This generation’s test – Lessons from Seneca Falls

 

We all know that each generation has its own test, the contemporaneous and current standard by which alone it can adequately judge of its own moral achievements, and that it may not legitimately use a previous and less vigorous test. The advanced test must indeed include that which has already been attained; but if it includes no more, we shall fail to go forward, thinking complacently that we have “arrived” when in reality we have not yet started ~Jane Addams

On July 19 and 20, 1848, some three hundred brave souls, supporters of a common cause, gathered in Seneca Falls, New York.  They shared a common cause, to affirm and eventually guarantee, the rights of women, including a woman’s right to vote.   The enormity of their challenge is matched only by the results of the progress they envisioned, sought, and ultimately achieved.

As we grapple with the challenges that face this democracy today we may lose hope, not to mention stamina.  Thinking about the Seneca Falls Convention may shed welcome light on these dark days.

To preserve and strengthen our democracy will demand nothing less than a movement of informed, committed American truth-seekers who care – and dare — to speak out, join forces and share energies towards a common purpose.

As always, we can draw strength and wisdom from those who have fought the good fight in the past.  A glimpse of the humble beginnings of the Nineteenth Amendment offers a sense of how a movement is born and how it grows with time and effort.  We may draw strength from a look back at the movement born at Seneca Falls some 170 years ago.

Some manageable starting points:

• “The Seneca Falls Convention” Library of Congress – Today in history. https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/july-19/
• Today in history July 20, 1848 https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/july-20  (scroll down)
• National Park Service. Report of the woman’s rights convention.https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/report-of-the-womans-rights-convention.htm
• https://www.history.om/topics/seneca-falls-convention/print

Previous posts related to ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

• https://marytreacy.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3926&action=edit
• https://marytreacy.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3834&action=edit
• https://marytreacy.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=3826&action=edit

 

 

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Bamboozled no more…..

If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle.  We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth.  The bamboozle has captured us.  It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken.  Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.  ~ Carl Sagan

One way to come to grips with the challenge We the People face at this juncture is to frame the information crisis in an alternate context.  This repot by First Draft News is a useful tool to reorder the mental format for thinking.  One year into the Era of Our Discontent, we struggle mightily to recognize the complexity of information disorder, to recognize that the very premise is “disorder.”  We fail to recognize – or perhaps admit – that the complexity of information disorder online” starts from the premise of “disorder”.  Consider this:  https://firstdraftnews.org/coe_infodisorder/

The struggle to unravel the intent and complexities of our information state is a shared challenge:

• The Knight Foundation has just issued a summary of key findings of their study of American Views: Trust, Media and Democracy. https://knightfoundation.org/reports/american-views-trust-media-and-democracy
• The Sunlight Foundation recently announced their launch of the Website Integrity Project, a resource designed to monitor changes in government websites.  The goal is to hold government entities accountable by revealing shifts in public information and access to Web resources, as well as changes in stated politics and priorities.  Public distrust of federal government websites as diminished to a great extent because of distrust in the numbers and concern that significant data are no longer shared.  Learn more about the WIP project here:  https://sunlightfoundation.com/web-integrity-project – Note that Sunlight is also accepting applications for individuals interested and available to work on the fledgling project.
• Meanwhile Pew Research Center has weighed in with a major discussion of The Future of Truth and Misinformation Online.  The intro squib notes that “experts are evenly split on whether the coming decade will see a reduction in false and misleading narratives online.  Those forecasting improvements place their hopes in technological fixes and in societal solutions.  Others think the dark side of human nature is aided more than stifled by technology.”  http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/10/19/the-future-of-truth-and-misinformation-online/
• Writing in MinnPost DC Eric Black offers an insider’s take “On truth, trust – and how Americans feel about them” https://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2018/01/truth-trust-and-how-americans-feel-about-them
• The issue of alternative facts impels a few to abandon the quest for truth altogether.  Journalist’s Resource, published by the Shorenstein Center, offers a helpful lifeline for those drowning in misinformation/disinformation. Entitled “When research findings don’t agree” the publication answers many, raises more questions for unreconstructed seekers of truth. https://journalistsresource.org/tip-sheets/research/reproducibility-disparities-research-cancer-reporting “For Weighing Online Opt-In Samples, What Matters Most”, a study conducted by the Pew Research Center explores the quandary of valid statistics. https://www.snopes.com/category/facts/
• Not one to get all of his news from Fox, Pope Francis has turned to the written word, if not the pulpit, to warn that “Fake news is a sign of intolerant and hypersensitive attitudes, and leads only to the spread of arrogance and hatred. That is the end result of untruth.”  (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pope-francis-condemns-fake-news_us_5a68b76ae4b0dc592a0eaf2e)
• Common Dreams warns that “The big threat now is citizens’ lost hope for real democracy” https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/11/21/big-threat-now-citizens-lost-hope-real-democracy while George Soros laments that “Not even Orwell or Huxley could have imagined the ‘Totalitarian’ threat posed by Facebook and Google” https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/01/26/not-even-orwell-or-huxley-could-have-imagined-totalitarian-threat-posed-facebook-and-google
• To their credit, journalists of every medium, masthead/call letters, generation or political persuasion are expressing themselves in words spoken and written.  Some use satire to have their say, as when Jack Shafer explains just why he “loves fake news…” – because “every time you stumble on fake news you uncover evidence of how free our press is and ow far the freedom of speech extends.”  https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/10/23/fake-news-media-establishment-215737

