May 2006 Archives

A stunning picture by Barbara Mathews, May 14,2005.

The east side of the Carrizo plain, in the Temblor
Range, about 50 miles due west of Bakersfield,
California. via email from that Evil Kachina

Gertrude Stein, "no answer"

smog buster

"Love is a revolutionary act." ~ Barbara Love

The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene.

I wrote about this poet when I heard the tribute on NPR a few weeks ago. Here's the quote from Time:

It seems I just deleted or otherwise erased the entire contents of six years of email. Yes, I did backup...a few months ago?

Wow. Want to start a new life? :-/

And then there are the vagaries of memory. I've been sorting and organizing memorabilia, trying to put things in chronological order. How often did I misdate things? Not sure, but some years definitely seem incorrect. Sequencing? Sketchy. In one instance, there's my written version and someone else's written version of the same event. Different!

I'm a bit numb with the loss. I had envisioned a certain texturing of the written documentation of my life, thoughts, processes, etc. I know it's not ALL gone; just the most recent several months, but gosh - it's a shock. Or, maybe I'm not numb? Wouldn't that be a change! Perhaps the half-dozen deletions of blog comments have inured me to this eventuality?

As Little Brother said upon departure a few days ago, there have been "so many goodbyes." Me too, to people, places, and hoped-for futures.

I leave this space tomorrow. It's been good for me. Who knows what the next one will bring?

Today, Iran's Drive to Nuclear Fuel Slows, Diplomats Say; yesterday, Iran Chief Eclipses Power of Clerics, and two days ago, U.S. Is Debating Talks With Iran on Nuclear Issue.

I'm reminded of the scene in "Good Night and Good Luck" when Edward Murrow argues that ideas of democracy can triumph in discourse with ideological opponents. Maybe it is irrelevant if the nuclear slowdown is politically deliberate or technologically incidental: it's an opportunity to change the rules of the game.

I was all on with "Wanda" the other day. :-) New situation, first day of a summer course. The teacher was tuned in. Rare. Honestly! Most hearing (non-deaf) folk tend to assume/ignore the interpreter. Either we know what we're doing or we don't; but they're not going to get in the middle of it!

It's a math class. We're going along, no worries, then the teacher says something about a variable. Wanda asks the deaf student if she has a sign for it. I get drawn into the discussion and the teacher notices us (!) and asks, "Is there a question?"

Dynamics ensue! :-)

We must keep net neutrality! A US House of Reps panel actually approved a bill that will not allow broadband providers to charge interent services for their content. This is so big it's hard to express how important it is for the long-term structuring of public access to information.

I don't think this is the same Craig Barnes quoted previously, but interesting to find this commentary with its encouraging (NOT) opening line:

"Unbeknownst to most Americans, the Bush administration is getting ready to start another war."

Craig Barnes, in the Sept/Oct Utne Reader (1997) was quoted:

"We Americans try to find the principle of a thing, the objective reality, the long and the short term, the height and the depth; we analyze and evaluate the truth of a thing and our demoncractic origins are so far back that we have utterly forgotten that procuess - due process, fair process, all process - is at bottom only a substitute for relationship. In a traditional culture the relationship is the key: It points the way to the truth, it is the source that signals whether a thing is credible or not. When relationship is right, the truth can be known."

Originally in Timeline (May/June 1997).

Not only were they identified in the Time Top 100, the Dixie Chicks are receiving prominent coverage for their new album, Taking the Long Way. A feature story on NPR, and now the cover of Time.

Someone got engaged last night. No, someone got married? No, someone was already engaged and is going to get married! I ate octopus. I ordered squid. How did that happen? I didn't notice until I was 3/4's done with the dish. It was delicious.

Ten people RSVPed for Hunju's "bridal shower". One didn't show (until karaoke), one didn't RSVP (such nerve!), and two additional people appeared for a total of ... an even dozen celebrants. We followed no customs except our own, so Hunju did not receive any advice on her upcoming life as a married woman. Perhaps we should take up a collection to send her to school?

Another headline story from the NYTimes: Iran shuts down newspaper over cartoon. Note: the story isn't headline news for the BBC. Interesting, the cartoon wasn't poking fun at the administration but at an ethnic minority group, Azeri Turks. The Azeri are most densely situated in the northease of Iran, which borders Iraq.

Ethnic strife between Kurds living in the same region has been on the Internet since at least 2003. This report from Xalq Qazeti, Baku, in Azeri 16 Apr 03 p 9 describes rising tensions between Kurds and Azeri's and speculates on a "softening" of the government's stance toward the Azeri (and the US, ha!)

It is unclear (for me, based on these sources) what the government's action in shutting down a popular reformist newspaper NOW is intended to accomplish. The Azeri's have also protested media sources: Azeris circle wagons around opposition channel.

