Happy Birthday from your fellow Once-a-Dayers…

Part of the reason I like writing my dissertation is that I get to re-discover obscure figures in American history… Benjamin Lay spent most of his life in Pennsylvania around Philadelphia from 1731 to 1758. He and his wife Sarah lived rather simply and according to their morals. They wouldn’t eat meat or buy products associated with slavery. Both were hunchbacks and Ben had a long-ass beard.

Ben Lay was vehemently opposed to slavery at a time when many Quakers owned slaves. See his book ALL SLAVEKEEPERS THAT KEEP THE INNOCENT IN BONDAGE, APOSTATES (New York: Arno Press, 1969). Lay was thrown out of churches and Quaker meetings–literally. One time he was tossed out and remained on threshold and wouldn’t move. Another time he buried his foot in the snow outside meeting to demonstrate the pain slaves must feel working in the cold with very little clothing.

The Quakers eventually disowned him. But he had already made his mark on John Woolman and Anthony Benezet two Quakers who convinced the Society of Friends to ban slavery…

People have been hitting the pavement a lot lately. Just wanted to point that out…

Dear Once-a-Dayers:

Last Friday was the first “spring-like” day in New York City. If you’ve ever experienced one, then you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, well… imagine 8 million uptight, overworked, and stressed-out people taking to the streets and lingering after being stuck inside all winter. It’s fantastic!

I met my beautiful wife at Union Square. We watched a guy juggle with fire while riding a unicycle with a woman on his shoulders. We stopped and listened to a hard rock brass band. Then, we walked through the East Village and had supper at Supper. Yummy, springtime.

Love,

JP

PS: On April 29, United for Peace and Justice will be hosting a major rally in the Manhattan. Please come visit. Protests are sort of like the first day of spring.

Don Knotts has passed away. May he rest in peace.

Cheesey it may seem, but I spent many great moments with my father watching Andy and Barney on WOLO or WTBS. Now I’m up North and, alas, I don’t have cable. Thus, no Andy. No Barney. No madcap laughter.

Just to add a new twist to the whole Google/Yahoo/China thingy…On Valentine’s Day, the US Secretary of State established a “task force” to protect “internet freedom.”

God bless America! And God bless the Internet! And God bless those who are going to protect the right to free speech in some areas and not in others and so on and so forth….

Love,

Johnny Palmetto

So what’s the real story? Why didn’t we learn about this sooner? Why didn’t Cheney have a permit?

No, this is the real story…

Or just play the Dick Cheney Quail Hunt Game…

You may remember that when ONCE A DAY began, my goal was to focus specifically on Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. To that end, I must say I’ve been thinking a lot about the Danish cartoon controversy.

Some believe that free speech is, in fact, a part of Article 19 which states that all humans have the right to communicate freely. This controversy raises the question–where does that right end? Obviously the Jesus pic is here for a reason. When I Google imaged “funny Jesus” I saw a few pics that offended me (and I’m quite sure would offend a lot of folks–but would they cause violence?)

I honestly don’t have any answers yet. In fact, I really haven’t heard a great argument one way or the other thus far. What are the limits of free speech? Are there limits? If we regulate speech for one group but not another, is that descrimination? Selective Free Speech?

And what of the cumulative effect of racism and “Western” foreign policy? Most muslims in the rest of the world already assume that “The West” hates them (and by “The West” I mean soldiers, instiutions, corporations, and the average Joe). This adds more fuel to that fire (and give a lot of radicals something to talk about). I could be wrong about this but let’s consider these facts:

1) Iraq
2) Afghanistan
3) Israel

Let’s say you’re stuck in a camp in Lebanon, or in a slum in Pakistan, what would you think? Who would you blame for your situation? I could go on. I have lots of questions. Got any answers? Got any questions? The responses of most media pundits have been quick ones. This is definitely not a situation that calls for swift responses–there’s a deep, deep rift here. Bush’s proposed budget? That’s easy. It’s crap. This on the other hand…Everyone needs to slow down…

Your Pal,

Johnny

I was here. And now I’m here…

Discuss.

Dear Once-a-Day Readers:

Google is fighting the department of justice. Good for them. The Department of Justice says they need to investigate Google searches in order to fight child porn. Hmmm…I kinda sort of doubt that.

Note that Yahoo complied.

Yet another reason why Google is google-icious.

Love,

Johnny Palmetto

PS: How long do you think they’ll be able to hold off Bush and Company?

a few thoughts on conspiracies:

1. Focusing on conspiracy theories is exactly what the Right would love the Left to do (and vice versa). This has worked with the so-called culture wars–more people discuss race in this country than class. But this argument is nothing new…see Howard Zinn’s A PEOPLE’S HISTORYOF THE UNITED STATES (especially his discussion on the colonial South and the use of poor whites as over-seers).

2. Time spent on conspiracies is time not spent actively engaging with the government and policies that actually exist. Time spent on conspiracies is time not spent making change. Let’s stop the war first…

3. Why do conspiracies seem to be so West-focused?

4. Reality is difficult enough. There’s no conspiracy behind the army of lobbyists Wal-Mart supports. They just don’t want to pay for health care or higher minimum wages.