We the People face today’s challenge with both heads and hearts.  Take just a minute to heed the words and appreciate the attitudes of these wise gentleman as they speak with both:  https://vimeo.com/253191   To read their position paper on Truth Seeking, Democracy, and Freedom of Thought and Expression click here: https://jmp.princeton.edu/statement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We the People face the challenge to aim high

Tolerance is another word for indifference. ~ W. Somerset Maugham

The spirit of tolerance, though true and essential, is a vague concept. I have always grumbled – sometimes raged – at the word and concept of “tolerance.”  In most situations and on most issues I care too much to passively tolerate.

The challenge we face today demands more energy, more passion.  Today’s challenge is to embrace, to work shoulder to shoulder, to share the values, the burden and the benefits of the society and the culture envisioned by our founders.  It’s the principle we as Americans have always celebrated with pride.  We honor the fact that no individual, even the president, is the center of the universe.  The core value of the democracy we share rests on the stated principle that it’s not “me” but “us”.

The Constitution goes so far as to spell out just how we go about achieving the goal of creating and living in a democracy.  As a matter of fact, the Constitution is fairly explicit about the presumption –- and commitment — that We the People are responsible for making the democratic system function.

The good news buried in today’s political debacle is that the challenge to the democracy evokes the best from the nation’s residents and, in many cases, from the institutions that We the People have created over time.  As we practice the fine art of crafting an enduring democracy we are increasingly aware of the means at hand – the law, the press, open elections, a just judicial system, free speech, history, education, technology (managed with care.)

At the same time, we have come to understand the sophisticated and systemic ways in which any of these can be “weaponized.”  Experience is teaching us the subtle in which malevolent manipulation of the tools can undermine democracy processes and principles.   Over time we have grown to realize the extent to which accepted democratic institutions and structures can be shaped to create a society and a culture that we cannot and will not tolerate.  We know in our souls and feel in our hearts that we must join forces to resist with the fierce persistence and unflinching integrity democracy demands.

Once we get outside of our own shadow we begin to comprehend, if dimly, that the whole of our democratic society really is greater than the sum of the parts.  We can no longer be indifferent….

Our Founders always wondered about how long it would last. The price of liberty is everlasting vigilance. You’ve got to be on your guard every minute or you will lose it.  Michael Novak

 

 

Trendy tools to translate post-truth terms

Learning a new language is always a challenge.  When the language to be acquired is designed to confuse and conquer, the task requires readily accessible  reference resources that clarify definitions and suggest appropriate usage.  The challenge is confounded when the language is repurposed with wild abandon.

Fortunately, lexicographers and wordsmiths are at the ready to capitalize on the opportunity presented by a newly contrived language, particularly when the use of that language is designed to misinform the public and to weaponize the native tongue.

Following is a listing of user aids that have been hastily crafted to clarify terminology currently in popular use in the conduct of political, governmental, and financial discourse:

Alt-right glossary https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Alt-right_glossary

‘Post-truth’ named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/15/post-truth-named-word-of-the-year-by-oxford-dictionaries

Your post-election glossary, from ‘alt-right’ to ‘fake news’ http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/16/us/post-election-glossary-trnd/index.html

Donald Trump Glossary https://qz.com/845040/donald-trump-glossary/

Glossary for the age of alternative facts: https://www.thefactinista.com/pages/glossary-for-the-age-of-alternatie-facts

The 2016 Presidential Election: A devil’s glossary https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/the-2016-presidential-election-a-devils-glossary/505901/

Post-truth, propaganda, and bullshit: a glossary https://senseandreference.wordpress.com/2016/12/07/post-truth-propaganda-and-bullshit-a-glossary/

Cyberbullying Glossary, Cyberbullying Research Center https://cyberbullying.org/glossary

What They Say vs. What They Mean: An Inside-the-Beltway Glossary.  http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/09/28/what-the-say-cs-what-they-mean-inside-beltway-glossary

Political language…is designed to make lies sound truthful and   murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.~ George Orwell

Weaponization of information-Can truth survive?

