The Right Tone 9|11 10 years later

There is lots of Special Media coverage about the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The themes range from “Where are they now? to “What do you remember of that day?” with a few ‘in-depth” reports on health & well-being of survivors. In commercial television the question of ‘not to appear to be exploiting the events for financial gain’ is the primary challenge. But for Community Access Channels the question to be asked is “What does the public believe about the events of 9/11?” With the bountiful programming on the truths of devastation; there is little mass media attention given to ideas that raise questions about the ‘truths’ about the devastations root cause.

The heartfelt sadness over the loss that day and each day in subsequent acts of war are where; as the President often says “Americans share a common ground.” But the principals of democracy are also where we are to share a common ground and in this regard – the freedom to question or inform on the root cause of this need for national grief is vital to our nationhood.

Public Television will commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11 with programs honoring the heroes, victims, and enduring spirit of New Yorkers. Public Access television will represent the community and diversity of ideas to the extent content was developed or acquired by citizens of Wallingford.

Sometimes it is challenging to sift out what is myth, magic, conspiracy or transparency in the information available today. Someone who is willing to die for the right to think and say what one wishes – could feel compromised if that means enabling someone who passionately holds facts and concerns about conspiracy to distribute such views. Similar challenges arise with Hate Speech – is there a line to be crossed or drawn? But the American idea of Free Speech assumes that it is not ‘allowing people to promote ideas & dialogue about concerns’ that weaken the bonds of society – not the speech itself.

WPAA-TV is dedicating the date 9/11 to 9/11 related content from 9AM to Midnight. The content includes information about Holy Joes Café, Yellow Ribbons, poems, etching, songs, bells, bagpipes, services, photographs as well as a Movie: Severe-Visibility written and directed by Paul Cross. This movie handles, in a profoundly compassionate way, the tensions felt by patriotic Americans that question the transparency of government. It can stand alone as a Movie – with a conspiracy theory theme. However, It is based on a true personal account –following his look at the Pentagon crash site one day after the attack.

It was also produced on a low budget and is a benchmark for excellence for local producers seeking to tell a compelling story, whatever the topic. Whether you believe the U.S. Army Major in this story is a hero or anti-hero the movie may be just what you need to see to determine what it is you can allow yourself to believe about 9|11.

The 90 Minute Movie Severe-Visibility will play Sept 11 at 9:30 AM; 6:30 PM, 9:00PM and 10:30 PM WPAA-TV. WPAA-TV is available in Wallingford on Comcast 18, statewide on ATT-99 and on the Internet at WPAA.TV

Insight -- that wakes me with a to do list

Seeking informing content for the WPAA-TV 2011 celebration of Free Speech Week Oct 17-23rd has been my latest distraction. The outcomes have been inspiring, at least to me.

Outcomes: Permission to schedule starting in Sept the film Severe Visibility, a dramatization of a theory on 911 events for 911 10th anniversary programming; and from 10.15.11 and 12.3.11 the documentary (Tradesman: Making an Art of Work). This program compliments the celebration of contributions by local tradesmen who volunteered to renovate the 1924 Barn into a Community Access TV studio/Black Box Theater in the face of public naysayers.

In process: An idea. Illustrate the power of alternative media. How: Do a local video capture of opinions and the power of informing those opinion holders with alternate media with an in-house event at 28 So. Orchard St. Open House Event: House Party at the Home of Free Speech serving Hot Coffee with the potential participation in Talk Back of one of my favorite commentator's on media.

1. Purchased 2 DVDs based on the permissions and prepared Guarantor Paperwork
2. Locate contact info and used it to reconnect with Prof. Paul Janensch
3. Started inquiry permissions process for the movie Hot Coffee on Civil Justice which is now showing on HBO. (I highly recommend viewing this work. It informs well. It may inspire you to take action. Stella is a hero. Director Susan Saladoff has a great sense of story. Bravo! This work should be on '50 Documentaries To See Before You Die' which is now showing on Current TV.

October will be busy as the play Cracked Upon a Time will be performed by PIECE Theater at Living Theater Oct 13 - 22. studioW volunteers will be doing video capture of this WPAA-TV partner event. This play was staged at studioW at WPAA in Dec 2010 as the 1st performance event in the new facility to an awed crowd. Another must see.

Good Friday - No Fool this April

Making some changes.
Making and thereby doing.
Making connection in the service of others.
Making a legacy.
Making a difference.

To the passive aggressive self professed benevolent dictator - not your patsy any more.

Transparency,,,here we come.

Mute Button no longer clickable.

As requested

sometimes an image speaks too much truth, sometimes not enough.

This week truth, and its manner of telling, was once again in the news. Illusion, does it serve truth? Inference, does it serve truth? Timing, does it serve truth?

Truth as a value, ideal and object of pursuit is too often blurred, sacrificed, obscured. This week I let the whirl go by except for this little reflection: I grow tired of the abundance of misinformation.