Aside: info on the Turkish language by the BBC. Meanwhile (!), The airport where I would most likely arrive for that conference in July is ablaze. :-/

Lisa sent out the first notice to the comm-grad list about James Carey's deathcultural definition of communication:

"Communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired and transformed." (p. 10, 1975 in Baran, 2006, p. 9)

Carey is cited all over the place. This article in a Canadian journal introduces (to me, smile) the expressivist/objectivist debate.

I just added another feature to the blog, technorati. In theory, it will interlink me with more bloggers writing about similar topics as well as make it easier for them to find me. :-)

I've been asked if I have common sense. I've been asked if I'm nuts. I was roasted for considering serious study while visiting Iran: do your comps first and then ENJOY yourself!

Some of the analysis is pretty freaky, for instance, this article from the April 17 edition of The New Yorker.

Here's a blogpost by an American woman in Iran. She made a Request to news agencies covering the Iran nuclear issue back in February.

NOTE: Looks like I'll have to figure out how to wear a hajib.

One of my students is soaking up Cannes and Al Gore (!) is making waves at Sundance. Funny, as Cole just asked who might run for President on the Democratic side...Hillary of course, I read about a Senator from Virginia whose name I forgot, and I mentioned that Gore might try again. It's a new campaign style: provide serious information in a format that allows it. Will the public respond to an educational movie geared to adults?

Well, that was just the last stage in my extended birthday celebration. :-) Little Brother, his ex (?), and his best friend/roommate, treated me at the infamous ABC from midnight to about 2 am. Besides the minus-a-decade mythology (making me 33, ha!), there was the gender-bending conversation in which the Ex-of-Indeterminate Relationship tried to make common cause with me on the basis of us both being women, and Little Brother reeled out a ream of reasons that lumped me in with him and the BF/RM. The Ex-of-IR surrendered quickly in the face of overwhelming evidence. (I'm not sure this was a good thing?!) The list was basically a litany of what people (young men?) with no real life do to pass the time... (ouch!)

Then there was the redemption of Napolean Brandy. Wow.

Concern in Iran After a Scholar Is Held 3 Weeks.

Here's the latest from the US State Department on traveling to Iran. There has been a warning since December 29, 2005. There are no US embassies there, such protection as there may be is provided by the Swiss. "Americans who travel or reside in Iran despite the Travel Warning are strongly encouraged to register through the State Department's travel registration website, https://travelregistration.state.gov. "

I can pull off attending this conference on Deliberative Democracy in Cambridge next month...

They will focus on public policy disputes, primarily regarding environmental issues but I bet there are many parallels with language concerns.

The NYTimes' story today highlights disagreements among the EU, Russia, and the US regarding sanctions against Iran: Western Powers Disagree on Elements of Iran Proposal. Earlier this week, Time featured a story, Why not talk? in which they selected one particular quote from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 18-page letter to President Bush:

"All prophets speak of peace and tranquility--based on monotheism, justice and respect for human dignity," Ahmadinejad wrote. "Do you not think that if all of us abide by these principles, we can overcome the world's problems? Will you not accept this invitation?" (emphasis added)

Bush probably can't "accept" because it would be a blow to the ego in some way to respond to Iran's overture to us - rather generous, since the US hasn't been willing to make any overtures to them. Granted, Ahmadinejad's reference to monotheism may be a mask for Islam, but, as the Republican Senator Chuck Hagel notes, "Diplomacy is about talking."

This may seem like the strangest aside, but I saw an ad for a Nissan Pathfinder at the gym last night: "The Left Turn Adventure." The dialogue is all about what would happen if we could only make left turns. All the visual imagery is happy and positive, all the questions are posed rhetorically yet invoke optimism and possibility. Now, if a major car manufacturer thinks a PR campaign playing on the aspirations of the political left is marketable, does this corroborate a change in the wind?

The notion comes from Lacan (with whom I have substantial disagreement), but Slavoj Zizek explains it in a way that makes sense to me in his book, The Sublime Object of Ideology.

The link above goes to a summary of the book's ideas as they can be applied in film analysis, but it seems they can apply to any venue. He's one of the few philosophers I've read who manages to address both mass media and other large social structures and interpersonal relations.

I've found two of his examples particularly instructive: Pride and Prejudice and the sinking of the Titanic. Zizek claims Austen's novel illustrates a "double failure, this mutual misrecognition, [which] possesses a structure of a double movement of communication where each subject receives from the other its own message in the inverse form....If we want to spare ourselves the painful roundabout route through the misrecognition, we miss the Truth itself: only the 'working-through' of the misrecognition allows us to accede to the true nature of the other and at the same time to overcome our own deficiency - for Darcy, to free himself of his false pride, for Elizabeth, to get rid of her prejudices" (63).