Long ago and far away a library educator friend published an early info age book that promoted and explained the role of the library as an access point to information useful to the citizen activist.  Her intent was positive, to explain to activists the potential of reliable, authoritative, timely information that would affirm and validate a proposed action.  When her publisher suggested the title “Armed for action” she objected to the militaristic tone….

Now I realize that my friend was prematurely wise to eschew the “armed” image.  In this age information has morphed into the transportable  “weapon of choice”  to foment political action.  Though weaponizing information is usually attributed the Russians it is important to acknowledge that Putin’s tactics are not unique…

To be certain of the implicit evil of weaponized information, I checked with Merriam-Webster to affirm that use of the word “weapon” definitely connotes negative intent: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weapon

In truth, information is simply a resource, the user determines the use… My friend’s benevolent theme may seem naïve now – though just when information deserves no blame for the fact that it’s been weaponized.  Though history is replete with lies, the digital age opens the floodgates to their unfettered flow and proliferation.

And so we are drowning in a flood of commentaries on the weaponization of information; a smattering of opinion pieces are listed below.

• https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/magazine/if-everything-can-be-weaponized-what-should-we-fear.html?mcubz=3
• http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v547/n7661/full/547030a.html?foxtrotcallback=true
• https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/weaponizing-information-conference-watch-panel-videos
• https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/cyberwar-is-officially-crossing-over-into-the-real-world/526860/
• https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2017/06/06/433345/war-by-other-means/
• https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/11/war-goes-viral/501125/
• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-weaponising-misinformation-destabilise-west-nato-cyber-attacks-michael-fallon-a7560481.html
• https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/…/war-by-other-means/

Okay, information can be used as a weapon.  And yet the essential power lies in the receiver of information who is challenged to think and act according to the content and source of the information.  The “armor” we need today rests with the individual or institution that will take or resist  action based on the weaponized information.

As a society, we are called upon to grapple with the challenge to make “critical thinking skills” the norm—or in today’s parlance, how do we “normalize” critical thinking…  I prefer, and frequently quote,  my good friend Ruth Myers who would often ask, How do we inoculate learners with a healthy dose of “perceptive paranoia?”

The Founders, influenced by Jefferson,  envisioned a democracy founded on citizen access to and wise assessment of information.  Knowing this, we should focus not so much on the weaponry as on how we harness the power of good information (aka truth) to support this democracy.  In a word, how do we sustain a political system based on truth, and arm “we the people” with the power to recognize bald-faced lies when they are aimed at us with malicious intent.

RELATED READ: Social Media Helped Trump Win By ‘Dumbing Down the World,’ Twitter Founder Says  https://www.printfriendly.com/print?url_s=uGGCF_~_PdN_~_PcS_~_PcSJJJmpBzzBAqErnzFmBEt_~_PcSArJF_~_PcS

Tomorrow’s journalists – challenges, rights, and great promise

The First Amendment is not so construed as to award merit badges for intrepid but mistaken or careless reporting. Misinformation has not merit in itself; standing alone it is antithetical to the purposes of the First Amendment as the calculated lie… The sole basis for protecting publishers who spread false information is that otherwise the truth would too often be suppressed. Supreme Court Justice Byron White

As often happens thinking and learning about a topic leads me to deep thoughts on where we go from here, how we are the creators of our own future.  Thus, reflecting on a recent post about Constitution Day (https://marytreacy.wordpress.com/2017/09/09/we-the-people-celebrate-constitution-day-by-learning/) led me to reflect on our role as individuals on whom the Founding Fathers depended to meet their high expectations – specifically, 21^st Century economic, technological and political  challenges that re-order the historic relationship between government, the press – and “we the people.”

As is their way, my thoughts turned to what comes next – Who and what forces will work to preserve the inalienable right to know?  What are characteristics, the status, the working environment of the nation’s journalists?   And thus I found myself wondering what are the influences on aspiring journalists, what is their training, and what will lure a fledging seeker of truth to risk a life as a professional journalist?

