the flag of Nigeria Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved.

Largely overshadowed in the American media by the Eric Massa soap opera, on March 8th there was a tragic massacre in Jos, Nigeria of several hundred people. Coming out of this horrific event are questions about ethno-religious conflict, addressing religious differences in circumstances of tension, root issues of political and economic inequality, and most importantly how to overcome differences to see others as human beings.

Alas! A Blog | I did not know about how deeply my friend’s fear, mistrust, and hatred of the Muslims in Nigeria ran until after our friendship was well-established. She says she feels this way only about Nigerian Muslims, not about people who follow Islam in general, and I believe her, and she tells stories about her own experiences in Nigeria and the experiences of the people she knows to justify herself. The fact that she makes this distinction, of course, suggests that the issues at stake are not really religious, but the fact that they are expressed religiously–in terms of spirituality and morality and the one true path to God–makes it hard, even just between the two of us, to get at what those stakes really are; and then I think about the way our invasion of Iraq and ousting of Saddam Hussein made space for the Sunni and Shia to go at each other’s throats–check out this NPR interview with Deborah Amos about her new book, Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East–and even the Israeli-Palestinian struggle over the status of Jerusalem, which is so often played out in religious terms. And when I think about how may more examples I could list, I cannot help but feel that maybe it’s all, always, political; maybe the god or gods all these people fight over is just a way of not having to take responsibility for their own politics, their own desire for power, their own inability to share, their own fear of everything that makes them vulnerable; maybe the need to make your religion the only true one is nothing more than fear and cowardice, and we all know how thin the line is between the coward who cowers and the coward who becomes a bully.

It has been a very long time, since I was an undergraduate in fact, that I have known personally someone who could place her or himself so easily, so firmly, so absolutely, on one side of this kind of divide and so thoroughly forget that the other side is also inhabited by people; and yet even as I write that, it would be dishonest of me not to own up to the fact that I too once stood with Israel, as a Jew, in strictly religious terms, in a way that denied the humanity of the other side.

That we all have this capacity within us is by now a cliche, but how do you learn to accept that impulse in someone who has become your friend? Because if you cannot accept it–which is not the same thing as approving of it, or allowing it to go unchallenged–then there can no longer be a real friendship. This is the question that I am confronting.

Global Comment |Nigeria is one of the world’s major oil producers and seventh largest exporter, yet many of its citizens live in abject poverty. The Niger Delta region of the country, home to the nation’s oil, is synonymous with violence and the kidnapping trade. Tribal and religious divides continue to claim lives, the most recent being the January Jos riots, where over 300 people died.

Thanks to the Christmas Day “Crotch Bomber,” as Umaru Farouk Abdulmutallah is now popularly known, Nigeria on a terrorism watch list, making life extremely hard for Nigerians as they travel. Lest we forget, Nigeria is internationally perceived as one of the most corrupt nations in the world. We are also known as 419ers, i.e. email scammers.

Following the Abdulmutallah incident, the US was quick to add us to the terrorist watch list, yet there was no president or representative to speak for us. A few members of the senate threatened to sever ties with the US, and that was laughed upon.

Keep in mind that we have a rich cultural heritage, and have made some great contributions to the world of art and culture. From the ‘Benin Bronzes’ to Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ben Okri and, from my generation, Chimananda Ngozi Adichie, we have made our mark. However, when it really counts, what we are really known for is instability.

I have watched the recent political dance in my country of birth with excitement, shame, and a sense of anger. Again and again, 150 million people have been continuously let down. It seems some part of the population have become so used to it, they excuse the bad governance or else get blindly religious about it, saying, ‘God will make things better.’ I am tired of this unending hope and hunger for real change.

Get Religion | The most frustrating element of all of this is that there is no clear way to establish facts in this conflict, a journalistic nightmare in which the integrity of both the regional and national government agencies (and the military) is in question. It is also clear that economic and ethnic factors are crucial. Yet, on the ground, the language and the imagery is primarily religious.

If you doubt me on that, check out this vivid report in the Wall Street Journal. The language is enough to make anyone shudder in a pew:

“At a mass burial Monday in Dogo Nahawa, site of the worst violence, angry residents talked of revenge as they gathered around a large pit and scattered dirt on several dozen charred and bloodied bodies, some brought from neighboring villages. When an infant was lowered into the pit, women broke out in wails.

A village chief chastised area youth for not being ready to fight. “This is a lesson,” the chief said. “Now is the time for everyone to wake up. Elders are calling you youths to come out.”

An elderly woman prayed at the edge of the burial pit, chanting. “By God’s grace we will enter their villages and kill their women and children,” she repeated.”

Horrors. Clearly it is impossible to write about this story — in a nation that is literally divided in half by religion — without dealing with the religious elements.

It is also crucial, whenever possible, to put names on these “rights groups” when they are quoted providing facts about attacks in the past and present. Some of these groups are neutral and some of them are not. We are, literally, dealing with facts and numbers that are leading to bloodshed.

Reuters |Residents of Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Ratsat, about 15 km (9 miles) south of the central city of Jos, buried dozens of bodies including those of women and children in a mass grave on Monday following the attacks, which they blamed on Muslim herders.

The raids were in apparent retaliation for four days of violence around Jos, the capital of Plateau state, in January which killed several hundred people, many of them in an attack on the mostly Muslim settlement of Kuru Karama.