People who don't do caffeine too often should watch out for McDonald's summer brew. Actually, my favorite teller-promoted-upstairs at my wicked cool small-town bank was just as wired when I was in the bank last week. I don't think Roxy had the coffee excuse then? At any rate, her repartee made my day, and I was happy to get a repeat. :-)

In addition to the kvetching about having teenage children (wasn't it easier when your worst worries were changing diapers and diagnosing tears instead of role shifting and lord-knows-what kinds of experimentation?), we shared some seriousness about how some people connect and know things on different levels or planes. People are in denial about reality, she argued. I was intrigued at the time, but who knew our talk was prelude to things I would read a few hours later? Not a surprise, though, if one accepts the possibility of communication on planes other than language. The irony is that we need language to make sense of these other forms of communication, or, perhaps I should say, we use language to try and make sense of - or dismiss - these other forms of communication.

At any rate, it was a fun and healing connection. Her humor is the packaging for the parts of life that matter most: "Your children are the product of your heart."

Little Brother says he bowled a 167 after I left last night, beating Lava for the second time in a row by only one (1) pin. When Luscious arrived, he looked at the five of us and exclaimed, "This is it?" Was it Anuj who reflected on the implication of how exciting we must be?! I know it was he who described the evening as a requiem. Cata was wearing his "Let's Get Nerdy" t-shirt. I don't know if that's why he copied my score for five frames straight but it's true, frames 3-8 we matched perfectly (even though we didn't always have the same combinations). Then he broke free.

I wrote some note about asking for permission. Lord only knows for what. Oh yeah, I had a 153 again. That's my third time. At least it's an odd number.

I am in a melancholy mood, yet I am resolute.

Yes, that is better phrasing than yesterday's version. :-/

Today was the last day of COM375 Section Five. I am sad. There was so much good energy generated among all these students. Yeah, I definitely annoyed them at times (they were definitely not happy I still care enough to penalize them for incorrect punctuation) but ... those who were ready took the horse by the reins and rode this class for all it was worth. As my favorite spiritual advisor says,

Students will make their choices over the remaining days and the wiki will take it's "final" shape. Final, that is, until the freshmen take over in the fall! :-) I haven't decided yet - should I give them their own separate wiki or have them build and add on to this one?

I'm in a melancholy yet resolute mood. There are many reasons, but I'll cite missing Sam, rereading Jonathan Livingston Seagull last night, and hearing a bit of an NPR story on the death of Stanley Kunitz, including a recording of him reading from his poem, The Layers (emphasis added).

The Layers

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written,
I am not done with my changes.

I saw a friend recently who asked about my relationship with Sam. She never met him, just read about him here: "He seems like a really neat guy. Reminds me of Tuesdays with Morrie." Sam would be so pleased. :-) He read the book right after he moved into the nursing home (2001), and shared it with as many people as he could. Sam was my uncle: chosen family, not blood. We had a hell of a connection, he and I. He met my dad while the two were in college, was at my parent's wedding, knew me as a child. When my parents moved us from the northeast to Colorado when I was 3 1/2, we would see Sam once or twice a year when he came to visit family (apparently sneaking in a visit with us in Denver before heading to their neck of the woods).

"After picking up her tickets Steph was outraged to find a dangling participle in one of the billboards near the stadium. As she was about to pull out her flamethrower and burn the sign down, someone told her that the sign was originally written in Korean and that sometimes people let grammar rules slide when Advertising Across Cultures. Steph wasn’t buying it and set fire to the billboard sending the burning wreckage plummeting down on the crowd of hippies below. Steph then torched a Disney banner saying that it was helping to contribute to the Commercialization of Childhood and then an Este Lauder billboard because it promotes the message of The Kept Woman as a Commodity. Feeling that she’d accomplished enough good deeds for the day, our hero entered the stadium. Steph sat in her seat with a fresh beer and listened as the stadium announcer called out rap singer Guerilla Black to do the national anthem. Steph, looking puzzled, turned to the person next to her and exclaimed “King Kong is Black? What?!" "Entschuldigung Bitte, um, excuse me," the German dude replied, "Warum Schreien Wir?."

Excerpted from the prologue to the Junior Writing in Communication students' "big papers".

I was hoping students would consider humor through one of the three theoretical lenses for analyzing the mass media that we discussed this semester (transmission, ritual, critical).

Undisclosed student: “Humor can be so powerful now. Look at the speech with Steven Colbert. He was at the White House, and trashing the news media and the president, in front of him. But he was using humor. People respond well to humor. Most young people get their news from the Daily Show and others with a comical stance. We are getting this information and they are using the humor to show which side they are on (media). Humor is strange in that it doesn't always work to your advantage. How serious can you take a comedian? Often the content is not taken seriously and can be brushed off without making a change.”