Clearly, these concerns were shared by those far wiser:

• William Anderson, writing in the July 11, 2017 issue of The Nation, offered a clarion call to action – to teachers, student journalists, academic institutions, journalists of every stripe: https://www.thenation.com/article/student-journalists-are-our-future-we-should-start-treating-them-like-it/
• In February 2017 John J. Miller of the AAUP, writing in the Wall Street Journal, raised similar questions: https://www.wsj.com/articles/whos-afraid-of-student-journalists-14865970
• And the Washington Post has mapped the rights of student journalists here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/04/05/what-protections-do-student-journalists-really-have-check-your-state-on-this-map/?utm_term=.f65625b639ac

Moreover, the Journalism Education Association Scholastic Press Rights Committee has produced a resource guide specifically related to Constitution Day 2017. http://jeasprc.org/2017-constitution-day-lessons/.  In fact. the Scholastic Press Rights Committee is an information mecca of essentials.  The Committee has published a video intro and links to new materials, lessons learned and timely resources on the rights of student journalists.

Other timely resources include these:

• An article by Matthew Smith on the “importance of independent active press” focuses on the Constitutional rights aspect of student journalism focuses on the local scene: http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2016/05/06/your-right-to-know-state-should-protect-student-journalists/
• The Journalism Education Association report entitled “Promoting Scholastic Press Rights Legislation: A blueprint for success” is exactly what the title suggests, a comprehensive blueprint for action. This is thorough and timely review of the rights of student journalists, steps to be taken in a student press rights action plans, related organizations that support student journalists’ rights, sample laws and recommended language. One essential feature of this resource is an excellent listing of related organizations, historical information about past legislation, and the names of experts who can offer opinions about legislative language.
• The JEA also hosts a robust website, http://jeasprc.org that features a unique “Tools of Truth Landing Page” that covers current topics related to student journalists’ rights  http://jeasprc.org/tools-of-truth-landing-page/
• The Student Press Law Center, established in the post-Watergate era, now headquartered in Virginia, focuses on the legal rights of high school and college journalists: https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Student+Press+Law+Center&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
• The National Scholastic Press Association (http://studentpress.org/nspa/), located near the campus of the University of Minnesota, “promotes the standards and ethics of good journalism as accepted and practiced by print, broadcast and electronic media in the United States,”

Constitution Day 2017 inspires us to take a long view of a free press.  To do so demands that we get a better sense of what’s happening in student journalism.  Some indicators are close at hand:

• The Raben Group, in collaboration with the March on Washington Film Festival, sponsored a Freedom’s Children Student Journalists Competition. The results of the student journalist competition were showcased at a film festival in Washington DC in July 2017.  http://marchonwashingtonfilmfestival.org/freedoms-children-student-journalists-competition/
• Glamour magazine published this thoughtful essay by student journalist Marjorie Kirk in the April 2017 issue: https://www.glamour.com/story/im-a-student-journalist-and-ill-never-stop-fighting-for-the-freedom-of-the-press
• The Society of Professional Journalists sponsors an annual essay contest open to high school journalists. The results of the competition are posted on the SPJ website.  Read this year’s winning essays here: https://www.spj.org/a-hs.asp

In high schools and colleges throughout the nation young journalists are tackling major issues of social justice, civil rights, press freedom and the right to know.  Their rights demand attention and deserve recognition.

“I became a journalist is to come as close as possible to the heart of the world.”— Henry Luce

IMPORTANT UPDATE: https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2017/aug/28/Student-Journalist-FOIA-Grant/

Speaking truth to power: Artists’ reflections on libraries’ voice

Libraries are places – they may be a shelf in a classroom or a grand memorial to a grateful grad, the hub of a medical center or an adjunct to the public square.    It is those who envision the possibilities and shape the role of a library that make a difference.

As keepers of the record librarians have long embraced the challenge to expand access to facts and ideas. In modern times libraries in this democracy, have been quick to resist suppression of information and ideas – as well as other offenses to democratic principles  that tend to rile – and inspire – librarians.

No wonder that, in this era of alternative facts and determined truth seekers, I’m thinking of the heritage of libraries.   Recognition of University of Minnesota Libraries Day earlier this month prompted me to learn more about the ways in which today’s libraries and librarians are coping. (https://marytreacy.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4004&action=edit)

My thoughts prompted me to remember a cluster of library-related blog posts that my friend Jack Becker of Forecast Public Art had sent me some weeks ago.  These are all stories that celebrate the library as a place with a voice – a voice that must speak truth to power. This  armchair tour features amazing  libraries that dare to capitalize on the power they have to inform and lead.