“Better security is clearly vital but it would be a mistake to paint this purely as sectarian or ethnic violence, and to treat it solely as a security issue,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said.

“What is most needed is a concerted effort to tackle the underlying causes of the repeated outbreaks of ethnic and religious violence which Nigeria has witnessed in recent years, namely discrimination, poverty and disputes over land.”

The latest unrest at the heart of Africa’s most populous nation comes at a turbulent time, with Acting President Goodluck Jonathan trying to assert his authority while ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua remains too sick to govern.

NY Breaking News | Issues behind Nigeria Massacre: The latest Nigeria massacre has rattled the whole world.They have been termed “communal clashes,” or “religious conflict” but economic and political issues are the actual cause. Thin lines of differences lie between religious, ethnic, political, and economic divisions in Plateau State, owing to which they reinforce each other. Muslims in the state are from Hausa- or Fulani-speaking nomadic groups, most of who are herdsmen by occupation or do trivial businesses.

They are considered strong supporters of the opposition All Nigeria People’s Party. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which is in power both at state and national levels, has the allegiance of Christian Berom, Anaguta, and Afisare groups that traditionally have been farmers. With national elections due next year, the national government finds it tough to check the violence out of a fear that actions may estrange its potential political groups.

Any dispute turns into a religious riot at once in Plateau State. Sometimes hatred of Christian farmers against the Hausa-speaking Muslims’ coming from the North in search of grasslands for their animals takes the shape of a dispute over land. Again, craze for power also falls prey to religious bias. Muslims and Christians live in separate areas even in the state capital Jos.
This Muslim Christian conflict in the state has been because of power craze. Power corridor allows you access to enormous money, and so your community also gets share of it. Around 80% of Nigeria’s GDP runs through the state and local government channels. Therefore, to cling to power, one often takes detour by triggering ethnic or religious hatred or pushing people out of home to stop them voting.

And Nigeria’s classification of citizens between “indigenous” and “settlers” makes the situation severe. In Plateau State, this system creates local divisions as well. The Hausa-speaking Muslims are often referred to as settlers. These “settlers” are barred from taking up certain state positions, which gives rise to hatred among some who find violence the only way out.
 

Best of the web…

Women Flyers Honored 65 Years After WWII Service  | CNN

Some 65 years after their service, a group of former civilian women pilots whose unheralded work was key to helping the U.S. effort in World War II were honored Wednesday with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Fewer than 300 Women Airforce Service Pilots are still alive. About 175 of them, along with thousands of family members, traveled to Washington for the ceremony at the Capitol.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted that the event had one of the largest crowds ever gathered inside the Capitol.

Deanie Parrish, a WASP who joined in 1943 at the age of 21, thanked members of Congress, those in attendance and members of the media.

“I believe this is the day that when the people of America no longer hesitate in answering, ‘Do you know who the WASPs are?’” she said to the crowd filled with old and young alike. “It’s because of the media that that will happen.”

Ban the Box: People With Convictions Deserve a Second Chance  |  Alternet

On March 8, Governor Richardson signed legislation making New Mexico the second state in the nation to “ban the box.” This victory lays the groundwork for other states to proactively address the need of people being released from jail and prison to find work and truly rebuild their lives. Employment is a key factor in preventing recidivism and this law offers an innovative solution to not only save precious taxpayer dollars, but also save lives and keep families together.

Senate Bill 254 “bans the box” by removing the question on public job applications asking if a person has a criminal conviction. By eliminating the box, people with convictions can be considered on equal status with other job applicants, instead of being immediately labeled and dismissed as a “criminal” unfit for the job. The law is very clear that public employers still have the right to ask about convictions status, but only during the finalist interview process. Employers can also perform criminal background checks if it is relevant or required for the position.

MySpace, HerSpace: Daughters of Generation Facebook  |  Mona Eltahawy

Mona Eltahawy from paul daugherty on Vimeo.

Recently, while walking through my university’s student union, I was approached by some young men working a table promoting some sort of DVD/CD distributer. In an effort to get my attention one man yelled out “Hey! Do you want some free stuff?” In reaction to this shout, I immediately had the thought that anything that can be called “stuff” is very rarely worth having.

In the consumption driven culture which is so rapidly overtaking the globe we are practically conditioned to start salivating at the ringing sound of “free products” without considering their actual cost. We are encouraged to view things on the short term, surface level, trained to identify ourselves with certain products, and taught to proclaim our significance in the world by boasting certain status symbols, all without realizing how much this stuff weighs us down.

I am not trying to suggest that we get rid of all our possessions and treasures, simply that a great deal of what we view as vital for our comfort is, in fact, something we can quite happily live without. Over the last year I have helped several friends move, and  they were always amazed by how much stuff they have acquired, lost in the garage, and forgotten over the years–only to be rediscovered and puzzled over in the mist of packing. It’s almost like watching a snake shed its skin or a butterfly emerge from the cocoon.