Really productive serendipity

When I selected serendipity as one of my labels, the voices in my head said blogs can breed LIKEthink and this label will be a reminder that your intentions include making chance connections that could influence your destiny in actions or words. I do not associate or bond well. My people interaction is based on in-common stuff: work, certain interests, life circumstances. In this I am not alone. And in this in-common I do select bonding levels – most often shallow levels. I tend to focus on the tasks, prefer observation and often lead out of frustration. I have good friend qualities for emergencies but no one calls me just to chat. No one. To blog is to let the voices in my head chat and it kicks up the dust on dopamine the feel-good neurotransmitter. Maybe it will improve my conversational skills. There are bloggers I have come to enjoy thru their words (Amy) and actions (Jason). There are others that will be revealed as I work the RSS technology of this world.

But as these conversations occur I do notice that the in-common stuff among people can breed – good and bad. I was reminded in the overheard conversations about politics this week about in-common bad. I will connect an old essay here on this distraction at some point.

Callouts: This past week I had a small victory in the in-common world of Community Access TV and a moment of awkwardness in the in-common world of work. The victory: successfully getting clarification with DPUC docket 08-04-09. For more than a decade, some volunteers were being held hostage by power tactics that included fear of reprisals and threats of underwriting changes. Truth had a small victory. The awkwardness: a public description of me. While it shared that my values and skills have made a difference there was large irony in that few folks will ever have such a lens on my life and work again because of my failure at the basic art of sustained conversation.

If I might be disrespectful….

Today I was out-of-order and publicly chastised for thanking two individuals for a courageous vote. It was partly the room and the dynamics. It is not like I was really trying to be rude or intending to be rude. In fact it was totally unintended this rude thing. It was probably more rude to consider my gesture rude. The intention was to respect the efforts of the community of volunteers that worked hard to serve their community but failed to get serious consideration because of agendas. So my actions were declared rude because they disrupted control and a façade of decorum.

If I could have slipped the thank-you note down the aisle I would have considered it…but that was not an option. A smile or wink could not be seen. And the gesture was a public one intentionally.

A few weeks prior teachers and parents actually were disrespectful, but they were not chastised. They were a mob and some behaved as such and most were not informed at all about the process for which they were gathered. How many votes needed or how the agenda works.

But what was rude was 8 years of service and one phone call demanding a public admission of an error I did not make. No this was actually malevolent.

What is worse than rude is lying. And my accuser is certainly confirmed as that.

What is even more significant is that personal attacks from a true fraud were part of the larger dynamic. In the last election I changed my vote for two people who are now serving as Town Councilors. Even with candidates of my choice failing to win I have never felt I voted wrongly. But two people on my local Town Council have shown me what two faces mean and at least next time around I know clearly who will not be getting my vote. And I just may be motivated to share this opinion widely.

Would I have done anything differently tonight - Nope.

ps. I have this thing about pictures being informing. A picture of me at a microphone is pretty uninforming. So I prefer action shots. And I was trying to create action.

In a world that feels like this, haiku moments

I saw you tell her
She told him and he told me
My truth was not yours

Time displaces truth
Tumbling down the rabbit hole
I am far too late

Moments shine, brilliant
Teams play well together, share
dandelion dust

I asked for a few minutes of his time to help me capture the idea of miscommunication and the potential of teamwork in haiku...and he asks back

In your voice? And do you mean like the telephone game?

Moments later I am rewarded as I have been so many time with word touch. I can not claim to be a poet but I did birth one. Blessings.

the error of our ways, my daily bread

Today this email tag-line quote caught my attention because it spoke truth to me "From error to error one discovers the entire truth" — Sigmund Freud. The quote is in the world on several lists of notable quotes.

I am reminded that as a child I hoped to be quoted in Reader's Digest when I grew up. I have not scratched this notion off my life list. Such an honor represented wisdom and fame, today it represents a list that I value because of its accessibility.

These days I wish that my typos were less predictable and that the communist plot to make us all alike idea, inspired by the standardization of communication represented by the typewriter, never entered my 10 year old mind. I never learned to type and it is required of me daily. So I fumble and err along this path of life touching a keypad that is almost as foreign to me today as it was in mandatory typing class circa 1970. Hands and eyes do not coordinate and the mind is always full speed ahead so as never to be caught up.

My day job is full of root cause analysis of errors; and errors have been steadily informing my work because errors force me to see alternate views in data, process, behavior. So the error to error concept about the discovery of truth feels real. I valued its appearance in my day. Some days I just wish there were less errors to contend with. Other days I appreciate the skill sets of doctors, pilots, engineers, all the more because soft jobs can more safely survive if not error-free.

Some days I believe strongly that poems can not have errors? Those days are fewer and I claim less the error free moments in art. In art error reveals differently, right. Or is that a spin on errors begetting truth? Can a body politic learn lessons from errors in history or is error a perspective and therefore a version of truth? I believe that errors have nine lives much the same way my cat has 99 lives. Now that is an error the cat can live with until 100. I think poems attract me because no one can say with certainty if there is an error in a poem. Sometimes poems become quotable. So back to the quote, is its value conferred by the number of lists it has succeeded to reside within or the kindled at the root of its original inspiration and again each time it is read. Quotes definitely out spawn poems. Do error out spawn truth?

Well I have errors to recover from so blogging off now is my truth.