Category: equality and justice

Turning disagreement to dialogue (DUO)

I watched with dismay as the “peaceniks” broke off into a huddle after Fred Odisho‘s presentation on “Discourse During Insurgency/Counterinsurgency: The Importance of Achieving Communication Superiority in Gaining the Support of the People.” In the front of the room was another huddle &emdash; all men, most of them big &emdash; talking with this Iraqi military officer. I joined the … Read more...

Nero’s Guests

P. Sainath spoke yesterday at the Labor Center regarding the growing inequality of the rich and the poor in India. Not about you, you say? Sainath discussed the rate of inequality being faster in the last fifteen years than in the previous fifty, and being “so carefully constructed.” He argues that the rich have seceded from the nation, that … Read more...

protest

It took well over an hour for the thousands of protesters, from a hundred different groups and organizations, to pass by me in Kadikoy yesterday afternoon. I was immediately impressed by the wide age range (I bet the average would be late thirties/early forties), and the gender distribution (more men than women, it seemed). Conspicuous by their absence, however, were … Read more...

Is change in the wind?

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 … Read more...

dissing diversity

Of course, immigrants seeking to become US citizens should learn the national anthem in English but why does this preclude an interpretation? All kinds of folks LOVE American Sign Language interpretations of the national anthem, does the Deaf community’s desire to embrace patriotic sentiments in their own language minimize their integrity?
The assertion from the right that concepts of … Read more...

covenant with black america

TIME carried a review of this bestseller, which has apparently built it’s success on word-of-mouth from the African-American pulpit. As Pyro was saying the other day, bemoaning the effectiveness of the political Right where are the institutional equivalents of the Christian church for the left?… Read more...

Mark Crispin Miller on The Daily Show

Hilarious! Thanks Viveca, for sending the link.
Looks like C-SPAN2 will air his keynote address at UMass’ Communication in Crisis conference this Sunday at 1 pm EST on the program Book TV, and again at 11 pm EST.… Read more...