But what to do with all this extra stuff we manage to accumulate? There are generally two options–throw it away or recycle it. As someone who tries to be environmentally conscientious, I should recommend the latter without hesitation, but instead I do so with caution. The sad fact is that the “Green Movement” (not the Iranian one), which has caught on over the last decade really isn’t that green in many cases–especially the recycling industry. Like anything else is this world, you have to watch out when recycling, because often many “recycling” organizations gather up waste and export it to be dumped  in the developing world. This is a particularly prevalent issues in the area of e-waste disposal. For example, last year the EPA charged an Oklahoma-based electronics recycling company “EarthEcycle”  with committing such fraud.  As thisreport by the Int’l Imaging Technology Council highlights:

Guiyu, China, has become the world’s dumping ground for what is defined as “e-waste.” “Exporting Harm,” a 54-page report issued by the Basel Action Network (BAN), exposed the environmental horrors in this small town. Toner cartridges comprise a large portion of the town’s problems.

The e-waste comes from familiar places like Los Angeles or Chicago, as identified by tags and plates on some of the debris. How did they end up here? Because someone wanted to have them recycled.

According to the report and videotape from BAN, recycling centers may collect e-trash, but then they become mere distribution centers for exporting the same.

According to recycling insiders, about 80 percent of the e-waste collected by recyclers ends up in containers bound for Asia.

However if you do a little research it is possible to find reputable recycling programs, which can be a small way to help reduce the amount of garbage in lands fills and slow the demand for virgin resources. Like anything in life though, to affect real change through recycling it take times, dedication, and cooperation, (three things we generally abhor in America), but if done properly the results can be astounding. For example, watch this story about the rise of recycling in Cairo’s “trash city.”

Finally, what are some of the ways to work within the local community to improve the environment. The most obvious way is by paying attention to your own consumption and disposal habits and simply trying to consume less. For example, do you really need that free t-shirt that you know you’ll only wear once? Is it absolutely vital that you buy 10 cases of bottle water each month, or can you buy a thermos and drink tap-water, (or invest in a water purifying system if you really can’t stand tap-water). Are you getting rid of those electronics because they’re broken/completely obsolete, (like 8-track players), or because something shinier has come along?

Also make use of local recycling services, (after researching them!), and demand more efficient curbside recycling programs by the city. In its article “The Truth About Recycling”The Economist provides an interesting discussion of the evolution of curbside programs, including some of the pros and cons in regards to price. Part of the reason American recycling programs are constantly criticized as being non-cost effective, pointless, etc, is because such programs are so often implemented half-heartedly, created to earn “green-points” for the city rather than to actually allow for effective waste reduction.

Pay attention to local/state environmental legislation and how it is applied to corporations–which are often some of the biggest sources of water and land contamination. Take for example the dispute between Oklahoma and Arkansas over the water quality of the Illinois River which was fouled, (sorry I couldn’t resist the pun), by disposal practices of poultry companies.

Some even simpler ways to make a difference on the local environment is to spend some time picking up trash (for example take a trash-bag with you on your evening walk). Conserve water and use less fertilizer on you lawn. Make good use of local farmers markets, (the Norman market opens up on April 3rd!). Instead of throwing out used clothing/baby items/etc, if they are in alright condition donate them to local shelters. Explore the local freecycle network before buying large items or putting them out on the curb. Bike, walk, and car pool. Snip plastic soda-rings before disposal, etc. I’m hardly an expert on the matter so please feel free to share other suggestions about what local actions we can take to improve our environment.

Like/Dislike? Leave a comment!

(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved.

Constance McMillan attends Itawamba Agricultural High School in rural Mississippi.  She is a lesbian.  She asked the school if she could bring her girlfriend to the prom.  The high school canceled the official prom but suggested that the students and parents organize their own private prom.  What lesson does that teach to the students there?

Change.org | Isn’t it amazing the depths folks will go in order to continue homophobic policies? That this school wanted to stop a lesbian student from bringing a same-sex date to the prom was outrageous enough. But to cancel the entire prom just to take aim at this student is punishing every single person in the school. So much for school’s acting in the best interests of their students.

The Itawamba Agricultural High School’s mission statement is to “involve school, families, and community in enabling students to be responsible and productive citizens of an ever changing world by providing academic and technological programs in a learning environment that is safe, orderly, empowering, and challenging.” If that’s the case, their decision to eliminate the prom is a complete and total epic FAIL.

Lez Get Real | The LGBT community has been tweeting and facebook this story all over the internet to try to bring attention to McMillen’s plight. We know what this statement means, The Itawamba School District is trying to villify McMillen to all her classmates, students that might have been indifferent or even supportive of her sexual orientation before, will now blame her for the prom being cancelled. We also know that an “unofficial” prom will be organized and McMillen will not be invited. It is probable that McMillen is not the only LGBT student at the school, so the school district is effectively endorsing a “no gays allowed” prom.

A Purse Full of Cheerios | The issue really isn’t even whether or not the girl wanted to bring a date of the same sex. The issue is that the school board has rules and those rules must be enforced. Just like many schools have a rule that students attending the prom cannot bring a date who has already graduated. Are they discriminating against adults? This is ludicrous.

Pam’s House Blend | In a brazen move, the school board urged that a private prom be organized so that they can legally ban McMillan from attending with her date and the attire of her choosing. How much deeper hate can adults foment over this young students request for equal access to her own school’s prom?

