LMAC Freestyle: The USA, a Union but not Uniform

I live in the United States. My country has been making headlines because of our recent presidential election. I've been sorting this out intellectually, and emotionally. One thing I'd like to try to clarify for people who live here and more especially for people who don't is that though we are the United States, the states are not a uniform entity.

From the beginning of our country we were knit together with compromise because we were such a disparate people. We had rural interests, and urban interests. Agricultural interests and banking interests. Small farms and large plantations.

It was hard to have all these different interests come together in a country that we could call United. But we have managed. From time to time there is a hiccup, and the union then seems less united.

We are currently, I believe, in one of those times.

Today I offer two collages. The first shows how the different states in the union are distinct, and have different laws and different personalities. Some of our laws are mandated by the federal government, but some, such as laws governing education, are controlled by the states. I hope you find the following collage entertaining and mildly instructive. The key to the different phases of the collage is provided here:

• Three states where you can't drive until you are 18:
  Massachusetts
  Texas
  Florida

• Federal minimum age to drink is 21. One state where family members can give juveniles liquor:
  Texas

• Two states where there is no minimum age to marry, with parental consent:
  California
  Massachusetts

• State where importation of citrus fruit is prohibited:
  California

• State where sex toy sales are prohibited on Sunday:
  Florida

• State where election day is a holiday and a paid day off:
  New York

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Collage #2

We are divided, and yet we are united. At least, that is my hope. The ideals that have traditionally united us are expressed in a beloved song, which almost became our National Anthem, America the Beautiful.

The song was written in 1893 by Katherine Lee Bates and put to music in 1910 by Samuel A. Ward. Here are the words to the first two stanzas, which are the stanzas commonly sung by school children.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
source

My second collage expresses the spirit of that song, and I hope suggests the unity that is my ideal, for my country. In these times we may need to be reminded of those things that tie us together. I have tried to express in the four images of the collage, the sentiment of the song's first verse. By blending those images instead of separating them in frames, I hope to suggest unity.

Here is a Youtube video of John Legend singing the first two verses of America the Beautiful.

Collage Process
I used GIMP and Paint 3D to extract, size and place images. I used GIMP to make the layers for the GIFs. My element sources were the LMAC LIL Gallery and Pixabay.

Sources Collage #1
Map
TheDigitalWay
Pixabay

Champagne
MIM326
Pixabay

Car
VarnaFolio
Pixabay

Wedding rings
Tatutati
Pixabay

Citrus
Stux
Pixabay

Love/couple
Vane
Pixabay

Voting
Mohamed_hassan
Pixabay

Sources for Collage #2
Spacious Sky LIL Gallery
@muelli
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/8491

Amber waves of grain
Shogun
Pixabay

Purple mountains
espaciosyobjetos
pixabay

Fruited plain
ArtSpark
pixabay

Flowers on the fruited plain LIL Gallery
@yaziris
https://www.lmac.gallery/lil-gallery-image/7647

LMAC and LIL
The LMAC Collage Contest has undergone a bit of a refurbishment. We now run a monthly contest with the traditional format of a template and collages that are inspired by the template. We also run a second contest which has a theme. There is no template except the one in our heads. What does the theme suggest to us? Both contests are currently running. Jump in. Have some fun and maybe win some Hive.

But wait! There's more. Anytime you feel the inspiration to make a collage, no need to join a contest. Just make one! That's what I did today. I felt like saying something through collage and so I made two that expressed a feeling, and a thought. We accept and curate free-style collages all the time. Just follow the rules laid out in the contest announcement and we will curate your collage.

LIL is an intricate part of the LMAC community. It is a library comprised of images contributed by members of the Hive community. Anyone on Hive can contribute to the library, and anyone can borrow from it. All images in the library are in the public domain. Procedures for borrowing and contributing may be found on this post @shaka.

I hope you found my collages interesting. Thank you for reading my blog.

Peace and health. Hive on!