Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Maps!


I stumbled across a very fascinating blog : http://cartophilia.com/blog/ a man documents his love affair with maps. there are maps of everything on this website: baseball affinities, bicycle races, middle earth, the internet. I love maps too! One of the things I really love in fantasy novels is when they contain a map of the world at the beginning of the book. I will sit reading that, imagining that for awhile.


I also like mapping of silly concepts like the http://www.xkcd.com/ map of online communities. pretty great. (http://store.xkcd.com/xkcd/#OnlineCommunitiesPoster)

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Semantics of Choice and Life

Recently, I have been investigating the politics of a few controversial labels as they've crept up once again in the news: Pro-life, Pro-Choice, Feminist. (see: Obama's speech at Notre Dame.) A recent gallup poll (a poorly executed poll, I might add) resulted in the first time in the history of said poll that more Americans identify themselves as pro-life then anything else. I think this phenomenon has a lot to with the marketing of the phrase, "pro-choice" AND with the many unique and not entirely exclusive definitions of what these narrow labels mean for people --after all, this is one of the most politically charged topics in modern American history. So,who isn't pro-life, really? Are pro-choice folks anti-life? No. Many pro-choicers are very much so about life-- quality of life issues, building better institutional support for mothers, children and families, etc. Similarly, not all those who identify themselves as pro-life, are actually anti-choice. If one digs deeper into the gallup poll, they'll see that a majority of those who identify as pro-life also agree that abortion should be legal, if only in limited circumstances.

This lead me to my next query. Pro-life feminists. Is there such a thing? There is an organization called, "Feminists for Life." ( http://www.feministsforlife.org/ ) Their mission states "Feminists for Life recognizes that abortion is reflection that society has failed to meet the needs of women. We are dedicated to systematically eliminating the root causes that drive women to abortion--primarily the lack of resources and support--through holistic women-centered solutions."
I can get behind some of this, in the sense that yes, women do deserve a system that provides more resources and support to mothers. BUT, What about young girls getting pregnant in the first place? Feminists for life says nothing about supporting comprehensive sex education. (quick anecdotal : I work with a young woman (15) who recently found out she is four months pregnant and was ignorant of effective birth control methods. she and her boyfriend were on the 'pull out method.' While she's going through with the pregnancy and plans on keeping her baby, she has little support or resources available to her.)

Can you be feminist if you are inhibiting a woman's power over her own body? I will assume most pro-life women would not interpret their views this way. I must defer to another blogger now, "Plain Feminist," who also wrote about this topic: http://plainsfeminist.blogspot.com/2008/08/can-you-be-feminist-and.html. She argues that many pro-life women have made admirable contributions to women's struggle and should not be dismissed because they do not identify with all the ideology of feminism, however, the Feminists for Life do inhibit choice and stigmatize particular subgroups of women through their work. (though one can also argue that mainstream feminism does that by making it mostly about white middle class women.) Plain Feminist also writes in response to the feminists who choose not to acknowledge women who identify themselves as both pro-life and feminist as feminists. " I don't think drawing the label 'feminist' more tightly around our shoulders will serve any purpose - it will only serve to divide feminists. Instead of looking at the label, it might be more instructive to look at one's actions and at the impact of one's work on women. " word.

In the end, both of the terms-- pro-choice and pro-life-- are terribly limited. The "pro" and "anti" suggest that there are only two sides to this issue, when in reality, it is a continuum of choices, beliefs and ideology. Using these terms also builds an "us" and "them" that further exacerbates the issue instead of finding a way for us to work together in reducing unwanted pregnancies, creating better support for mothers and families, and empowering women and girls.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Lucubrate: what I am not doing right now.

I just learned a new word: lucubrate. Verb meaning to work (write, study, discourse) laboriously or learnedly. literally encapsulates the idiom, " to burn the midnight oil."

I've been finding motivation a little bit difficult lately due to so many life changes, that and a desire to get back to school, to lucubrate. I've been out less than a year and the scholar inside me is yearning.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Treologic = Great Weekend of Music



Libby came to town this weekend and we have seen some excellent concerts. Friday night we saw Bonnie Prince Billy at the Independent Media Center (IMC). This show was incredible! Will Oldham is a crazy performer. Saturday night, we came out to Cowboy Monkey to support Tom's co-worker (stage name, Text Agenda) who was the opener. Shannon yet again performed a great show and opened for a killer band called Treologic. I hadn't even heard of them before but they are excellent. A hip-hop band with a violin player. Check them out : http://www.treologicmusic.com/prototype.html

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Twitted.

I joined twitter.

http://twitter.com/eandreja

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

"Hot, Flat and Crowded" is repetitive, long-winded

For the most part, I enjoy when Thomas Friedman is a guest on political roundtables and other such shows . This is why I picked up his book, Hot Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America. He is so redundant! His definitions of "hot" (the earth is warming due to climate change), "flat" (the global middle class is expanding) and "crowded" (there's lots of us) are continuously thrown back at the reader as if we haven't already read them in each previous chapter. Tell me something you haven't already told me, Tom! Full of anecdotes (maybe too many anecdotes) some of them illustrate well the environmental challenges we face. I found bits of the book fascinating but all in all this book could easily be shortened to a great article not 500 pages of the same message.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Find Youth Info: New Website for Community orgs serving youth

12 federal agencies and departments recently unveiled a great collaborative effort: an information website for community organizations serving youth. http://www.findyouthinfo.gov
helps community orgs access up to date information on Federal programs, funding opportunities and youth-related issues. The site is working to generate maps of community resources, and also features "many federally-developed interactive tools to help users build quality partnerships within their communities and help youth reach their full potential."