Steph: “We have a label for the way things aren't taken so seriously ... anyone? :-) And say more about its relationship to humor (for more points) or some other functions of comedy in mass media.”

I was a little slow in a couple of ways regarding the discussion about propaganda which centered on the animal rights movement. I titled the discussion thread “animal rights/hunting propaganda” and Kirk changed it to “animal rights mumbojumbo.”

I asked a handful of questions, including whether there was any evidence of bias in Glen’s presentation itself: was there more information on the 'support' side (of animal rights) than on the 'against' side (or vice versa)?

Who are the publics that animal rights advocates target? Who are the publics that hunting advocates target?

Is this a false dichotomy? (Can one support hunting and animal rights?)

A great discussion ensued in which I realized I had missed a crucial point. (Imagine!)

As the final extra credit discussion in the Intro to Mass Media course, I asked a few questions to try and clarify some essential teaching objectives. Three threads have been developing into awesome conversations:

Jen: “my grasp of representaion is how we view a certain (usually a minority group) of people based on the usual, stereotype image of them that the media shows us or is reinforced in our everyday lives via selective intake and selective "remembering" of incidents relating to the continuation of our own bias of a minority taht keep the cycle going and going...thats a bit vague, i cant seem to get it into a good point that comes out and makes sense...anyone else?”

The protests at Gallaudet started on April 3Oth. I made my first post on May 6.

Today, the NY Times features this story, Protests Continue at University for Deaf, on its email edition of headlines.

Most of my news has been coming from the Indiana DeafTimes. The Deaf community there has developed a petition and sent representatives to support the strike. Also, they've establised an IndyDeafUnity weblog. Here's a more established blog with a commentary.

I’m at the Vermont Deaf-Interpreter community forum. Of course I’m the only person strange enough to bring my laptop. :-) Nice to see folks I haven’t seen for awhile: Will, Missy, Nora, my old partner in crime Melody, Keri, I saw Elizabeth in Brattleboro yesterday: “You’re in the area!” Marge just said hi, she’s surprised how many people are here: “I didn’t know if it was going to be large or small, maybe only three people? So many!” :-)

So said Donna, calling me a "techhead" at the end of the Deaf-Interpreter Community Forum today. As I drove the 3+ hours to get there this morning I listened to NPR's Weekend Edition. Several stories caught my attention. First, an interview with Tom Wolfe, discussing the role of speech (he means language) in human evolution. Next, an interview with the author of Challenger Park, a novel about an astronaut mom. I was already interested because of my own childhood fantasies of space travel. I also remember driving from one job (at UPS) to another (at Taco Bell) on the day the Challenger expoded. I heard it on the radio and cried. What really hooked me was the notion of being so far removed from your child that even the possibility of communication is prevented.

Then there was the story about Desi Arnez being an auteur. I can't seem to find the interview (poo) but the argument was that Arnaz himself was really the first tv auteur. This article credits the combined team Desilu (with Lucille Ball). I've been more exposed to arguments about Ball's genius; it was interesting to listen to this perspective arguing that Arnaz has been somewhat overlooked. There was a line about the genius of making fun of himself (as Ricky Ricardo) except when he was performing as a musician, then he was always taken seriously.

Finally, a graduation speech by Scott Simon: Platitudes with Attitude. My students definitely deserve this one!

Oh, and there was a brief mention of Winston Churchill? Today is the anniversary of his assumption of the role of Prime Minister at the beginning of WWII. He proclaimed, in deep stentorian tones: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

I'm reading one of my favorite student's essays. She's writing about the hazards of teen driving, actually, the hazards of teen drivers. One of her points of evidence is underdevelopment of the cognitive mechanism for impulse control, the "dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, the so-called executive branch of the brain that weighs risks.” Maybe I take so many risks because my dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex never fully matured? :-o

Glen gave a very interesting paper about the PR strategies of the Humane Society of the US and the National Forest Service regarding bear hunting/trapping in Maine and coyote hunting in Vermont. All of us got to practice recognizing our own biases and trying to learn to talk without our own propagandistic rhetoric! One of the questions I posed was whether this either/or dualism is a false dichotomy: can one be both in support of animal rights and in support of hunting?

If you're interested in coyotes, one of the storylines in Prodigal Summer, a wonderful novel by Barbara Kingsolver, concerns a forest service naturalist who has a love affair with a bounty hunter. There's an incredible section in there about the role of the predator in maintaining biological diversity and ecological balance.

