Grateful (Thanksgiving stream of consciousness)
Dancing grandparents. Robots. Mizzou watch parties. Book club Sundays. Impromptu happy hour. The sculpture garden. Tammy Baldwin. Tom Brokaw. Books that don’t fit on my shelf. Stoop parties. Mentors. New albums from Feist and Florence + the Machine. Keurig cups. Honesty. Solid family. Amazing friends.
Perfect sentiment from my high school classmate.
Like most who are flocking to their iObjects to share their feelings, I never came close to knowing or even meeting Steve Jobs. Yet I sit here distinctly upset. In fact, I have not had this sort of reaction since the death of Meet The Press host, Tim Russet.
Both men existed and died atop and removed from their respective fields. Jobs’ took daily use devices that large corporations fucked up on purpose to make more money (see bloatware on PCs and carrier crippled phones) and made them a joy to see and use. Russert was one of the few journalists capable of confronting politicians with their lies on live national tv. Russert-era Meet the Press was the most watched Sunday news show and Apple recently passed Exon as the most valuable company in the world.
With the passing of Jobs and Russert the world has lost two Great Men. Men who were unhindered by the rules of “the way things are normally done.” Men who were able to take two of the most aggressively frustrating parts of the modern world, politics and tech, and do their part to make them quite a bit more bearable.
For me, the saddest part is that they were not done. No one has been held accountable for the collapse of the American economy and it is still regularly painful to navigate the computers that we are forced to live and work on. They still had work to do. Now it is our responsibility to put down our Plants and Zombies game, continue their quests and think up new solutions for the struggles to come.
Thank you Steve and Tim. Thank you for your work and the standards that you set.
I’ve made a point of looking at today in an optimistic light. I’m excited for my brother’s 22nd birthday, and jealous that he’s walking to a home-cooked meal at my grandparents’ apartment as we speak. I’m grateful that my cousin, who worked in the WTC complex in 2001, got caught in traffic in Passaic, NJ. I’m thrilled for such a beautiful sunny day in DC. But count on Paul to give me pause on a day that’s almost been too good for remembrance of something this bad.
We shouldn’t forget to mourn, but we also shouldn’t forget to be kind.
Paul Simon - The Sound of Silence 9-11 Ground Zero (by nsotd4)
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Why I’m Unfriending Jane Cunningham
Jane Cunningham is the worst thing to happen to Missouri schools since KU pulled ahead in the Border Showdown.
The Republican State Senator made national news Monday when Senate Bill 54, which she sponsored, became law. The new law, popularly called “the Facebook law,” would bar many interactions between teachers and students on social networking sites. Specifically, teachers would not be allowed to “friend” students on the popular website. The law aims to protect students from predatory teachers online.
Obviously, any appropriate steps that can be taken to keep kids safe online and in the classroom is a good thing. Kids should go to school and be safe, period. But this new law eschews the appropriate and goes straight for the ridiculous.
This isn’t the first time I’ve taken issue with Cunningham’s educational policies. One of my first stories as a radio reporter at the Missouri capitol (Oh, how far we’ve come…) was about a bill, sponsored by Cunningham, protecting “intellectual diversity” on college campuses. They layman’s definition of the bill was that professors could not discredit a student for using his/her “personal beliefs” as an argument in class. This being Missouri, what that usually translated to was Christian conservative students now being allowed to use the Bible to argue their points in science class. And in my interview with Cunningham, she basically admitted outright that the purpose of her bill was to protect like-minded conservative students from the “liberal bias” of college professors and courses. The bill ultimately became law, and Cunningham won her first victory in bringing the culture war to the classroom.
Cunningham does it again with the Facebook bill. Instead of focusing on some of the damning issues with Missouri public schools (Last time I checked, St. Louis public schools still had lost accreditation), she takes on a niche social issue that plays politics with legislators’ votes. Of course nobody’s going to vote against child safety on the internet, lest they look pro-online predator! But in this Nancy Grace moment, Cunningham and Missouri legislators completely overlook the benefit of student/teacher interaction on social media sites. Sites like Facebook and Twitter offer a free platform for students to receive help with schoolwork and for teachers to create a one-on-one learning experience. With teacher salaries as abysmal as they are, the fact that these sites are free cannot be stated enough. And one-on-one learning is a growing classroom trend that actually improves student performance and achievement, while making teachers better at their jobs. On the technology side, Facebook already has an incredibly strong and diligent security team with a knack for recognizing and stopping predatory behavior on the site almost instantly. It seems incongruous then, with the conservative dogma of letting businesses regulate themselves, to have this law in place.