5. The towers fell. People died. It smelled. I enhaled that crap. Years from now I’ll get cancer. Not a conspiracy. The fact the the Republican appointed director of the EPA said it was all good…no conspiracy there.

Now go watch SURFACE on NBC if you want to learn about a really cool conspiracy involving a rebellious biologist, a Wilmington teenager, and a bunch of big-ass sea lizards!!!!!!

Alito is a prime example of why the Left, progressives, people who believe in civil (a.k.a. human) rights need to stop picketing and need to start thinking. This is the deal. Alito and many other legal eagles on the Right are part of a long-term effort funded by wealthy conservatives (foundations, individauls) to stack the courts and to undermine civil rights in the US. Rather than bore you with the details, just go check out the National Campaign to Resotre Civil Rights.

And then I want to suggest…you know how all the Christian Fundamentalist have been talking about moving to South Carolina? Well, I know a sweet little town right over the border where we could all hang out between forays to the other side…Like the Right, we need our own long-term, well-funded plans.

Okay, so apparently folks are dissing Wikipedia. I love the Wiki. I love direct democracy…Textual analysis tells us all texts–meaning anything written on paper or, now, written in a digital format–are tenuous at best. Of course it’s crazy to take anything for truth that is inscribed on any surface (see, for example, the Bible, copied and copied for centuries by monks in dimly-lit, poorly ventilated rooms, with squeaky mice running around spreading the Black Plague!).

Humans make mistakes, and I’m sure hundred of humans have made mistakes within the incredible openness of Wikipedia. God bless those mistakes! And some people are jerks and they try to screw things up for everyone else. Screw ‘em.

If you’re curious about wiki, check out one of the discussions.

Or check out the entry I wrote that has recently been deemed a stub–which means that it has been monitored…

So I’m writing an abstract for a conference entitled “American Multiculturalism after 9/11.” Basically my proposal is to compare the PATRIOT Act to “The Negro Acts.”

PATRIOT Act: laws enacted post-9/11 that give the Federal government increased power to monitor “suspicious” activity.

Negro Acts: laws enacted in South Carolina, post-Stono Rebellion that institutionalized chattel slavery–limited movement, communication, dress, etc., of African slaves.

The question is this, what are the long-term effects of these responses to acts of public violence? Will the PATRIOT Act have a longterm influence on the US, one we cannot anticipate? Does our culture suffer? Are we really better protected? Food for thought.

Listen to this story from NPR about the treatment of human beings awaiting immigration decisions in the United States of America…

Last week in Tunis thousands of activists, academics, development workers, and, of course, politicians gathered to discuss the future of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and human development. The World Summit on the Information Society 2nd phase meeting, a UN-sponsored event, was organized as a forum for public discussion of such issues as the digital divide, and internet governance. All of this, of course, under the banner of the UN's human rights agenda--everyone has the right to communicate, etc.

Funny thing that this event would take place in Tunis.

Human Rights Watch released a report to coincide with the event:

The 144-page report, “False Freedom: Online Censorship in the Middle East and North Africa,” documents online censorship and cases in which Internet users have been detained for their online activities in countries across the region, including Tunisia, Iran, Syria and Egypt. These attempts to control the flow of information online contradict governments’ national and international legal commitments to freedom of opinion and expression and the summit’s own Declaration of Principles.

Repression and overt censorship by way of police force prevented many human rights activists from speaking out at this year’s event.

http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/15/mena12011.htm

It’s Tuesday and this is Johnny Palmetto. Despite the name, I’m no gunslinger, private eye, and I’m definitely not on an island off the coast of Beaufort, South Carolina. It’s cold and raining in Brooklyn… I’m not sure how the other ONCE-A-DAY-ERS are doing it, but I hope to use my space in the new agora to explore some things that have concerned me for a while now–and that I’m currently writing a dissertation about. I promise not to put you asleep, though.

My Tuesday topic: “communication” and, more specifically, “the human right to freely communicate.”

Is there such a thing as a “human right to freely communicate?” you ask.

But of course, and despite the fact that Bush was recently overheard telling the Chinese to reform, to clean up their human rights record, I believe human rights are still worth fighting for—they are the only legal means to pressure people and governments to allow humans to exist without fear of torture, persecution, and arbitrary arrests. My concern in this blog, though, will be on a positive right, the right to communicate, found in Article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR):

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Broadly defined, Article 19 declares that human beings must be allowed the positive right to communicate freely with one another, to create their own narratives, to speak in first-person. Humans also have the right to share “information and ideas” by using all kinds of media, across and beyond all boundaries, both geographic and national.

Of course like much of The UDHR, this article sounds nice on paper but in reality it’s much more complicated. The right to communicate in this Information Age is much more complicated than pursuing free speech on behalf of all humankind—it’s also about supporting and enhancing communication networks that are above and below the radar of popular culture (like this blog…). Lastly, in order to support this right, human beings must be mindful of the structures of control that have popped up around and inside new media.

This week’s homework, find out what WSIS is all about.