I didn't write much about it when I listened to it on tape. There is one hint about wildness and another hint in this prayer for life offered up by the naturalist.

Rachel treated us to several music videos from Yahoo, but told us about Launch.com, where you can "free" downloads (but you have to watch an ad first!)

She basically demonstrated how lyrics and graphics are both censored, but artists still make profits through massive hypercommericialism rapping about liquor, shoes, Cheetos and any other product "only because I like them" and getting paid for product placement.

Here are links to the lyrics of the music videos we watched:

What You Know lyrics by TI.

Nelly's Air Force Ones lyrics

Big Tymer's Still Fly

Interestingly, Eminem went to Sirius (with good ol' Howard).

Adam gave us an overview of the FCC's attempts to regulate "indecency" on the airwaves. He provided us this link to Radio In Persecution and treated us to Eric Idle's FCC song (replete with the f-word).

The question of "terrestrial vs satellite radio" has been with us all semester. Is the only way to guarantee freedom of speech being able to pay for it? Stern was fined $495,000 in April, 2005, apparently the straw that broke the camel's back and precipitated his move to Sirius satellite radio.

Some say Stern is the major catalyst for the FCC's crackdown of late, while others argue it was really Opie and Anthony. Long a haven for Playboy and others interested in broadcast sex, according to the NY Times even the Catholic Church is getting into satellite radio: Sirius to Begin a Catholic Channel

Whatever the content, one must wonder at the task of analyzing the category of material prohibited from free public consumption by the Federal Communications Commission: obscene (not protected by First Amendment), indecent, patently offensive, and profane (sexual or excretory deemed not quite obscene and therefore allowed but not between 6 am and 10 pm).

The entire class of junior writers in Communication (at UMass, Amherst) participated in producing their own wiki.

I performed (!) the last stanza (that I wrote) for the course rap for the mass media students (at UNH, Manchester) last night. I had fun experimenting with that new form. I'm also quite proud of the wiki overall; the students' writing has clearly improved and there's no doubt most of them actually had some fun (although few might admit it publicly, I mean who could actually like writing?!)

Last night was the grand finale for Introduction to Mass Media at the University of New Hampshire-Manchester. Some students prepared wiki pages as part of their presentations.

Presenting American Ethnocentricity which includes much historical information and analysis of the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy (and a fun game of Jeopardy).

A comparative analysis of the Mary Tyler Moore show and Desperate Housewives in Female Image: Past and Present. Includes links to several theme songs whose lyrics (or lack thereof) project certain representations of gender.

An application of Uses and Gratifications theory to Monkey See, Monkey Do? Film Violence and Reality, especially in recent streetcar racing blockbusters.

And links to the online websites of several alternative news media, the so-called (?) Independent Media. I write "so-called" because in the course of researching the Project, Kirk found that the Associated Press "monopolizes the new media, to the point that even progressive "alternative" sources use them." He found the same story about the May Day immigrant's rights protests under different headlines in both the mainstream and alternative press! I did not confirm (during his presentation) if the stories I linked to were also the same one.

As reported (unscientifically) in the NYTimes Book Review section.

In an essay about this quest, the writing is characterized as "a hybrid (crossbred of romance and reportage, high philosophy and low gossip, wishful thinking and hard-nosed skepticism)," possibly suggesting a mix-n-match style to aspiring writers in any genre. In addition to forcing questions about cultural assumptions we must wonder, as suggested by A. O. Scott, "in the age of James Frey, reality television and phantom W.M.D.'s, what do we mean by 'fiction'?"

Perhaps the meteoric rise of the winner, Beloved, by Toni Morrison is because of what Scott labels its "essential conservatism...which aimed not to displace or overthrow its beloved precursors, but to complete and to some extent correct them." Perhaps, despite the rhetoric of its radicalness at the time, it wasn't "too" radical and thus discountable, but still far enough within the system to be eventually accepted by it? Did Morrison find that delicate balance between activism that inspires and that which triggers backlash?

Scott also identifies a preoccupation with the recent past as a theme in American novels: "how heavily the past lies." This might be one way to characterize the discipline of communication in a nutshell, for good or ill. :-/ That, and its opposite: how lightly the future calls.

Half a dozen of us went out after the last Intro to Mass Media class. I received some constructive criticism (!), stories were told, the final bashed. Gosh. I might have to stop with multiple choice! One would think I don't know the difference between essentialization and representation. Perhaps it's just that I'm not sure in the wee hours of the morning ... ? Could be the wrong time for test construction. :-/

Thanks, Rich, for picking up the tab! I enjoyed your company, along with Chris, Gen, Alan, and an undisclosed fifth. No worries. I'll admit you were there if it's important someday. :-)

A better camera would do this dish invented by Jamie much more justice. It's yummy! :-)

I know Lynn Jacobowitz. Her statement is disturbing in itself, and coming from her, even more so. She is not one to enter confrontation without conviction and a careful weighing of the consequences. Clearly there were problems with the search process if the Board was fooled into believing they were not participating in a handpicked anointment.