The Facebook bill is a misguided attempt at child safety that sacrifices a valuable resource for teachers. And the cynic in me believes Jane Cunningham knows that, but just does not care.
![keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus:
thedailywhat:
End Of A Regrettable Era of the Day: President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen officially brought the era of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to a close today with the formal certification of its repeal.
“Today, we have taken the final major step toward ending the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law that undermines our military readiness and violates American principles of fairness and equality,” said the President in a prepared statement. “In accordance with the legislation that I signed into law last December, I have certified and notified Congress that the requirements for repeal have been met. ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will end, once and for all, in 60 days—on September 20, 2011.”
[ap / miamiherald.]](http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lor57vSrjp1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
End Of A Regrettable Era of the Day: President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen officially brought the era of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to a close today with the formal certification of its repeal.
“Today, we have taken the final major step toward ending the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law that undermines our military readiness and violates American principles of fairness and equality,” said the President in a prepared statement. “In accordance with the legislation that I signed into law last December, I have certified and notified Congress that the requirements for repeal have been met. ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will end, once and for all, in 60 days—on September 20, 2011.”
[ap / miamiherald.]
★ discovered on imgfave.com (social image bookmarking)
My thought process this morning. My feature on the use of robotics after the Japan earthquake and nuclear disaster is on its way; I should be done within the next two weeks. So excited!
Looks like TBD, a local Washington news site (that underwent an extreme hemorrhaging of personnel a few months ago, but that’s another story) has the same idea I do about looking at the Patch experience of covering a national news event like Osama bin Laden’s death. It’s a great article, and definitely something to keep in mind when doing news analysis of this new hyper-local business/Arianna Huffington’s pet project. From the content to the communities, there really is a tale of two Patches. More coming soon.
An edited version of yesterday’s post about the Washington reaction to Osama bin Laden’s death has made its way to my hometown Patch site. What a blast from the past! There a few, admittedly obvious, localized tweaks, but the overall story and message stays the same. Expect a post in the coming days about my experiences working with a new editor, especially because I’ve had previous Patch experience in the D.C. area. And boy do I have stories.
Reaction to bin Laden Death Celebrations in Washington
WASHINGTON – By now the nation has begun to amass and process the details of Sunday night’s military attack that killed Osama bin Laden. Feelings of joy and catharsis led thousands in Washington, New York and other cities to take to the streets and express their excitement. In the nation’s capital, a crowd of mostly college students cheered “U-S-A!” “Thank you troops!” and “Obama!” while waving American flags, using them as clothing or both. But even as I shoved through the crowd, reaching my camera high to get that coveted shot, one thought kept crossing my mind. I really need to text my brother back. My younger brother David was born on September 11. The Twin Towers fell, the Pentagon was attacked and United 93 crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside on his 12th birthday. I remember my mom bringing home carefully catered plates from the fancy steakhouse we were supposed to eat at that night. We felt too scared to go out and too glued to the TV to go anywhere or do anything. So beyond the deadly, trillion dollar wars that have left 5,885 dead, the tumultuous changes in national security and the heated and often polarizing rhetoric that rose from the terrorist attacks, 9/11–and bin Laden by proxy–had a personal meaning: It really gave David’s day a bad rap. Sunday night seemed a turning point in that narrative. Strategically, U.S. forces reached an incredible milestone in the international war against al Qaeda. Families, friends and loved ones of 9/11 victims saw an opportunity for some closure. And maybe, just maybe, my family got back a spark of happiness or justice in a day undoubtedly marred in national tragedy. I finally talked to David on Monday. We talked about our surprise when we heard the news, cracked a few jokes and talked about seeing each other when he graduates college in two weeks. The conversation seemed to encapsulate a lot of what may befall America in the months and years ahead. In a word, no–the war on terror is not over. But we were able to experience a brief, positive unifying moment that can push us forward. The death of bin Laden offers a rare, fleeting opportunity for life without a culture of fear or constant barrage of punditry. It’s a time we can get more valuable work done to enhance our national security, strengthen our image abroad and build a more engaged citizenry. That’s what I saw in Washington Sunday night. Now, let’s hope it lasts before the next news cycle starts.
