Day 80, June 4, 2020
Tonight's new feature: The evening's soundtrack: Bill Evans Live '64, '75
Sometimes it is hard to move beyond the immediate, and when we write there is always that tension, between what is here in front of us, and trying to transcend that, allow there to be something more.
An organization I belong to is crafting a public statement about the death of George Floyd and the protests that have erupted across the US railing against police violence upon Black people and the racism and white supremacy culture that accompanies it. So, I thought I would try to draft a statement, to help with the process, maybe to simulate some ideas:
We stand in solidarity with protesters across the United States who are marching against the continued institutionalized racism and white supremacy that pervades nearly every aspect of life in the country and results in the destruction of black bodies.
As a collection of voices we commit to the following:
GeoNet Community in Higher Education
Sometimes it is hard to move beyond the immediate, and when we write there is always that tension, between what is here in front of us, and trying to transcend that, allow there to be something more.
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| Syringa meyeri Palibin |
We stand in solidarity with protesters across the United States who are marching against the continued institutionalized racism and white supremacy that pervades nearly every aspect of life in the country and results in the destruction of black bodies.
As a collection of voices we commit to the following:
- We will foster and support the development of an emerging branch of research that highlights the use of [x] to address race, racism, racial bias, and forms of inequalities caused by race and ethnicity.
No. This is too hard to write without talking about the organization. So I will write my own public statement.
Paulo Freire writes in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed:
Dehumanization, which marks not only those whose humanity has been stolen, but also (though in a different way) those who have stolen it, is a distortion of the vocation of becoming more fully human. This distortion occurs within history; but is not an historical vocation. Indeed, to admit of dehumanization as an historical vocation would lead either to cynicism or total despair. The struggle for humanization, for the emancipation of labor, for the overcoming of alienation, for the affirmation of men and women as persons would be meaningless. This struggle is possible only because dehumanization, although a concrete historical fact, is not a given destiny but the result of an unjust order that engenders violence in the oppressors, with in turn dehumanizes the oppressed. (44)
The events of the past week have reawakened the struggle for humanization across the United States. Despite the tragedy, from which it emerges, the death of black people at the hands of the police, and the terror from which it emerges, and the deep sorrow from which it emerges, the protests are possible because this reality, this state of the nation, is "not a given destiny." It is an "unjust order." The protests are the manifestation of hope, they are the demand for change, they are a refusal of dehumanization.
I take stand with humanity, with compassion, with the emancipation of labor, the overcoming of alienation, and the affirmation of people of all genders to be recognized as persons. I take a stand with the struggle for humanization.
I pledge, my life and my life's work against the unjust order that undermines humanity. I pledge to become a "restorer of the humanity." What this means is:
- I will work with anyone who seeks to strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusion at the college, anyone who works to dismantle institutionalized racism and white supremacist culture at the college.
- I will use all the power and leverage of my position to support those who endeavor to do this work.
- I will look, unflinchingly, at the current realities of our nation, our state, our region, and our college and recognize how nothing exists without relationship to the other.
- As the nation needs reform, so too does our own college. I will work to understand and act to restore humanity to the college, to resanctify the college as a place of learning for all, where the focus is learning and equity.
- I will commit to a research agenda that is focused on helping organizations learn how to liberate themselves, to deconstruct the mechanisms of oppression that both explicitly, and implicitly reinforce the power of the oppressor.
- I will engage the global network of educators, scholars, and writers to learn what I still need to learn, and share what I knowledge I have, create, and learn with others.
- I will focus on engendering agency, possibility, and love through an asset based approach that embraces forgiveness, while relentlessly pushing for the realization of freedom from oppression, the dismantling of institutionalized racism in every organization I am associated with.
Our nation is in the throes of a megalomaniac who is the antithesis of a leader. I will refuse to react to his efforts to distract me from the work at hand. I will focus on where I have capacity to change, where I have the power and agency to make a difference. I will start where I am and look at myself, my colleagues, and my peers, and I will ask with them, what can we do that will make a difference? Where can we express more love? Where can we learn from ourselves better? How can we liberate ourselves from being the oppressor? How can we re-humanize the endeavor? How can we better recognize the reality? How can we perform the reality we aspire to enact?