On the Web…

Fail to Understand Why Non-White People Feel Like Self-Segregating | Stuff White People Do

But again, those situations are rare. Partly because most white people spend little or no time in spaces that are mostly non-white, they tend to find it confusing, and even “wrong,” for people of color to seek out spaces and situations that are not predominantly white — to “self-segregate,” that is. Because seeking sanctuary from a situation in which you’re no longer surrounded by your racial peers could merely mean stepping back into the great (white) norm for whites, it wouldn’t seem like racial self-segregation for a white person to do that. Even though that’s what it is, and even though white people actually self-segregate almost all the time.

New French Diet Eat Air | Womanist Musings

Well it seems as though a new diet fad starvation plan created in France is the next big thing. The diet is called “L’Air Fooding” and it involves putting food on a plate and pretending to eat it.  Yes, so very chic; put food on your fork and bring it to your lips but never take a bite.   Not to worry, if the hunger pangs hit you, you can always fill up on soup à l’eau (water soup) which consists of water and salt. Mmmm tasty.

Police Brutality Against CA Protesters for Higher Education…Again | Feministing

Thursday, March 4, a group of UC Davis students marching through campus began to approach a freeway on-ramp for the purposes of occupation, and Yolo County Sheriff’s Department officers blocked the route. They shot pepper balls at students’ feet as the marchers continued to approach the on-ramp. Abruptly, the police pulled Laura Mitchell, a student and queer leader at UC Davis, from the front of the crowd, dragging her along the ground, ripping her shirt off, and holding her hostage until protesters agreed to dissipate.

Threatened Muhammad Cartoonist Has No Regrets | Pew Forum

A Swedish artist who angered Muslims by drawing the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog said Wednesday he has no regrets and believes the suspects in an alleged plot to kill him were not professionals.

Lars Vilks, who has faced numerous death threats over the controversial cartoon, said he has built his own defense system, including a “homemade” safe room and a barbed-wire sculpture that could electrocute potential intruders.

Tuesday April 6 at 6:30 p.m.

The Institute of Interfaith Dialog

4444 N. Classen Blvd.

Oklahoma City, OK 73118

A panel discussion by the women leaders of the three Abrahamic Faiths:  The three distinguished panelists are:

Rabbi Abby Jacobson, Rabbi, Emanuel Synagogue

Dr. Barbara Boyd, Outreach Director, OU Religious Studies

Sheryl Siddiqui, Director from community relations for the Islamic Society of Tulsa

The panel will be moderated by Dr. Jill Irvine from OU Women’s and Gender Studies.  The event is not exclusive to women.  Men are encouraged and welcome to attend.  Some of the areas of discussion include: 1) How has feminism impacted the discourse of women’s participation in society?  2) How might women of the various Abrahamic traditions work together today to address women’s issues worldwide?  3) How does each religious tradition respond to issues of women’s reproductive health such as the use of contraceptives and abortion?  4) And much more….

For more information: okosman@interfaithdialog.org; 405.702.0222.  This event is free of charge and open to the public.

The United States of America is the land of great opportunity, in which people can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and give their children better than they had.  This idealistic vision is the American Dream. In addition to improving chances for children, the Dream also typically includes home ownership, having a chance to get rich and achieving a secure retirement. The Dream finds its roots in our Declaration of Independence which states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  As humans, life has been given to us.  Liberty is established through the social contract.  The Pursuit of Happiness — that is the promise of the American Dream.

The term was made popular by James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book, The Epic of America.  According to Adams, the term was “that American dream of a better, richer, and happier life for all our citizens of every rank.”

However, the idea of the American Dream is neither simple nor universal.   Americans oddly tend to hold contradictory views of ways to achieve success.  We simultaneously think that people should get out of the system what they put into it (an idea called meritocracy), and that people should be able to pass wealth generationally, thus effectively nullifying a meritocratic system.  The tensions between these widely held views are what makes the Dream complex.

The American Dream is the great American story.  It is given power at least partially by what Max Weber called the Protestant Ethic, which taught that hard work and prosperity are signs of the achievers’ place in heaven and of God’s favor towards them.  The Protestant Ethic contributed to America’s financial success.  We worked hard, saved and spent frugally.  Protestantism also affected how we view work.  Martin Luther taught that all work, not just ordained ministry, was a sacred thing.  In a sermon, Luther preached that, “every occupation has its own honor before God, as well as its own requirements and duties.”  This dedication to work from the 16^th century is evident to us in the 21^st through the nation of workaholics.  Once Americans decided work was a positive, we took it to the extreme.  Because of this Protestant framework, Americans came to view work as an opportunity, not merely a necessity.

Stories of the American Dream are ubiquitous in the American Experience.  Indeed, they portray some of our greatest figures such as Abraham Lincoln who was famously born in a log cabin and rose, due to his intellect and work ethic, to become one of the nation’s most visionary presidents.  In the present day, two O’s tell the story of the Dream: Oprah and Obama.  Oprah was famously raised in poverty in Mississippi before she became the queen of day time talk and just about everything else.  President Obama continuously touted his credentials as an American Dream president, the son of a Kenyan and a Kansan during his historic 2008 presidential campaign.  Using his unusual past to his advantage, he continuously said on the trail, “In no other country on earth is my story even possible.”

The Dream mentality is so all-encompassing that it can be found almost anywhere.  Some of our great American art personifies the Dream.  Citizen Kane and The Godfather II, two of our greatest films portray rags to riches stories.  Recently, the Will Smith film The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) showed some of the heart-breaking realities of chasing success.  In one moving scene, Smith and his son find themselves homeless and spend the night in the public restroom of a Bay Area Rapid Transit station.  Another scene from this film epitomizes the Dream mentality.  Smith’s character teaches his son that the Dream is a possibility for those who work for it.