This may be a vital leverage point in the current struggle, along the lines of Amanda's comment about the labor issues. This may be the point that the Deaf community can win while they continue to clarify the language and cultural issues which must be separated and fully addressed.

The Student Government has issued a petition (3724 of a targeted 10,000 signatures already).

A poll is being conducted on the Faculty, Staff, Student and Alumni (FSSA) website from Gallaudet. At the moment:

What do you think of the protest? (1492 voters)
Justified 870 58.7%

This protest is stupid. 209 14.1%

Not enough justification for the protest 168 11.3%

I disagree with this protest 123 8.3%

Neutral 112 7.6%

and

Should Jane Fernandes Step Down? (416 voters)
Yes! Dr. Fernandes is the wrong choice for Gallaudet! 251 60.3%

Dr. Fernandes should have a chance to run Gallaudet. 85 20.4%

Dr. Fernandes should step down, but who's more qualified? 48 11.5%

No! Dr. Fernandes is perfect for Gallaudet! 18 4.3%

I'm neutral about all this. 14 3.4%

I'm interested that only a third of voters completed the second (more difficult?) question. Despite this discrepancy on the website, the FSSA (with only 66% of its members showing up: 145/220) passed several no confidence measures earlier today:

Broughton is visiting and has given me a raft of grief about "overshooting" while driving. If I recall correctly there was the road this morning (two choices, I was trying to time breaks in the flow of oncoming traffic); a driveway into a shop (just drifted a little far ahead); and another turn (somewhere?) as the navigator couldn't decide if I should or should not turn "here".

We speculated on this as a possible personality flaw.

An English irregular verb (!), to overshoot means simply to go too far.

Guilty as charged. :-/

This puts me in dubious company with ecological overshoot (E.O. Wilson has calculated that humanity is currently operating at 120% of earth's sustainable capacity), telecommunications overshoot (transitions that (somehow?) exceed a final value and convective overshoot (dealing with instability, which goes without saying).

Stamp Out Audism is a site promoting many materials but not necessarily providing tangible evidence of audism. This doesn't mean there isn't audism at Gallaudet, in fact, I believe there is plenty of it. But non-deaf folk need to have it explained in terms they can understand.

Someone told me about a weblog called "Trim the Ferns" or something like that, against both Jane Fernandes and her husband, but I can't locate it via Google. It sounded mean too. Hate works (negative campaigning rules politics), but clearly-presented, sharply-argued explanations are better in the long run. One makes fewer enemies and might even convert some from the other side.

know how to enjoy themselves. :-) Whether it's wondering if Justin was drinking Ginger Ale, Hosannah can tolerate some western philosophy, Scotty is bootlegging Coors Lite, Chris is telling someone to "take a chill pill," Michele is showing her tendons, Mario is proclaiming (through a ventriloquist), "I'm not a geologist, I'm a jelly donut," Ryan is describing the complexity of his wife's work, or everyone is wondering how many giggles Evan acquired, these folk have spent some time together and come to enjoy each other's company quite a bit.

I learned about normal faults, reverse faults, thrust faults, and my fault.

Anyway, there's nothing like working on a nuggetized project with uber-qualified folks having a good time!

The NY Times reports that few immigrants lost their jobs after participating in Monday's massive protests.

Here's a radio broadcast from some folks countering the Intelligent Design movement with Evolutionary Spirituality. Let me clarify, this movement doesn't arise only in resistance to ID, but it does seem to come from the opposite end of the religious spectrum. I played it as I worked on the previous post. I found it interesting because the hosts, Connie Barlow & Michael Dowd, do engage in direct discourse with the ID folks. I find myself in agreement with many of their ideas but part of me recoils at the tone: it is proselytizing. (I guess their intent is "only" to evangelize but the line between the two is blurry.)

Protests that began on April 30 continued throughout the week. A story by Bill Myers of The DC Examiner charges that ongoing protests "have created a national frisson."

Mr. Myers seems to be reporting the escalation of protests impartially, including important facts and the viewpoint of "the embattled president-select".

The contours of an intracultural debate premised upon identity politics is obvious in the reporting of this event: the two "sides" are clearly defined and everyone is expected to pick and argue as vigorously as possible. Identity is reaffirmed through the arguing. The harder you fight for "your" side and the more you insult and demean the "other" side, then the more you prove to yourself and others who you are. Knowing "who" you are, having a basis inside yourself to understand where you belong, and with whom you belong, is a vital factor in living a happy life.

