By coincidence, I’ve learned that the same lady, Miriam, who thought my photographs of the exterior of Van Nuys City Hall pose a threat to national security, was interviewed yesterday in a podcast by Mayor Sam.

In the interview, she describes the incident when she first saw me pointing my Nikon D70s at the ornate building, pushing my shutter, and then how I walked away. Later on, like a good public citizen, she drove slowly down Sylvan Street and watched me walk back to my house.

It’s a proud day in our country, when a camera carrying citizen goes to pay his taxes, and later snaps some shots of the beautiful and historic City Hall and is suspected by another American of conducting espionage.

It made me think of Paris, all those artists painting the city, appreciating its beauty…only to have that art end up in the hands of Al Kayder. The creative person can’t even stop to admire and interpret our own nation without raising suspicion.

That’s what we’re fighting to bring to the whole world: freedom.