You got a dream… You gotta protect it. People can’t do somethin’ themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want somethin’, go get it. Period.

Will Smith’s character endures barrier after barrier to achieving success but it is this belief in the Dream that propels him forward.  This spirit of opportunity and drive is necessary in working toward the Dream.  Without it, the goal seems unachievable.

However, that same drive can turn against those who devote their lives to it.  F. Scott Fitzgerald’s acclaimed work, The Great Gatsby is also about the American Dream and the potential pitfalls of too much success.

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy–they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money of their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.

Excess is not a concept included in the Dream. Rather, the Dream is to have enough to be comfortable and give your children a little better than you had.  Enormous wealth is a bastardization of the Dream, an unintended consequence of unbridled ambition.

Dream stories serve to inform us of possibility.  Last year we heard an American Dream story recounted over and over, that of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.  An e-mail from President Obama to his supporters recounts the now familiar story.

And then there is Judge Sotomayor’s incredible personal story. She grew up in a housing project in the South Bronx — her parents coming to New York from Puerto Rico during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she lost her father, and her mother worked six days a week just to put food on the table. It takes a certain resilience and determination to rise up out of such circumstances, focus, work hard and achieve the American dream.

In Judge Sotomayor, our nation will have a Justice who will never forget her humble beginnings, will always apply the rule of law, and will be a protector of the Constitution that made her American dream and the dreams of millions of others possible. As she said so clearly yesterday, Judge Sotomayor’s decisions on the bench “have been made not to serve the interests of any one litigant, but always to serve the larger interest of impartial justice.”

This story shows who can achieve the American Dream: anyone.  According to the Dream, we all have the opportunity to achieve it.  Our own hard work and moral fiber will help us along the way.  As Americans, this story is our story and permeates every aspect of our society.  We are constantly told that we can achieve it.

But, is that true?  For some, pursuit of a Dream turns into the American Nightmare, faced with the inability to break into a closed system no matter how hard they work.  The ideology of the American Dream has been used to justify the inequalities of our society, as if those who have not been able to get ahead do not deserve it and have not worked hard enough.  This is where the tension between meritocracy and inheritance becomes important.  For the argument that those who get ahead deserve success to be logically sound, everyone would have to originate in the exact same place.  But, we don’t.  Those with privilege start out light years closer to the finish line.  The next installment of this series will examine the barriers and impediments to achieving the American Dream.

By Zev Trachtenberg
Xenia Fellow, 2009-2010
Assoc. Prof., Philosophy, OU

Something Lessa Keller-Kenton mentioned in her post was particularly thought-provoking for me: her conversation with the elderly man from West Texas.  Here was someone very different from herself, yet she was able to share with him a moment of mutual recognition of their common humanity.

I think Lessa is exactly right that that recognition lies at the core of dialogue.  It is, in a sense, the logical precondition (pardon me, I’m a philosophy professor) of the kind of communication between people this enterprise is all about.  I can take in what you say not necessarily because I can imagine having your experience myself — sometimes our differences make that impossible.  More fundamentally, though, I can grasp that what you offer comes out of your experience, which happened to you — just as my experience happened to me.  I can, that is, get that you are as much the subject of your experience as I am of mine.  That’s why Lessa’s point really rings true to me: It’s on the basis of their acknowledgment of their common humanity that dialogue partners can truly understand what each other says.

The wonderful thing about the dialogue process, cultivated so thoughtfully in The Xenia Institute, is that it actually establishes its own precondition. People entering into dialogue might well lack what they most require to succeed: that deeply felt acknowledgment of each other’s humanity.  But there’s a wonderful opportunity for a virtuous circle here.  Our efforts to understand each other can have the effect of enhancing the possibility of our understanding each other, as our encounter encourages us each to see the other as a person, like oneself.

And this leads me to something I’ve been thinking about a lot, lately — ironically, it’s the profound danger in the opportunities for “dialogue” apparently offered by the Internet.  And I certainly see the irony in making this point as a comment to a blog post!  But I’ll bet you’ve seen what I have in mind — scroll down the comments attached to blogs on important issues, and you typically confront the polar opposite of dialogue.  It is very hard to imagine healthy adults saying these things to each other in person.

This is a commonplace, but it seems increasingly true: By facilitating communication between strangers, disconnected from mutual human presence, the Web seems to foster the depersonalization, if not the outright demonization, of the people with whom one is communicating.  Nothing in the situation of a comment thread imposes any demand that anyone acknowledge that anyone else deserves the basic respect we almost automatically accord to people in our physical surroundings.  This is not simply an impediment to genuine dialogue on the Web, at least the free-wheeling Web of unmoderated, public boards.  What is even more disturbing is the idea that the norms that are being fostered on the Web might be spilling over, becoming a kind of standard for the way to express disagreement in public discussions.

In another part of her post Lessa makes some really great suggestions about how public events that are meant to promote dialogue can be structured to make them better occasions for dialogue.  I wonder what she — or other people in the Xenia world — might think would be good ways to structure Web-based discussion opportunities to foster the spirit of dialogue.  Having discussions moderated is one solution — but it has some disadvantages too.  What might be other ways to cultivate actual dialogue on the web, that wouldn’t compromise (or compromise as little as possible) its openness and freedom?

(Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images) Content © 2010 Getty Images All rights reserved.

Walmart has taken heat from racism critics after a photo surfaced on the web showing two Barbie Dolls side by side, one black doll selling for three dollars and one white doll selling for six dollars.  Advocates, such as Thelma Dye, the executive director of the Northside Center for Child Development, have critiqued the decision of Walmart due to the potential psychological effect on children seeing that a white Barbie costs twice that of a black Barbie.  Her comments have received a backlash from others who see Walmart’s actions as either inconsequential or reflective of a societal problem, not a corporate one.

The Powers That Be | Instead of coming to a basic understanding of human behavior and economics simultaneously — which is that white kids are more likely to buy white dolls and black kids are more likely to buy black dolls, and this particular Wal-Mart more than likely has more white shoppers buying the white dolls — this is becoming yet another race issue.

Econ 101 says that when a product isn’t moving, the price goes down until it sells, but some minority leaders might want to think twice before setting a bad precedent by intimidating stores into increasing the price of products targeted to minorities.

Jezebel | Sociological Images co-author Gwen Sharp suggests that maybe black Ballerina Theresas don’t sell well because they just look like re-painted Barbies: “Maybe for both parents and kids, it seems more real and less symbolic of a change to have a doll that actually presents a range of attractive features rather than ‘Oh we’ve changed the skin tone slightly.’” And Mattel says its “So In Style” line — dolls “designed to better resemble black women’s facial features” — has received a “great response.” Still, just as Barbie dolls continue to reflect institutional sexism with their unrealistic representation of the female body (a baby-face-plus-big-boobs representation that’s become especially popular in an age that incongruously demands both extreme youth and sexual availability), so too the relative “values” placed on black dolls reflect the ways black women are often devalued.

Rod Dreher – Beliefnet| Seriously, it’s heartbreaking that any black child would think that the whiteness of a person’s or a doll’s skin makes them more beautiful or worthy. That is a problem we have to work on as a society. But forcing Walmart, or any retailer, to ignore what their customers are telling them in order to preserve a moralistic fiction is not the way to go. Faulting Walmart’s discounting policy here is a good way to convince retailers not to stock any black dolls at all, for fear that they won’t be able to treat those products like any other and discount them if they don’t sell, on pain of being called racially insensitive.

On the Web…

Consuming Pop Culture While Feminist: Disney’s The Little Mermaid | Feministing

The Little Mermaid is, quite simply, a feminist’s worst nightmare. This movie is about, as a very wise friend of mine once put it, a young woman who gives up her voice to get a pair of legs so that she can snare a man. It’s about the triumph of “good” women – young, slender, silent and lovesick – over “bad” women – old, voluptuous, outspoken and sexual. It’s about a young woman forced to choose between her father’s world and her husband’s world, and there is nothing in between. And there’s the unsettling fact that the song “Kiss the Girl” tells us that the “one way to ask” if a woman wants you to kiss her, is to just kiss her.

Surviving Without a Safety Net | Truthdig

Obama has made concessions to the right, which wants to destroy him. The left has written him off. With a good sense of what this country is about, he continues to steer a perilous course between them. His efforts to pass an economic stimulus, health care reform, a modest jobs bill and extensions of unemployment and COBRA benefits have left him weakened. In the end, he may leave the arena bloody and exhausted, but I believe he will succeed. The president is edging forward under a backbreaking load that was heaped upon his shoulders when he entered office. As Irv Feldman told Walter Thomas, the old Tuskegee airman, “Thank you for your service, sir.”

When Bishops Play Politics| Newsweek

They see themselves as crusaders for human rights—protectors of the innocent, the voiceless, and the powerless. After years of enduring the slings and arrows of opposition, these activists are finally in the power seat. They are among the most important voices on a crucial political question: will abortion finally scuttle health-care reform?

They are America’s Roman Catholic bishops.

Three Proven Steps to Advance the World’s Women | NYT Nicholas Kristof

First, I think girls’ education may be the single most cost-effective kind of aid work. It’s cheap, it opens minds, it gives girls new career opportunities and ways to generate cash, it leads them to have fewer children and invest more in those children, and it tends to bring women from the shadows into the formal economy and society. It’s not a panacea, of course. Lebanon and Sri Lanka were leaders in girls’ education, and both ended up torn apart by conflict. In India, the state of Kerala has done a fine job in girls’ education, but its state economy is still a mess and dependent on remittances. But overall, educating girls probably has a greater transformative effect on a country than anything else one can do.

However, my heart rejoices to tell you that I have been hired on with the same campaign to work as the Press Secretary.  I have been on the job for about 10 days now and I am still very excited.  Our primary is June 8th so we have about three months of lead up before the election.  Because of my involvement as a staff person on the campaign, I have to temporarily forgo my reflections on the process.  It wouldn’t be quite right for me to be reflecting from the position as a staff person.  Maybe I will have some reflections after the race has run its course but until then I will be blogging on other topics.  Thanks for reading.

But wait, there’s more!  I cannot help but write a few words about the difference between being staff and being a volunteer, in the most general sense.

