California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: January 2, 2009
Latest Update: January 6, 2009
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
patriciaacone@yahoo.com

Topic of the Week: Talking to Each Other

About What Really Matters

Introduction

Notes to myself:

We've been told not to talk about politics and religion. That's because we might not agree on everything we say about politics and religion. But the corollary to that admonition is to talk about politics and religion only with those who agree with you on those subjects.

In this world of exclusion there may not be many folks left who are really "like me" and with whom I could hold a "governance discourse."

• Exclusion of those from a different political party
• Exclusion of those of a different skin color
• Exclusion of those who have done something wrong
• Exclusion of those who pray to a different god
• Exclusion of those who speak a different language, or even, as I heard recently, a different regional accent or choice of expressions
• Exclusion of those of a different class, wealth, or social mores

Put the list in any order that works best for you, add and subtract from the list to make it fit for you, and you've got the basis for "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." A private world of exclusion to which you admit only those who share your beliefs and social demeanor. That may be comfortable for dinner parties, but it cannot make you a genuine part of the world as we live in it today.

• Democratic governance means participation of the governed in governing. Self determination and self policing of the communities in which we live in this broadly diverse world of the 21st Century.
• More soon. jeanne

More notes to myself:

• Why do Susan and I call the work we do with sharing learning with our communities "art"? It's not museum art, but it serves the same purpose as prehistoric art preserved in caves: wonder at our ability to make imagery recall moments we'd like to remember, to communicate (as in fear of danger and of ways we might overcome it, to tell stories, to create and communicate myths as our myths grow and change to represent the leading edges of reality in our world.

References:

• Joseph Campbell on myth.
• ArtScene on new exhibit on women and modern myth. [Paper upstairs.]
• Recuerdo. The importance of icons and memories.
• More later. jeanne

Announcements:

• Resumption of Dear Habermas Issue Timing

  I'm hoping to be able to go back to weekly issues. Let's give it a try. jeanne

Issues

• Forgiveness

  • We Apologize. The Sorry State of Remorse By Robert J. Bliwise. Duke Magazine. Volume 90, No.3, May-June 2004. Consulted by jeanne on January 6, 2009.
  • L. Gregory Jones on "cheap forgiveness."
  • Pastor Brian Zahnd on forgiveness.
  • Now consider whether you could forgive Bernard Madoff, the billionaire investment counselor who defrauded his investors.

• Understanding Capital Gains Taxes as We Approach a Stimulus Package for the Economy

• Off the Charts: Investment Tax Cuts Help Mostly the Rich By Floyd Norris, the chief financial correspondent of The New York Times. Saturday, January 10, 2009. At p. B3. Backup

  "Most Americans hold stocks, and stock mutual funds, in their retirement accounts, principally in 401(k) accounts. Those accounts are not taxed until the money is taken out, usually after retirement. But then, the money is fully taxed at ordinary income tax rates, regardless of whether or not it came from capital gains.

  "As a result, the reduction of the tax rate on long-term capital gains to 15 percent in 2003, and the accompanying reduction of the tax on most dividends to the same amount, provided no additional benefits to most Americans. But it produced substantial benefits for those who owned stocks in taxable accounts."

• Confirmation Bias

  • Jonestown and 'confirmation bias' By Michael Shermer. "From Jonestown to tribalism to presidential politics, individuals seek the like-[m]inded." Los Angeles Times. Opinion Section. November 18, 2008. Backup.

• Myths of Transition

  We've been talking about tranistion in terms of the transition to a new government addministration. But the many crises we presently face suggest that we're all going to have to make some changes.

  Why can't we all just get along and work together?

  Lincoln and the myth of "Team of Rivals"By Matthew Pinsker . "President Lincoln's Cabinet was far more dysfunctional than Doris Kearns Goodwin's book would have us believe." Los Angeles Times. Opinion Section. November 18, 2008. Backup.

  Visual Sociology
  

  For explanations, instructions, further imagery see Creating Memory Sculptures Only partially completed as of January 12, 2009. jeanne

  • Overview of first memory sculpture

    

  • 

  • 

    How do you start to create a memory sculpture or an issue sculpture. I scanned in the bare stem cluster from some seedless purple grapes. Next, I need to look at it for a while, and wonder what it says to me of criminal justice. What have I learned in criminal justice that I most think I should share with my family, friends, and community so that we could better understand the issues. Here, susan, I need to put up that article from the L.A. Times about the cancer-causing toxins in the only water supplied to convicts in one California prison. jeanne.

    The image of the grape stem cluster gives me something on which to base colors, shapes, words, whatever to communicate what I'm feeling and to create icons that might call to mind the issues I most want to share with others. Try it. I'll add more as I find the time. Tristan and Isolde. The demand for retribution and innocence as the one. An understanding of what those who see the harm done by incarceration as the other. Suppose the two trees could one day intertwine? Guess it would take forgiveness by each perspective, hmmm?

  • 

    The pop top is both funky and recyclable as something we can avoid just tossing.

  • 

    Craft fun shouldn't be priced as luxury. Why can't we just have fun? And learn to make things as we once did??? jeanne

  Online Resources For Governance Discourse
  

  • References to check the truth of facts on political statements, charges, rumors:

  • FactCheck.org The Annenberg site, connected to University of Pennsylvania
  • PolitiFact

  • Fact-checking Political Advertisements for the Upcoming Election:

    "The Need: Sadly, there is a historical gap in Bay Area news media's coverage of campaign advertising. During the 2004 elections, for example, GradeTheNews.org found that Bay Area TV news averaged 1minute 24 seconds nightly covering ballot initiatives, but ran 2 minutes 41 seconds of paid advertising for those initiatives.

    "Help Newsdesk.org and The Public Press fill that gap by supporting a weekly investigative report on Bay Area campaign advertisements, to run from Labor Day through Election Day. Our goal is to help Bay Area residets cut through the barrage of influence advertising, and make truly informed decisions at the voting booth -- from the candidates to the ballot initiatives and propositions."

    Consulted by jeanne on September 27, 2008.

  • References:
    Newspapers: Labeling here is based on an article by Ashley K. Vroman on the impossibility 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

      • 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

    • Farlex Free Online Dictionary:

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