I call on you, whenever it looks like I have wandered, have become distracted, to remind me of my pledge. To witness my failings, and remind me what it means to express solidarity, or engage in liberation, to be a re-humanizer. I will be weak in moments. I will tire. I will grow weary and disheartened. I will make mistakes. But I will also grow stronger, more full of love, and more full of hope.
I invite you on this journey with me. Let us engage this world. Let us fight for liberations both small and large. Let us fight for the realization of humanity.
Take care,
Leo
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| A very small Ginkgo biloba |
From Our Friends:
From Bob Barba and the NYT:
"The End of College as We Knew It?" by Frank Bruni
A vaccine for the coronavirus won’t inoculate anyone against the ideological arrogance, conspiracy theories and other internet-abetted passions and prejudices that drive Americans apart. But the perspective, discernment and skepticism that a liberal arts education can nurture just might.
From David Dault's blog The Late World:
A wonderful post "It Starts With Doing Things Badly." Here's an excerpt:One of the things I love about Mister Rogers is that he was very diligent in creating spaces where children could be children. In other words, he created spaces that gave them permission to explore and make mistakes. That is to say, he invited them to play.Years after I cut my teeth on Mister Rogers, and around the same time I was reading John Holt, I stumbled upon another wonderful book, called Finite and Infinite Games, by the philosopher James P. Carse. I will tell you now, it is one of the most helpful and important books I have ever read.When John Holt observed children, he saw them trapped in the chasm between the approving “yes” and the disapproving “no” of the parent or teacher. In a similar manner, Carse observed adults, and found them trapped in a gulf between what he called “playfulness” and “seriousness”:
From Of/By/For/All:
From the University of Minnesota Press:
Reading for Racial Justice: The University of Minnesota Press is committed to challenging white supremacy, police violence, and unequal access to criminal justice, education, and resources in Minnesota, the United States, and throughout the world. To promote understanding and action for change, this collection of antiracist books is available to all to read online for free through August 31, 2020. Read a statement from the Press here.
From Medium:
I like how this post very simply complicates the oft used image describing equity. This ‘Equity’ picture is actually White Supremacy at work
From Inside Higher Ed:
In this searing moment for our country, colleges should recommit to equity, Isis Artze-Vega writes, by acknowledging their own flaws and embracing inclusive teaching practices. »
From Rural Assembly: Building an Inclusive Nation:
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From MassHumanities:
On June 18, 2020, from 7:30 - 9:00 pm, Mass Humanities is offering a free, online screening of the documentary film "Exile and Community: The Life of Carola Domar” which follows the moving story of a young Jewish girl who grew up in Nazi Germany, escaped to the United States in her teens, and settled in an idealistic residential community in Concord, MA.
From Common Good:
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Today's Online Teaching Tips:
From ESRI:
We wanted to share several online resources that are available to supplement online learning. You likely know many of them, but they could be a lifeline for those faculty who have not utilized them, as many of these resources are conducive to remote and self-paced student learning.
- Learn ArcGIS – a wonderful collection of short and focused lessons. A relatively new option is the notion of Paths, feel free to browse them.
- Esri Training – search web courses and explore notion of a “learning plans”.
- ArcGIS Documentation – lots of tutorials depending on technology focus. Hiding in there are gems such as these Analytics case studies, many of which have accompanying Story Map, data, and guided workflows, for example.
- Esri Press books, available at no cost to students and instructors until May 25th via the VitalSource Helpsprogram. FAQ for students/educators is here.
- Developer Labs – for students in programming-related courses
- Esri Video channel
- Explore ArcGIS Blog and pose questions such as How can local governments respond to COVIT-19.
- Specific examples: Have students explore and utilize collections of StoryMaps to present their work, publish Surveys to gather information about a topic, use ArcGIS Online to explore, create, analyze information.
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