• Defiant democracy – Parthenon Replica made of 100,000 banned books; http://weburbanist.com/2017/07/07/defiant-democracy-parthenon-replica-made-of-100000-banned-books/
• Real underground art secret sculptural installations below paris;  http://weburbanist.com/2016/05/13/real-underground-art-secret-sculptural-installations-below-paris/
• Blank books project is rebuilding burned library in Baghdad; http://weburbanist.com/2016/05/12/blank-books-project-is-rebuilding-burned-library-in-baghdad/
• Little & Local: Staircase Cinema & Sidewalk Library Projects Wrapped & Twisted Book Sculpture by Jacqueline Rush Lee; http://weburbanist.com/2013/06/25/little-local-staircase-cinema-sidewalk-library-projects

Though these magnificent examples of resistance may be a bit beyond the local library’s resources, it is nonetheless a fact that libraries across the country are speaking in a “socially acceptable” voice to support the right to know and the right to speak. For examples, just Google “libraries resistance 2017.”

Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that  of an ignorant nation.  Walter Cronkite

Facing the dark side of Information Power

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth-  Buddha

As we the people come to realize and celebrate the power and accessibility of good information we face the unprecedented fact that information, this nation’s uniquely renewable resource, has been brutally weaponized.

Not that anyone needs more evidence, this piece in the NYT tells the story with clarity – and a flair.  (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/23/opinion/trumps-lies.html?_r=1)   Wired also offers a fresh analysis of the basics in this recent article:  https://www.wired.com/story/president-trumps-lies-and-untruths/?mbid=nl_7217_p1&CNDID=44690478

And yet the fact is that the forefathers created this democracy on the fundamental premise that we the people are thoughtful, informed, educated and oriented to search for truth. Today’s clash between truths and alternative facts is cataclysmic. The good news is that the torrent of alternative facts does not drown but inspires truth seekers to resist in creative and wondrous ways.

The fact that Congress is even now taking steps to unlock the work of the Congressional Research Service is a case in point. ( https://marytreacy.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/congress-moves-to critical-research/)  In ways too diverse and numerous to describe concerned individuals and organizations are “taking arms” to resist prevarication. Some related stories.

• For an understandable overview of digital record keeping start with Don DeLoach’s article published recently in ELGL. “Archiving Public Sector E-Communications” counters the widely-held assumption that public records not retained are exempt from open records laws. (http://elgl.org/2017/06/12/archiving-public-sector-e-communications/)
• Daniel I. Weiner and Lawrence Norden at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law take a legalistic approach in their recent article entitled “Presidential Transparency: Beyond Tax returns” (https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/presidential-transparency-beyond-tax-returns) Their scholarly essay suggests a number of remedial steps that might be taken to right the ship of truth.  The authors conclude “while not erasing otherwise unaddressed ethical problems, more transparency would at least help mitigate the resulting harms by allowing the public to act as a check on self-interested government decision-making.”
• If you go for the granular follow the presidential tweets here: http://www.trumptwitterarchive.com.  Follow up with a digital tour of “The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library”: https://www.forbes.com/sites/russespinoza/2017/06/18/donald-j-trump-presidential-twitter-library-a-smash-for-the-daily-show/#710e1df96e0c
• This handy guide may help fill in the blanks: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/06/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interests/508382/

Clearly, this nation faces an unprecedented challenge.  Instinctively we assume that the rules of logic prevail. It helps to face the harsh reality of the dilemma, to rethink the very nature of prevarication.  Consider this thoughtful article: https://www.wired.com/story/president-trumps-lies-and-untruths/?mbid=nl_7217_p1&CNDID=44690478

One creative – and mind-expanding —  approach is to view reality through a different lens, that of the artist.  A good prompt to refocus the observational lens can be is this article published in Hyperallergic.( https://hyperallergic.com/387008/the-trump-regime/)   To peer with greater depth into the creative imaginations of several contemporary artists explore this digital display: https://hyperallergic.com/tag/drawing-in-a-time-of-fear-lies/

The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others – Fyodor Dostoevsky

 

 

Why we need the Peace Corps – then and now

This world demands the qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease. ― Robert F. Kennedy

For reasons I can’t quite explain, the President’s proposed axing of the majority of nation’s volunteer programs is causing me unique and terrible pain.

