Just learned from Ben that when we switched the server for this blog, anyone who had been able to access it before got “lost.” Will have to announce the new URL…again, should I wait until the changes are in place, or go ahead and trust everyone will cope? Sent an invite to the panelists from Breaking Role a short while ago. See if that generates any action. 
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I bought gifts for the cohort today; and almost got one for myself, a magnet that said something to the effect of only good girls keep journals because the bad ones don’t have the time.
Saw Uncle Sam briefly the other night – read him a ream of jokes, mostly sent by Jennifer. He really enjoys them, laughing so hard at his favorites (which tend to be on the ruder side, just so you know). Grin. He’d also received a bunch of emails after my announcement of a change of email address which included an update….soon it will be time to get this URL out to folks; I keep procrastinating because I want to finish the upgrade/transition to movable type, but Ben and I have been stymied at every step for one reason or another. Grrrrrr! Anyway, Sam gave me an “autobiographical sketch” which I’ll scan in and create a link for once I learn that lesson. It appears to have been written in 1975; which means we’ll have to work on an update. Sam was getting in bed when I arrived at about 7:30 pm, but his plan was to watch tv until the evening shift ended at 11 pm, at which time he was going to host a party for some of the nursing staff interested in a drink and socializing before going home. Still up to his usual tricks!
Had a grand time last night with Anne and John, reviewing the “Breaking Role” presentation. Anne’s interested in working with me to get this info spread throughout the Deaf community. Way cool! They had a lot of ideas about next steps….I know I know! There are many strands to follow through. I still have to decide which class to drop this fall…it’s being agonizing, as I really want to take five and know it is simply not possible. Sigh!
Didn’t really get started on the office cleaning until this morning. Have some good momentum underway, will see how far it goes.
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Apparently tangential for James and my purposes with this article for a history journal’s special feature on “The Future of the Past,” but worth a look for information/communication technology:
These essays purport to help one “understand the gap between theory and practice when it comes to our collective digital future.”
This essay includes info on archeology and anthropology of the world wide web.
An On Point radio review of a book on threats to cultural heritage.
A translation of a Spanish language article about”New info technologies for managing the european archeological heritage.”
History sources on the Internet.
Living in the future of the past is an editorial from science fiction weekly.
Syllabus for a course purporting to consider the “challenging picture of present and future and for the implications for thinking about the past — and about the present as it becomes the future’s past.” This might have some resources for our paper?
Here’s a report from a conference on “archiving of audio and audiovisual materials.”
Here’s an essay from the Virtual Church of the Blind Chihuahua, which deserves attention just for the creativity of its creator! The essay discusses tools for the future: artifical intelligence, physics, biotechnology. The website combines christian, jewish, and islamic religions believing in one god. The fundamentalist self-exam is a must! I am “unlikely to be a fundamentalist” so they suggest I might enjoy the site.
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James and I might want to check out the work of The Collective Wisdom Initiative.
I resist the new age-y lingo, but there may be some things we can glean from it that would help our thinking about problematic moments. In fact, perhaps we could contribute a seed paper, such as the one by Rosa Zubizarreta on Deepening Democracy.
According to Tom Atlee, “This initiative was born out of a team of spiritually oriented folks
curious about the mysterious potential of groups. Funded by the Fetzer Institute they set out to understand how it is that ordinary people in properly convened groups can tap into levels of collective intelligence and spiritual wisdom far beyond what one would expect from the individuals involved.
Fetzer’s initiative was triggered by author Jacob Needleman who suggested that modern culture needs “an art form of the future” that can “enable human beings to share their perception and attention and [thus] become a conduit for the appearance of spiritual
intelligence.” Anyone who seriously contemplates “this tangled world,” said Needleman, will realize “that we have no choice but to think together, ponder together, in groups and communities. The question is how to do this. How to come together and think and hear
each other in order to touch, or be touched by, the intelligence we need.””
Perhaps James and I can find some examples of PM’s in this book, the result of a study conducted by the Fetzer/Collective Wisdom folk: CENTERED ON
THE EDGE: MAPPING A FIELD OF COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE & SPIRITUAL
WISDOM. .