Just above, I stressed that this is an "intra" event. I think Fernandes is correct, as reported by Myers, in saying: "Reaching out to the non-traditionally deaf 'is essential to our survival,'." However, it may well be that she is not the one to bridge this gap. There is nothing more painful than accepting the judgment of others when they deem us lacking. Yet it seems to me that the way forward when such incidents occur is to recognize the dynamics at play and make deliberate choices NOT to continue them. Fernandes does not aid resolution by refusing to consider the possibility of resigning. The Deaf community does not aid resolution by disseminating only those articles that represent the Deaf cultural view. All sides of the issue need to be recognized and the humanity of each perspective honored. There is sense and reason from all persons involved, even if it is a "sense" or a "reason" that we cannot comprehend. Fernandes may be incapable of generating warmth. That doesn't necessarily mean her vision is crap. The Deaf community may be absolutely right that her orientation to the cultural values of a proud heritage is not ideal. This doesn't necessarily mean that she cannot contribute in important and meaningful ways to preserving and perpetuating Deaf culture and ASL.

It's both an end and an beginning for my friend, DR. David Geeslin.

His wife, Holly, reports that DG's graduation, after "6 years of classes and dissertation work" make him "the first Deaf Hoosier to receive a doctoral degree from an Indiana school (Indiana University)." He joins five previous ISD graduates who went on to receive doctoral degrees (and establish distinguished careers):

Jerome Freeman (1947)
Richard Johnson (1950)
Barbara Kannapell (1956)
Jerry Zenor (1959)
Laurene Simms (1972)
David Geeslin (1983) In this photo, David performs the ASL sign "PAH!"

In what can only be described as fairytale timing, David was also just recommended to the Governor of Indiana to become the next Superintendent of the Indiana School for the Deaf. (text below)

Congratulations! Sure wish I could be there for today's party. I can imagine it will be a bash to remember. :-)

"Cinco de Mayo is actually a commemoration of a victory by Mexican troops in La Batalla de Puebla more that fifty years later, on May 5, 1862 . . . . La Batalla de Puebla was the first time that the Mexican pueblo could rally around a common cause and proudly proclaim, «¡Yo soy Mexicano!" Chicanos in the US celebrate Cinco de Maya for its cultural and patriotic significance - "victory in the face of great odds." In Mexico the day of Independence, September 16th, is of more import.

This link was shared by Ximena Zúñiga, newly tenured faculty in the Social Justice Program.

Confession. I'm really going to miss the two classes from this semester. Both groups of students have worked hard intellectually, as individuals and together (with me and each other). It's been a satisfying semester for me as an instructor and I'm going to miss their energy.

Although some of the stress from concerns over their performance I think I'll be able to do without! ;-)

I have been grading the question on last week's quiz regarding this term based on a simplistic and strict definition implied by Mortimer Adler: illiteracy.

Uh oh. Since half the class was getting the answer wrong, I thought maybe I ought to look the term up myself. (Imagine, following my own instruction!)

abecedarian. Adler uses the term in Chapter Three, Reading is Learning.

Now accepting wagers regarding how many challenges I receive when we discuss the quiz in class this afternoon...

Thanks to J.I.T. for turning me on to Adler!

F - false
E - expectations
A - appear
R - real

From Nowhere to Now Here.

I needed this today! :-)

Non-deaf persons, collectively labeled "the hearing" from the Deaf point-of-view, are occasionally a source of great amusement. Take today. I'm interpreting. The speaker has a tendency to become passionate, so my signing reflects this. I use a bit more energy, sign a bit quicker and with more emphasis.

The concept has to do with a sudden, steep decline. A serious one. Not happy. The non-manual facial grammar that adds the proper adjectival intonation is a somewhat tight pucker, lips not fully closed, but narrowed (like THIN). It is usually accompanied by an exhalation.

So there I am, interpreting away. Intense subject matter, emotions are involved. The speaker is energized; I'm right there. Here's the decline, I pucker. Wouldn't you know I generate a high-pitched whistle! The deaf consumer giggles for a solid minute. I have to work really hard not to crack up in hysterics. My smart aleck teammate, Wanda, writes me a note on our feedback sheet about my "inaudible whisper."

The speaker doesn't flinch. Literally! Doesn't miss a beat. Other non-deaf participants give no evidence of having heard a thing. Hello?!!! I'm not saying they should have. No, really. It might seem like I'm saying they should have but that isn't my point. It was an unexpected, unusual, obviously accidental, and actually amusing moment and the whole group ignored it as if it didn't happen. We're talking some serious control.