First, the boundaries are much harder to define.  When I was working as a volunteer, I only worked the time I had and if it did not work with my schedule, that meant that I could not be there.  Now I schedule things around the campaign and there are campaign events almost every night.  Therefore, making plans for anything personal is very difficult.

Second, spending time with the same group of people day in and day out is exhausting.  I see my fellow staff and core volunteers more than I see my housemates and I spend about twice as many hours in the day with them as I do sleeping.  I know that by the end of the campaign, I will be on their last nerve and they will be on mine.  But, spending all that time together also results in strong bonds.  We’re there to encourage one another.  Example: Yesterday three of my coworkers went to Panda Express, the Chinese restaurant literally around the corner from the office.  “Do you want anything?” one of them asked.  Jokingly I said, “yeah, I’ll take your fortune cookie.”  When they arrived back thirty minutes later I received three fortune cookies, one from each of them.  Indeed, we go to Panda Express so often I’ve started collecting the fortunes and taping them to my laptop screen.  The two fortunes added today say, “BEAUTIFUL THINGS AWAIT YOU” and “NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO FINISH OLD TASKS.”  I have more to add.  I know that these will be long month and looking up at encouraging words (even fortune cookie wisdom) delivered from friendly hands will keep me trudging on.

Third, I am perpetually exhausted.  Any political race is daunting and ours is no different.  The sheer amount of work to be done seems almost unachievable in such a short period of time.  I also had the wisdom to start work and move across town on the same day, which led to me shoving books and knick knacks into boxes while fielding calls from my candidate and my campaign manager.  Then all my possessions spent several days in boxes while I worked 15 hour days to try and get my bearings.  I pushed myself on Saturday (first day off) to unpack and organize everything.  Sunday morning I woke up with a cold.  Such is life, at least for the next three months, and hopefully beyond.

That is all for my campaign reflections.  I look forward to filling you in after the race has been run (and won).

Woman symbol Content © 2010 Jupiter Images All rights reserved.

March is dedicated as Women’s History Month, starting off with International Women’s Day, March 8, 2010. In honor of that occasion, below are some of the recent stories focusing on the status of women in Oklahoma…

Oklahoma House of Representatives | OKLAHOMA CITY (March 2, 2010) — Legislation creating a pilot program that seeks to establish reentry and diversion programs to allow nonviolent offender mothers to receive community-based services in lieu of incarceration unanimously passed the House today.

House Bill 2998, by Rep. Kris Steele, would encourage re-entry and diversion programs as opposed to jail time for nonviolent female offenders in allow them to receive rehabilitative services while maintaining contact with their children.

Oklahoma incarcerates more women than any other state in the nation. Its incarceration rate for women is 131 per 100,000 residents, almost twice the national average of 69 per 100,000.

Most women prison inmates, 68 percent, are in prison for nonviolent offenses.

“This bill will give women convicted of nonviolent crimes access to community-based rehabilitative services that have proven effective,” said Steele, R-Shawnee. “As policy-makers, we can be both tough and smart on crime. The average prison stay for nonviolent women is less than a year, but the impact on their children is lifelong and devastating. In-home rehabilitative services will keep these families together and allow Oklahoma women to receive the help they desperately need.”

The bill passed the House with a vote of 92-0 and will next be considered by the Senate.

Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library | The month of March is Women’s History Month. Between the years of 1907 and 2008 only 77 women have been elected to the Oklahoma Legislature. As of February 2009, 46 of these remarkable women have shared their stories as part of the Women of the Oklahoma Legislature Oral History Project.

Since 2006, Associate Professor/Oral History Librarian Tanya Finchum of Oklahoma State University embarked on a project to capture and record information about women who have served or are currently serving in the Oklahoma Legislature. Within the Oklahoma State University Library website, a website was launched in February 2009. The website is a culmination of her work and includes transcripts, audio excerpts, and memorabilia collected as a result of interview efforts. The web address is http://www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/wotol/.

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence | Domestic Violence in Oklahoma:

Oklahoma Law enforcement agencies answer an average of 15, 000 domestic violence calls each year….

Oklahoma currently ranks 10th nationally for the number of women murdered by males. Among cases where the relationship between the victim and offender was known, 91% of perpetrators were known by the victim.

According to a study conducted by the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of  Battered Women, nearly 3/4 of women incarcerated in Oklahoman state prisons reported being physically abused at some point in their lifetime.

Nearly 20 percent of Oklahoma high school students have reported being hit, slapped, or physically hurt by their boyfriend or girlfriend; this is compared to the 9 percent of all students nation wide.

The rate of dating violence for Oklahoma ninth graders is more than three times the national average, at the rate of 26 percent for Oklahoma freshmen, compared to 8 percent nationwide.

New OK | Budget problems have caused cutbacks statewide in services to women who are victims of domestic violence or sexual assault, officials say.

“It hurts my heart,” said Marcia Smith, executive director of the state Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. “Demand for help is up, but budget problems are forcing some services to go away.”

About 29 state-supported programs offer help to domestic violence and sexual assault victims, Smith said. All of them have experienced a 10 percent cut in funds for the past two months, on top of 5 percent funding cuts every month since July.

“It’s too much for them to absorb,” Smith said.

