Free Write - 5 things wrong with America

1)      We have to pay a ridiculous amount for health care.  Free public health care would

2)      Underpaid and undervalued public education system

3)      Racism and discrimination in the criminal justice syste

4)      Rampant Capitalism.  Sure, folks should be rewarded for working hard and succeeding.  But Americans seem to forget that we're a community that should watch out for each other.

Top Problem: Health Care

When we declared independence from England, as a pillar of our new country we professed to care about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.  Liberty and pursuing happiness are (supposedly) guaranteed by our politics, but there aren’t really any governances on providing our citizens with health.  Social programs are remedial at best, but what’s really needed are institutionalized programs designed to provide everyone with affordable health care.

Free Write - Reality TV

Reality TV, for most Americans, satisfies a need for interpersonal relations that can be accomplished while vegging out in front of the TV.  We laugh, cry, and get mad at the “characters” that are just like us while they dance, lose weight, hook up, paint their bodies with mud, eat gross things, and sing.  We can relate, because the contestants on the shows are just like us.  It is very entertaining.

Conversely, since the characters are just like us, the quality of the program is extremely compromised, and for two reasons: one, the people aren’t trained actors, and selected for their dramatic and/or scandalous personalities and potential to fail (which the audience loves), and two, the producers interject, selectively edit, and prod the contestant to spark drama in the program. They market it as “reality,” when in reality, it is just the directed throwing of fits.  Sure, we like getting to know the contestants on Survivor and rooting for our favorites, but what do we learn from it?  That the only way to win a contest is to lie, cheat, and double-cross your teammates?

Journal - PressThink

PressThink is a blog very relevant to the discussion of media convergence - the "Information Era" brings both benefits and problems to journalism.  Jay Rosen, the head blogger (and founder?) discusses the advantages of "citizen critics", who have gained the tools to become journalists, and and the impending danger of "Absolute Commercialization."  The tagline, Ghost of Democracy in the Media Machine, points to a time when the media and press were interchangable words.  Now The Media has enveloped little ol' The Press, and is becoming a multimedia commerical giant.  Rosen is trying to save what little of The Press is left, or so he claims in his blog.

The PressThink Intro Page champions the cause of journalism that's worth fighting for and "worth dying for". Not sure about that one, but it did remind me of that movie Veronia Guerin where an Irish journalist writes about a drug ring, and is eventually asassinated because she won't be bullied into stopping her investigation.

Rosen's post are excruciatingly long, but contain valid content; though he knows that "meta posts",  as he calls them, are long and arduous, he unapologetically explains that it is his website, damnit.  If you like it, leave some comments.  If not, you can leave.

becoming a rambler

Today is St. Patrick's Day, 2009. My favorite holiday. Pond and Chris Holcomb stopped by the OP, and we discussed our "plans", which were the equivalent of 5-year plans for most college grads, but we call them our "6 month plans." Why would you live with more committments than you need? My definition of success is being happy and working little.



I want seasonal jobs in 6-month tracts of time for a very long time. I don't see any reason to get a mortgage, a steady job, a marriage, a kid. I don't see a problem in using my mom's house as my "permanent address", and getting my mail in big paper sacks when I stop by home. I want a Subaru I can sleep in, a good dog, and a tall, long-haired travel buddy. I want to learn Basque and Spanish, and get tan on a Costa Rican beach. Does everyone want to live like this when they're young, or is it just a particular breed of us afflicted with wanderlust?

the coldest, windiest, highest, driest place on earth

Above, in the photo from November titled "Antarctica Supporters for Obama", is my aunt Jules,holding the American flag amidst a group of red-parka-ed scientist and base workers at McMurdo Station. With any luck, I'll be working there too this winter. I just applied with Raytheon for positions as General Assistant in construction, Administrative Assistant, and Courier. Maybe by this time next year, I'll have finished a season of being an Antarctic mail lady.