It could be that some of them did notice and might have snickered or given some other indication that they were actually alive. I didn't look at them. I was embarrassed. It shouldn't have happened. I'm not advocating that interpreters start whistling to get people to pay attention to us. But how hard are those folks working to ignore us if they inhibit normal reactions to natural human interaction? And then we wonder why it is so difficult to affect, let alone alter, group dynamics so that linguistic participation is shared and available to everyone, regardless of the language they happen to use.

Yeah. It was just us. Me, Little Brother, and the Nepalese.

We bowled.
We knocked the pins down.
We left.

You lose!

Updated as of 10:30am

May 2, 2006
LOCKDOWN

Gallaudet University is in lockdown, with all entrances and exits blocked by students and alumni. We've been working since 2:40pm yesterday, since the announcement of Dr. Jane K. Fernandes as the 9th President of Gallaudet University. We've been standing outside in the DC sun, sleeping on hard asphalt in front of the DPS kiosk, trying to keep our spirits going as high as our passion, without the reinforcement of at-ready water, and of necessary nourishment. We know that alumni and the Deaf community are backing us up, but visible support is always needed, for inspiration which is a must of humanity. So therefore, we announce the unveiling of the "SUPPORT WALL" which will be located at the front gates of Gallaudet. Flyers, banners, photos of your activism, video testimonies will be shown here. Please send in all those to us@notwithoutus.org. They will serve to keep our spirits high and to remind us of the reason why we are doing this- for the BEST of OUR Gallaudet's future and to show the BOT We ALL will NOT allow them to do this AGAIN- WE WILL NOT BE OPPRESSED, and we will be heard VISUALLY AND CLEARLY! Send 'em in!!!

Thank you from the bottoms of our hearts
True Gallaudetians, for the university is nothing without us-
alumni, fac/staff, students, community, and you know it!

Earlier today, I posted a statement about my teaching philosophy in the wiki created by Section Five of COM375, the course that satisfies the Junior Year Writing Requirement.

Little Brother, meanwhile, sends this discouraging confirmation of critique of the US public education system: Geography Greek to young Americans.

Although they've got a different complaint. Protests erupted yesterday and continue today.

Gallaudet Names New President ...

By Susan Kinzie
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 1, 2006; 6:24 PM

The selection of a new president of Gallaudet University, the nation's only liberal arts university for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, sparked a student walkout and protest today at the school's campus in Northeast Washington.

Students objected to the appointment of Jane Fernandes, who is deaf and is currently the university's provost, because she did not grow up using American Sign Language. Some students also criticized Fernandes for not having warm relations with students.

Paula hopes so, reflecting (by email) both on an impressive Day Without Immigrants demonstration in Amherst yesterday and this national media event:

Colbert rips Bush to his face (video) at the White House press correspondents dinner.

I imagine many, if not most, of the persons who made an appearance in his speech weren't too happy about it. There was laughter from the crowd at some points, as well as by some of the individuals targeted. There were also palpable silences.

Previous protests for immigrant rights on April 10 surprised politicians in Washington forging ahead with their elitist agenda. The Boston Globe reports largest local participation for yesterday's protests within Latino communities. The NYTimes headlines the Show of Strength.

I was just reading Kara's essay on What's Wrong with Writing. The junior Communication majors in this writing class have been wrestling with me all semester to convince me of the fact that writing sucks. :-)

I'm waiting on Kara's confirmation (or anyone else's, for that matter) to verify that I finally understand something that has not been clear to me for the past two months. Kara wrote:

"The process of writing has come to be extremely time-consuming and restricting as rules of standard writing have expanded."

I've always read this to be a general criticism of writing, the writing process, not to mention reading, and the reading process. As such, I've understood it more as a misunderstanding of what writing has always been about - as if students are "just now" getting on board with "the way it has always been." But (!), what just clicked, is that their phenomenological experience and accountability as a writer has been expanded to include more things (that were always there) which many of them (as students) have not been required to address before (for whatever reasons - deliberate pedagogy, poor instruction, low expectations, etc.). In other words, it does feel to students as if "the rules" for "standard writing" have changed. They have! (Ok, so maybe I'm a little slow. Sometimes.)

The argument, (if we could call it such) between me (representing the junior writing requirements for the university) and the students in this course, has been about this fact: I would say "the rules for quality writing" have not changed at all, but the measure of acceptable quality is higher now than it has been in most of their previous experience as writers. This feels like a change in rules, yet I'd say it is a change in expectations. Students say (!) that changing the expectations is changing the rules!

Here is a real life example (that belongs in a textbook!) about why diction matters so much! :-) I love having this kind of brainstorm. Thanks Kara!

The fact that employers have prepared for today's nationwide strike means they, at least, are taking immigrants seriously.

Upcoming, May 13, in Burlington, VT.