Tom relates these folk to Sandy Heierbacher of The National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation. Maybe a discourse analysis would help me get past the spiritual feel-good language to the functions served by their use – THEN I could go further and perhaps identify alternative constructions that serve the same purpose via other linguistic means. ?? A potential future project. There is a list of funding opportunities. The Allstate one looks promising for Austine…
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My theme for the day is resistance. I’ve a suspicion this may be my theme for the semester, if not my next entire life-phase. So many things are going so well for me that I am hyper aware of those places that don’t – and my emotional reactions have been getting the better part of my intended actions. Not good. Lessons in grace are needed. Vannoch and I had a nice chat about relationships…she’s got a good ear, that one! [the FP] and I are – perhaps – making some progress but the pace is interminable. Response for the mentorship video project has been … almost nonexistent? It could be our timing is just out-of-sync with everyone’s schedules. I find myself starting to panic a bit about getting everything done before school starts; perhaps this is true for others, hence, a meeting prior to classes isn’t appealing.
Meanwhile, I’m trying to figure out how to juggle five courses this fall….audit two? Plan to take an incomplete in another one? They would each complement and continue my momentum in various ways….argh!
On the news front, an anti-affirmative movement is underway, and it is being countered by pro-civil rights forces with a March on Washington, August 23-24.
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Raz – this is for you, dude, whenever you get around to showing up again! I know you only have one more week left to play…hope you and your mom have a grand time…then I’ll be seeing you with our noses back to the grindstone. (Don’t start the countdown though – we still have a month of summer!)
“As teachers, today, we are expected to communicate pragmatically. We instruct our students in the suitably productive methodologies, and provide them with lists of required reading, which will be ‘useful’ for their examined tasks. We do not encourage them to throw away the lists and to wander about the library. As for the better students, they may graduate for further training in the grimly serious business of learning to ‘interrogate’, ‘deconstruct’ or ‘critique’ texts. This generation of academics is not expected to have, at its core, a love of learning and intellectual debate.”
Arguing and Thinking: A Rhetorical Approach to Social Psychology, Michael Billig, 2nd Ed 1996:30.
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Some tidbits I hadn’t got posted yet:
I’m keen on Howard Dean…I think there are some questions about how he would handle national security only because we have no previous example of him using military force. I don’t think the mere absence of this proves he wouldn’t be aggressive if this was necessary. I do think he may be more creative in finding other alternatives before resorting to force, and this is definitely part of his appeal to me.
Here is his Disability Rights Platform. If you want to get updates on this throughout the campaign there’s a special sign-up form. Here’s a link to some disability highlights from his tenure as Governor of Vermont.
I almost 
got to interpret his official announcement earlier this summer…..THAT would have been treat!
Also, a book that may be of interest, White Men Challenging Racism: 35 Personal Stories, and a site about Jewish heritage in eastern and central Europe, including a compilation of Holocaust family photos.
Finally, an LSF cafe in France owned and run by the Deaf. A place to visit!
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Looks like today I’ll finally make some progress on organizing my office – tidying up from last semester (!) and getting space ready for the new one. Most of my thoughts are still on RID…the workshop wouldn’t have worked without the panelists, and I’m so grateful that I can trust our profession to generate willing volunteers. Reminds me of a conversation with one of the hotel’s cameramen (not the AV crew that travels with RID): he was “impressed with the interaction. Most conferences people don’t really talk with each other that much, but here it seems like you are all greeting old friends.” Neat, huh?
I’m also appreciative of the folks who hung in during Part II. About half the audience was new, so that means about 50% of the morning session’s folks came back, that seems pretty good to me? Given the time slot being so late AND immediately after the business meeting. Of course, I realize it probably wasn’t just the material that kept folks there but those painfully necessary CEUs! But still, I was surprised how many people came up to me at the conclusion of Part II, more than after Part I! I’m taking this as an indication that even though Part II didn’t go as planned it still seemed beneficial to folk.
As for those examples of “breaking” role during the morning’s panel…I do think some of them were clearly “out” of role and not appropriate, but even these occurred within a context that at least can help us see some of the dynamics that were operational. I think we need to get better at identifying these dynamics consciously, so that we don’t find ourselves unwittingly playing into them. It strikes me that interpreters, by dint of the professional demands, are already pretty skilled at discerning layers of meaning AND at repressing our more impolite tendencies (just read a section in Billig about this universal communicative phenomena), but because of the taboos surrounding “breaking” role its been hard to discern and discuss how this happens. anyway, I’ll be thinking about this for a while longer as I modify the presentation slightly to show in my department this fall, and get busy with the actual writing up of the workshop for the conference proceedings.
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Almost forgot – heard a VPR story before I left town on the Governor’s efforts “to increase the state’s broadband and wireless infrastructure.”
