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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: July 5, 2008
Latest Update: July 12, 2008
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
patriciaacone@yahoo.com

Topic of the Week:

Everyone Has a Different Personal Experience

Notes from jeanne to jeanne. Developing separate files as sources for further information for different levels of depth. When those are well along, I'll cut and paste and fit them here for first level of depth.

Of course, personal experience matters. But we can't extrapolate from our personal experience to any meaningful population, like other people. Their personal experiences are different. Unique, even. So we need to think about where our personal experience fits into the overall picture.

One piece of this understanding was touched on today in Gail Collins' opinion column in the New York Times. We have to listen in good faith to what others say. "Good faith" here means listening in an attempt to understand where they're coming from and what they are trying to get us to understand from their perspective."

• Introduction

  Up soon. jeanne

• Discussion Questions

  1. QUESTION

     Consider WHAT JEANNE WAS THINKING ABOUT WHEN SHE WROTE THE QUESTION. AND LINKS TO SOURCES YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER IN ANSWERING THE QUESTION.

• References:

  • The Audacity of Listening By Gail Collins. New York Times. Opinion Section. July 11, 2008. Consulted by jeanne on July 10, 2008.

    "You liked Barack because you thought he could get us past the old brain-dead politics, right? He talked — and talked and talked — about how there were going to be no more red states and blue states, how he was going to bring Americans together, including Republicans and Democrats.

    "Exactly where did everybody think this gathering was going to take place? Left field?

    "When an extremely intelligent politician tells you over and over and over that he is tired of the take-no-prisoners politics of the last several decades, that he is going to get things done and build a “new consensus,” he is trying to explain that he is all about compromise. Even if he says it in that great Baracky way.

    The Audacity of Listening By Gail Collins. New York Times. Opinion Section. July 11, 2008. Consulted by jeanne on July 10, 2008.

  • on sampling and personal experience and how do we make sense of the "talk?"

Announcements:

• Announcement.

Issues

• Accountability

  • Siphoning G.M.’s Future By Roger Lowenstein, New York Times. Published: July 10, 2008. Consulted by jeanne on July 10, 2008.

    . . .

    "General Motors established its pension in the “treaty of Detroit,” the five-year contract that it signed with the United Automobile Workers in 1950 that also provided health insurance and other benefits for the company’s workers. Walter Reuther, the union’s captain, would have preferred that the government provide pensions and health care to all citizens. He urged the automakers to “go down to Washington and fight with us” for federal benefits.

    . . .

    "The sorry decline of General Motors has proved Reuther right: the government is the better provider of social insurance. Let industry worry about selling products.

    "Unhappily, however, the fate of many public-sector pension plans is even worse than G.M.’s. Responding to the same temptation to offload expenses into the future, public employers have committed to trillions of dollars in future liabilities. In New Jersey, a huge pension liability has created a budgetary nightmare for the state. The city of Vallejo, Calif., burdened by police pensions, recently filed for bankruptcy.

    An Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring in the Department of Justice Honors Program and Summer Law Intern Program An Inspectors General Report. Barack Obama says in My Position On FISA Posted July 3, 2008 | 05:05 PM (EST) on the Huffington Post:

    "The Inspectors General report also provides a real mechanism for accountability and should not be discounted. It will allow a close look at past misconduct without hurdles that would exist in federal court because of classification issues. The recent investigation (PDF) uncovering the illegal politicization of Justice Department hiring sets a strong example of the accountability that can come from a tough and thorough IG report."

    My Position On FISA Posted July 3, 2008 | 05:05 PM (EST) consulted by jeanne on July 6, 2008.

    This article is calling into question the ideology that says that government should be minimal and that the private sector can most effectively respond to the public's needs. None of us could have foreseen the future and realized the disasters that could emerge from the private sector funding of health care. But in the next presidential election we are going to have to make choices that will tie us increasingly close to private sector funding or recognize that public needs may have changed enough to rethink the roles of public and private sectors.

    This is a different kind of accountability. An accountability that the sector charged with the provision of certain essentials may need to call the government's attention to needs it can no longer handle, and insist that we begin to rethink our ideological commitments to present and future management of issues like health care and education.

    This whole need to rethink our ideological positions takes on greater significance as certain issues, like health care and education, approach disaster proportions. Bear in mind the cost to China of not having rethought the costs of inadequate building of its schools in the recent tragic earthquake. Not all our own schools are earthquake prepared.

    And that brings us to disaster capitalism. jeanne

    Disaster Capitalism and Accountability

    Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein is linked somehow to Tavis Smiley's NPR show. I like the expression "disasster capitalism," especially in conjunction with accountability.

    More on this soon. jeanne

    Accountability in Bringing Public Sector into Private Sector Competition

    Market Testing and Prison Riots: How Public-Sector Commercialization Contributed to a Prison Riot," Vol. 7, No. 1, 2008. pp. 117-142. Somehow this reminded me of "Disaster Capitalism" and Accountability. Can't we see what we're doing??? jeanne

• Health, Awareness, and Longevity

  • Changing Patterns of Retirement

    In Act 2 of Life, Doing Work That Matters By JANE E. BRODY. New York Times. July 8, 2008. At p. D 7.

    More on this soon. jeanne

  • Learning How to Tell When You Need Care

    Not a Moment Too Soon, I Thought of Tim Russert By MICHAEL BICKS. New York Times. Published: July 8, 2008. At p. D5. Do read. It's beautifully written. jeanne

  • Understanding Drugs and Where They Fit in Our Lives

    8-Year-Olds on Statins? A New Plan Quickly Bites Back By TARA PARKER-POPE. New York Times. Published: July 8, 2008. At p. D 5.