Huffington Post | Anti-choice legislators in Oklahoma are experts on at least two things: waste and distraction. After repeatedly introducing laws – and having them overturned by the courts for being unconsitutional – that do nothing more than force government intrusion into the professional lives of physicians and the personal lives of women seeking reproductive health care, they continue to waste taxpayer time and money by ignoring constitutional rules.

Yesterday, a bill that may be unconstitutional sailed through the OK House and is on its way to the Senate. It would force physicians performing abortions to narrate an ultrasound description to the pregnant woman on whom the ultrasound is being performed. This was one week after an Oklahoma district court ruled unconstitutional a 2009 law that created a public web site where doctors would be forced to publish personal information on women who have had abortions (including their names and the reason for their abortions). And now the Oklahoma Supreme Court confirmed the ruling of a lower court that mandatory viewing of ultrasounds is unconstitutional putting to rest a 2008 law that would have forced women to view the ultrasound of their pregnancy prior to receiving an abortion…

Astoundingly, the bill passed the OK House without a question or a discussion, despite this history of wasting taxpayer time and money by passing unconstitutional laws and then having them overturned.

Best of the web…

Senators: Lift Ban on Gays Donating Blood  |  365 Gay News

The senators said that while hospitals and emergency rooms are in urgent need of blood products, “healthy blood donors are turned away every day due to an antiquated policy and our blood supply is not necessarily any safer for it.”

Brian Moulton, chief legislative counsel for the Human Rights Campaign,the nation’s largest gay rights group, said they are hopeful that the policy, last reviewed in 2006, will change under President Barack Obama, “who is interested in looking at all the policies that have a discriminatory effect.” The goal, he said, is “to have policies in place that are based on the science” rather than “any discriminatory idea about our community.”

One in three killed by US drone strikes is a civilian  |  The Raw Story

The US military has used drones to attack suspected terrorists in Pakistan since at least 2004. Proponents of the small, unmanned planes say they are capable of “surgical strikes” that reduce civilian casualties and effectively combat terrorism.

Is that true? Well, not really, according to a new report from the New America Foundation, a non-profit research institute.

The percentage of civilians killed by drones in Pakistan is at about 32 percent, or one out of three, the report states, and the strikes themselves have little effect in deterring terrorist activities in either Pakistan or Afghanistan. Researchers do not believe any of the reported strikes targeted Osama bin Laden.

Ford’s First EV Isn’t Sexy, But It’s Smart  |  Wired

Ford’s first mass-market electric vehicle isn’t a sexy sports car. It isn’t a sleek sedan. And it isn’t cool compact. It’s a van. A delivery van, to be exact, designed specifically for fleet use. It isn’t the sexiest way to break into the electric arena, but it’s a smart move for Ford and a logical place for EVs.

Ford rolled into San Francisco with one of the Transit Connect Electric vans that goes on sale at the end of the year. It isn’t much to look at — a big box on wheels with a definite European flair — but it offers 80 miles of range and charges in as little as six hours. Ford is offering it only its big fleet customers for now but opens the order book next year for anyone who wants one.

By Vicki J. Schaeffer
Xenia fellow

“People talking without speaking; people hearing without listening.” These classic song lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel echoed through my brain as I watched the four-part video series on “What is Dialogue?” Wait a minute … shouldn’t an institute that promotes dialogue encourage listening and hearing, as well as speaking and talking?! Of course they should, and The Xenia Institute does just that! And these videos are proof of that. They encourage us to think about a definition of dialogue that will insure a transformation as we go out and talk with each other.

I must confess that as I watched these for the first time, knowing that I had been asked to write about them, I found myself doing one of the many things that can cause dialogue to breakdown. As I heard the words, I wasn’t listening. I was thinking about my reactions to what was being said and forming the words that should have become the opening sentences of this article. Once the “Sounds of Silence” started playing in my head (I’m a musician … that happens often!) I realized that I was missing the point. As soon as I became quiet and truly listened, the thoughts being expressed by the speakers came to life. The opening sentences became much clearer at that point.

At the risk of sounding like a political pundit on a cable news show, allow me to give you some sound bites to think about as you watch the videos. (I promise I will not tell you what to think, as the cable shows do; and we will just have to wait and see if the opposing side presents their views!)

Dialogue requires us to “suspend our own point of view.” Does this mean we have to totally ignore our own beliefs? Of course not! (I only said I wouldn’t tell you what to think; I never said I wouldn’t offer my opinion!) In order to make dialogue successful, we must be willing and able to approach it with an open mind. Once that happens, it is easier for the transformation to happen.

Dialogue often fails because we tend to “focus on the things that set us apart.”  Instead of seeing our similarities, we are too quick to point out our differences. All one has to do is look at political or religious conversations today to see this happening. Living in the “Age of Jabber,” we are constantly surrounded by “shouting heads.” With all of this noise going on, is it any wonder that we cannot be in dialogue with one another?

As I continue to explore my own dialogue journey, I have become increasingly aware of how similar dialogue and music are. As an organist, I must not only play the notes that on the page, but I must also be aware of the silent places. Being able to “play” the rests allows the full chords of the pipe organ to fill the space of the cathedral, without blending one into another to create noise. Likewise, in true dialogue, I must learn to be silent and let another’s words fill the space. Once that has been allowed to happen, the chance that harmony will eventually occur is increased.  As you watch and listen to these videos, allow the whispered sounds of silence and words to lead you into a place of transforming dialogue.

Peace to all on your journey …