The internet is a fickle place where in the blink of an eye you can become famous, be disgraced or have your story shared millions of times. Currently the eye of Sauron is focused on Bernie Sanders the lovable senator from Vermont. Attending the recent presidential inauguration and social distancing he was caught looking pretty casual at this black tire affair. Coming from the New England area he knows how to stay warm so bundled up with a nifty pair of knit gloves he stood out in the crowd in a way only Bernie can.
A photo journalist captured this picture of Bernie with his legs crossed and a tweet soon surfaced stating “This could’ve been an email”. After a hundred thousand shares someone had the bright idea to photoshop him into famous paintings, pop culture movies and in locations all over the world. I too fell in love with the humble defender of the common man being added to my favorite intellectual properties and soon began collecting images.
That evening I made a post on my Facebook wall and in a public group. Since then my post and the individual images have been shared more than 18,000 times. I am not the original author of any of these yet my name is shared all across social media proving you need to be very careful what you put on the internet. In this case it was benign but could have just as easily been something I didn’t want the world to know I was connected to.
Realizing the potential Bernie’s team promptly began offering sweatshirts with the image on his page with all proceeds going to Meals on Wheels of Vermont. Naturally, it sold out in a matter of hours and there is now a 4-8 weeks wait. How long will this hold the nation (world’s) attention is anyone’s guess but it’s nice to see something positive in the spotlight following the end of a political nightmare that was 45s term.
PLEASE NOTE: I had some issues with the web publisher program and this did not get published on the day intended. This was originally written for publish on 1/24/2021.
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