Also, Friday afternoon there was a commentary about an economic development initiative and promoting culture. Trying to find the dang story to share with DMN…no luck so far.
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Another useful summary from Tom Atlee:
Subject: Nonviolence and the USA
Dear friends,
It always amazes me how few people know about the work of Gene Sharp, the Harvard history professor who is perhaps the world’s leading authority on the tactics and strategy of nonviolence. During the Cold War he even wrote a book called MAKING EUROPE UNCONQUERABLE in which he described how to defend entire countries using nonviolent civilian-based defense. Of course few governments paid attention to his book because he recommended training thousands or millions of people in nonviolent resistance. Trained populations could use those techniques to deal with ANY governing party that was oppressing them.
Interesting idea.
In early July my partner Karen Mercer and I were investigating the nonviolence used by eighteenth century American colonists. Sharp’s classic and highly readable trilogy THE POLITICS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION was especially valuable to us. We found considerable evidence that the colonists were close to getting their demands met through nonviolent tactics like
- boycotts
- street demonstrations
- petitions
- strikes
- noncooperation with authorities (including tax resistance)
- citizen diplomacy with Britain and France
- creating and using parallel governance structures
- creative group discipline and peer pressure
- street theater (e.g., the Boston Tea Party)
- public relations, stressing the reasonableness of their demands and their fellowship with the British, despite their strong disagreements with the actions of King George, Parliament and certain colonial authorities
- subversion of colonial bureaucracies (e.g., Sam Adams was a tax collector who fudged his job in ways that supported the colonists)
- powerful pamphleteering and speech-making
- organized networking and information sharing
- careful collective strategizing, progressing to ever-more potent actions
- developing and spreading inspiring ideas (especially about liberty)
- dedicated nonviolence — even when the British soldiers shot colonial demonstrators
This nonviolent process went on for a decade with increasing intensity and numerous successes. The impact on the British — especially the powerful British merchant class, whose trade was devastated by colonial boycotts — was profound. By early 1775 it looked like full success was around the corner.
But like so many other people throughout history who have used random nonviolence, the American colonists didn’t have the kind of sophisticated understanding that we have available today — thanks to people like Gandhi, King and Sharp. Furthermore, among them — as among us — there were people strongly drawn to the shallow but very real and infectious power of violence.
So, in the end, the colonists lacked that last vital bit of patience required for victory. Under great provocation from the British, the militia at Lexington and Concord “fired the shot heard round the world”, killing British soldiers. The tide of public opinion on both sides of the Atlantic shifted and war fever took over. The chance for the first successful nonviolent revolution in history was lost, leaving it to Gandhi over a century later.
Few US schools teach American history that way. If they did, knowledge of the power of nonviolence would be widespread and used often to further the common good and popular aspirations. Perhaps even more importantly, the United States of America might today be living out a very different story on the world stage.*
That brings us to the provocative article below, sent to me by Randy Schutt, in which two experts in nonviolence suggest that the US should support a truly nonviolent popular revolution in Iran. As opposed as I am in general to US interventionism, it would certainly be an interesting change to see the US sponsoring trainings around the world to help populations NONVIOLENTLY resist and replace governments they don’t like.
I imagine it would be a big improvement over the status quo — selling armaments to repressive governments, training their armies and police in torture methods, creating death, disorder and devastation through military invasions, and so on. Furthermore, I like to think that training the AMERICAN people in nonviolent, creative resistance might come in handy right at home someday. (This is one of Randy Shutt’s dreams.
In the meantime, we can watch great videos about nonviolence (like the two movies referenced at the end of the article below) and read and spread the word about Gene Sharp and other articulate advocates of nonviolence. I think we’ll need this knowledge down the road…
Coheartedly,
Tom
* This is an interesting example of the power of story to make meaning out of facts (mentioned in an earlier mailing). In July Karen and I encountered books in which the facts of the American Revolution were selected and presented to show how it was
- a brilliant war for freedom
- a childish and unfair reaction to legitimate British concerns,
- a showcase of strengths and pitfalls of nonviolent revolution and
- one more means for ruling classes to oppress ordinary people.
It makes one wonder — like the chicken and the egg — which comes first, the facts or the story?
____________________
Christian Science Monitor
July 22, 2003 edition
The nonviolent script for Iran
By Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall
Peter Ackerman is executive producer of the Peabody award-winning documentary, ‘Bringing Down a Dictator’ and chairman of the board of overseers of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Jack DuVall is coauthor of ‘A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict’ and director of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.
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