100 times but I'll say it 1,000 hoping someone new will listen. I walked into my facility in 1982 and said, "I don't need a union and I don't want a union".
Home
Discover NATCA National Air Traffic Controllers Association NATCA is a labor union and aviation safety organization in the United States that represents nearly 20,000 highly skilled air traffic contro...
www.natca.org
"Andrew Young: The Dirty Work"

Now, full disclosure. I've never been an Andy Young fan. I lived a lot of my life in and around Atlanta. I was pretty busy during that time so I wasn't paying close attention but I'm old enough now to realize I was mostly wrong. About a lot of things.
'Andrew Young: The Dirty Work' Official Trailer
MSNBC Films presents "Andrew Young: The Dirty Work," executive produced by Rachel Maddow. The documentary retraces Andrew Young's story — in his own words — as a trusted friend to Dr. Martin Luther Ki...
www.msnbc.com
So, to get off this (because I'm headed somewhere else), just because you're the best in the world doesn't mean you can't do better. Or that you aren't slipping. So do better @nytimes.com (and FAA).

Speaking of doing God's work, did you catch @maddow.msnbc.com new special? You should. It's great.
...able to cover things that I just don't get anywhere else. They simply have the gravitas no other newspaper has. I read anything @sangernyt.bsky.social writes closely, because he's experienced and I listen to him on @thedsrnetwork.bsky.social.

And @nickkristof.bsky.social is doing God's work.
Opinion | The Lives and Money We Are Wasting
www.nytimes.com
(Y'all caught that I said p22 and James said p23, right? Not a big deal in the regular world. For good or bad, I ain't "regular". 🤠)

Anyhow...James (and a lot of journalists) have a bee in their bonnet about the @nytimes.com. I am (against all odds) still a defender of the paper. They are...
So, buyer of the @nytimes every Sunday, open it to page 22.

That is pretty sad. Especially the pictures.
Now, before I get too far gone, I try to take my own advice. When James Fallows writes, I should read too. So I do.
Those with sharp eyes might detect a subtle difference in NYT play last month of an event in one city, w 100,000+ attendees, versus play this morning of some 2500+ events w many millions of attendees, in all 50 states.

See if you can spot it! /s

Then you can find today's story on p A23
You’ve been warned. 🤠
You mean "Mexican", "Gay" and "upside-down flag"? Yeah.

But, to be fair to all the newspaper editors (and photographers) -- pictures of old, white people don't sell newspapers. 🤠

Even if it is the truth. #Huntsville #Alabama

(I wouldn't pick this picture to highlight my work either.)
"Bigger Than Us"

My best from #Huntsville, #Alabama. We’re just Americans, doing what we can for something that is a lot bigger than us.

Nikon D7500 — Nikon 18-300mm F6.3 ED VR
48mm
F8@1/640th
ISO 640
Polarizer
Cropped

DSB_1568.JPG
©Don Brown 2025
#photography #NoKings
The only other politician I know that talks this way is Bernie Sanders. And, to a lesser degree, Elizabeth Warren.

I couldn’t begin to tell you what my Congressman or Senators stand for.
Whoa. Everything changes — except the human heart.

“For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.”
Cool beans. :) Nice to meet you. And thanks for coming.

I’ll get some pics up tomorrow.
I want young people to focus on one word here: POLICY.

Why does Zohran sound so confident? Why does he not sound like he’s at a loss for words, no matter the question?

He knows what he believes. He is POLICY driven. Not popularity, politics or donors. POLICY.

Listen when he says POLICY.
Zohran Mamdani Explains His Rise
YouTube video by New York Times Podcasts
m.youtube.com