Visual Sociology

• "Health Insurance for American Children"
  

  Reference: This Land is Their Land by Barbara Ehrenreich, Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt & Company. Review in the New York Times by Richard Eder. P. B 27, Friday, July 25, 2008.

• "Cholesterol Drugs for Kids"
  
  Photo by Tim Boyle. Getty Images.

  As we cope with the problems of childhood obesity, whole new problems emerge.

  8-Year-Olds on Statins? A New Plan Quickly Bites Back By TARA PARKER-POPE. New York Times. Published: July 8, 2008. At p. D 5.

• In Memory of Tim Russert and Awareness for the Health of Our Bodies
  
  Drawing by Katherine Streeter in the New York Times, July 8, 2008.

  Accompanied the article, Not a Moment Too Soon, I Thought of Tim Russert By Michael Bicks. New York Times. Published: July 8, 2008. At p. D5. Do read. It's beautifully written. jeanne

• Fiber Art International Exhibit 2007

  In Pannsylvania. Emily Barletta was one of the exhibiting artists. To see some of the works from the show, click on Awards, Artists, and Reviews on the very bottom line of the announcement. They are hot links, and you will find images at each.This link is included because it reflects my own interest in fiber art, and I'm hoping to include fiber art in projects for drawing the community to governance discourse workshops. jeanne

  

  Horizon by Emily Barletta
  from her website

  Also see On crochet as sculpture I have to check all this out, but later. jeanne

• Paintings that Reflect Young People's Interest in Vampires and Skulls
  . .

  By Bert and Uwe Tobias
  Come and See Before the Tourists Will Do --
  The Mystery of Transylvania

  This art work reflects the interest young people reflect in much of the art that adorns their tee shirts and accessories. I've already included some of it in our projects for attracting interest in governance issues with examples of wearable art and post cards or bookmarks. I hope that some of the art work will inspire out community participants in workshops on registration, voting, and all the issues that matter. jeanne

  Reference:

  Come and See Before the Tourists Will Do -- The Mystery of Transylvania. Bert and Uwe Tobias. Published bySnoeck Vertagsgesellschaft mbH, Köln, Germany. ISBN: 3-936859-31-0 © 2005. I pick these books up in the Museum of Comtemporary Art Bookstore in Los Angeles. jeanne

Online Resources For Governance Discourse

• Newspapers: Labeling here is based on an article by Ashley K. Vroman on the impossiibility of labeling newspapers by ideology. I personally go along with the conclusion of the conservative Media Research Center's L. Brent Bozell III: if the paper never met a conservative cause it didn't like, it's conservative, and if it never met a liberal cause it didn't like, it's liberal. But then, what about the Wall Street Journal whose news staff is considered liberal and its editorial staff considered conservative? jeanne

  Liberal Newspapers:

  New York Times - Los Angeles Times - The Washington Post
  The Boston Globe - The Chicago Tribune

  Conservative Newspapers:

  The Wall Street Journal - The Washington Times - The New York Post
  Manchester (N.H.) UnionLeader - The Oklahoman

  The Ideological Labeling of These Newspapers:

  "To test my hypothesis that people cannot classify newspapers as liberal or conservative, I began searching for any source attempting to classify newspapers ideologically. The sole article I came upon was "Rating the Top 10, Left and Right" from Insight magazine, written by Keith Russell. Insight rates what they deem to be the top five liberal newspapers and top five conservative newspapers in the country. A possible explanation of why I could only find one article in this search is because people, including scholars and academics and most popular magazines, do not try to measure how liberal or conservative newspapers are. Some may know that they cannot do it reliably and validly because different methods yield different results. Perhaps others do not formulate methods or measures lest they expose problems of reliability and validity. Unsupported assertions may be politically and tactically superior to dubious investigations."

  From "Slandering" the News: How Labelers Cleverly Undermine the Reliability and Validity of Newspapers," by Ashley K. Vroman, May 5, 1999. Consulted by jeanne, May 28, 2008.

• Beyond Newspapers

  • The Institute for Public Accuracy The Institute for Public Accuracy seeks to broaden public discourse. With systematic outreach to media professionals, the Institute provides news releases that offer well-documented analysis of current events and underlying issues.

    Paul Loeb, columnist and author, recommended this site for us when we're trying to be sure we've covered multiple perspectives on each issue.

  • OpenSecrets.org "Our Mission: Inform, Empower & Advocate"

    • Inform citizens about how money in politics affects their lives
    • Empower voters and activists by providing unbiased information
    • Advocate for a transparent and responsive government

    David Brooks identified this site in His opinion column on July 1, 2008 in the New York Times. It is a good source of data on issues and the various perspectives on and funding of support for those issues. jeanne

  • The Huffinton Post

    Wikipedia says of the Huffington Post: "(often referred to on the Internet as HuffPo or HuffPost) is an online liberal news website and aggregated weblog founded by Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer, featuring hyperlinks to various news sources and columnists. The Huffington Post was launched on May 9, 2005 as a news and commentary outlet. Its roster of bloggers includes many people from Arianna Huffington's extensive network of prominent "friends." It is ranked the most linked-to blog by Technorati [fn.omitted] and the most visited news weblog by Alexa Internet[fn.omitted], and the most influential blog in the world by The Guardian."

  • I also suggest the use of Arts and Letters Daily the Chronicle of Higher Education Site for clarification on the issues as perceived by other academics. jeanne

  Current Online Sources Freely Accessbile Current list that is being updated and revised, but on which most links are still functioning. jeanne

  * * * * *

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