- It was the sort of event we Americans televise, and that day it went badly wrong. Still, the cameras kept rolling and the talkers talked, electrons made their way down the wires, waves moved invisible from the broadcast towers and pictures jittered on our screens. I happened to know one of the people there that day, and by chance he was the first to make his way over to where things had gone wrong. He looked in, he turned and called for help to quickly come. Then he moved away, headed back into the crowd. A few minutes later the cameras found him again. Now he was talking to someone he knew, but we couldn't hear the words. His clothes were still drenched in sweat but he had steadied himself, had found a way for this next witnessing not to be about what he felt and not to be about the cameras and the waves and the pictures. He knew that he had to speak gently now, for the sake of others, and in spite of what he had just witnessed he found a way. I could tell this by the slow gesture of his hand and how he looked into the eyes of his friend and by the even pace of his words, though I was no lip-reader. I don't know what he said, but I could see him do all this, thanks to the electrons and the waves and the screen.#
- Over on Facebook, Tim Dunlop wrote today about walking through the State Library in Melbourne, with its series of beautiful spaces, and full of people, too, as he said. A "Glorious public institution."#
- Seems like there should be a week in school every year during which young people learn about parts of the society that the people built with shared labor, with taxes, after agreements worked out in civic institutions, paid for with their taxes, maintained as well, and worthy of being proud of. Don't leave out the last part. A week each year in school devoted to things we have built and maintained, our elders have envisioned and built and paid for, that are well worthy of being proud of. Ask the young people, "What kinds of things in society should citizens be proud of, and how do those things come to be?"#
- It was the sort of event we Americans televise, and that day it went badly wrong. Still, the cameras kept rolling and the talkers talked, electrons made their way down the wires, waves moved invisible from the broadcast towers and pictures jittered on our screens. I happened to know one of the people there that day, and by chance he was the first to make his way over to where things had gone wrong. He looked in, he turned and called for help to quickly come. Then he moved away, headed back into the crowd. A few minutes later the cameras found him again. Now he was talking to someone he knew, but we couldn't hear the words. His clothes were still drenched in sweat but he had steadied himself, had found a way for this next witnessing not to be about what he felt and not to be about the cameras and the waves and the pictures. He knew that he had to speak gently now, for the sake of others, and in spite of what he had just witnessed he found a way. I could tell this by the slow gesture of his hand and how he looked into the eyes of his friend and by the even pace of his words, though I was no lip-reader. I don't know what he said, but I could see him do all this, thanks to the electrons and the waves and the screen.#
- Over on Facebook, Tim Dunlop wrote today about walking through the State Library in Melbourne, with its series of beautiful spaces, and full of people, too, as he said. A "Glorious public institution."#
- Seems like there should be a week in school every year during which young people learn about parts of the society that the people built with shared labor, with taxes, after agreements worked out in civic institutions, paid for with their taxes, maintained as well, and worthy of being proud of. Don't leave out the last part. A week each year in school devoted to things we have built and maintained, our elders have envisioned and built and paid for, that are well worthy of being proud of. Ask the young people, "What kinds of things in society should citizens be proud of, and how do those things come to be?"#