Though hunger, homelessness, fake facts and betrayal inflict deeper wounds, the end of the Peace Corps is a stab in the back that I can neither explain nor overcome.  One of the several volunteer programs the President has targeted, the Peace Corps set the pace – for my generation it was an awakening to global awareness. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/us/politics/trump-budget-americorps-peace-corps-service.html?_r=0

As one who has known the privilege of living with hope, I shudder at the pall that this disastrous proposal to half essential volunteer initiatives casts on youth, the same young people who must understand, eventually inherit, believe in, protect and share this nation and this planet.

My focus on the Peace Corps is personal; it was the program that most affected my life and my world awareness.  Obviously I realize that the Peace Corps was then and this is now.  And yet for me the bold venture will always represent a willingness of youth to give, to learn, and, above all, to hope.  My life, and the lives of a generation of hopeful Americans, has been shaped in part by the dream and the reality that the Peace Corps represents.

Though I didn’t have the guts to join the Peace Corps, the tough decision made by my contemporaries inspired me to explore the world writ large.   The Peace Corps, by its very existence, expanded my world. In a sort of backup move, I answered without question the call to serve as ED of a national faith-based youth organization in Our Nation’s Capital, one of a host of similar groups in the front lines of civil rights and inter-faith collaboration.

From Peace Corps friends’ letters (yes, written epistles) I learned of others’ cultures, challenges, needs, how to listen, learn and share ideas and basic truths.  I learned from friends who shed their pretense of superiority as they explored with equals the principles that shaped this democracy.  Friends wrote of their experiences with others whose ways, though different from American ways, were viable and adaptable.  I learned about my friends’ efforts to be authentic seekers and tellers of truth.

Though the Peace Corps faced charges of “do-goodism” at the outset, it was not long before volunteers became frontline emissaries of American good will.

Over the years, the nature of the Corps changed radically.  Volunteers of all ages joined their younger colleagues – Lillian Carter being the poster grandma for a trend of seniors who brought skills, not to mention maturity, that strengthened the organization.   In time, joining the Corps became not so much a bold risk but a viable means of contributing to a “work-in-progress”.

And yet I keep thinking of those early volunteers.  What I realize is the ways in which their Peace Corps experience changed their lives and the lives and institutions they have shaped over the decades.   The expanded world views of those now-aging volunteers continue to make a difference.  Though they may not talk much about their years in Ethiopia or Nigeria the volunteer alumni have not abandoned the spirit of hope they shared with others and that they continue to keep hope alive back home.  https://www.peacecorpsconnct.org/cpages/home

 

 

 

Archivists challenged to look ahead for looking back

The sounds of the past enrich our understanding of the nation’s cultural history and our history in general.  Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress

We live in what Harlan Cleveland dubbed a “temperocentric” world, a world that expresses ideas in fewer than 140 characters, and then moves on……

This is digital age, when thoughts expressed in 140 characters start a war, when a signature replaces a thoughtful disquisition, when Facebook and emails can be manipulated and alternative facts thrive, the work of the archivist is ever-more challenging and still more essential.

And then my thoughts rambled:  I wondered future researchers will ever know how decisions were made……. At the core is a deep concern about the implications of those tweets for government transparency and accountability?

More concerning is the degree to which the ephemeral nature of information and communication will relieve them of responsibility – culpability – for the consequences or blur the causes of their actions.]

It is cold comfort to learn that the President’s tweets are safely archived, available for researchers who will bear the burden of explaining this era:  http://www.trumptwitterarchive.com.  Still tweets, even archived tweets are of scant value.

The serious work archiving President’s papers is in the hands of archivists. abby Zimet’s article published just yesterday in Common Dreams, offers a good – actually fun-to-read– overview of one major effort to cope with the Trump archives.  https://www.commondreams.org/further/2017/05/09/lots-copies-make-stuff-safe-saving-trumps-bigly-dumb-words

Clearly, it is a mighty challenge to capture the archival record of this era, much less to assure permanent access to past public documents. In recent months archivists have welcomed the assistance of informed volunteers – archivists, librarians, researchers, historians and others concerned with preservation of real facts have met the challenge.  Though it’s a finger in the dike of information flow our nation’s recorded history is at risk.

Without archives many stories of real people would be lost, and along with those stories, vital clues that allow us to reflect and interpret our lives today. ― Sara Sheridan

August 2017 update  -https://firstamendmentcoalition.org/2017/08/memo-future-historians-trump-presidency-good-luck-youll-need/

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/05/ex-feds-confident-comeys-devices-and-files-are-safe-even-if-fbi-wont-confirm/