Playlist: Bad Internet 101: Moral Development for Cyberspace
Compiled By: Susan J. Cook
The ethical problems of the Internet are not new to humankind. We just need to recognize they've found a new petri dish.Essays and insights for everyday use.
In the Country of Facebook. Hey, Wait a Minute. Facebook Is Not a Country!
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 08:21
On the Fresh Air episode, "For Facebook Content Moderators, Traumatizing Material is a Job Hazard", a Silicon Valley journalist plumbed Facebook's nascent acknowledgement of its product's dangers. And its efforts to be more ethically astute. Hmmm... Which part?
In the Country of Facebook- Hey, Wait a Minute- Facebook is Not a Country
Facebook is not a country. The exponential math of the internet that creates its expansive unlimited access to anonymous individuals makes it seem like one at times. It is a corporation, that lives or dies by the money it makes. Just like corporations that made products that later were identified as dangerous like agent Orange, Thalidomide, the Corvair, or DDT, Facebook has been slow to acknowledge the damage of its product. Mark Zuckerberg hinted at that evasion during the 2016 Election season when, as questions arose about deceptive Facebook political messaging, he went Live posting Himself smoking a goat on his patio. Get it?
On the Fresh Air episode, "For Facebook Content Moderators, Traumatizing Material is a Job Hazard", a Silicon Valley journalist plumbed Facebook's nascent acknowledgement of its product's dangers. They have hired $15.00 an hour Quality Analysts to delete unacceptable posts. having noticed that, yes, human beings use words and images to verbally abuse and exploit others and posture power. It is almost like they now enter into Moral Sensibility Media. Of course, limiting abusive content posts is only part of the problem. Passive bystanders who see the post, absorb the image or words, are part of the damage Facebook creates. The passive bystander murderers in Myanmar , remember, were perpetrators Facebook could not control because looking does not create a digital stamp that tells you which individual's awareness was invaded by the post. The boundaries of hearing, receiving are not addressed by merely making decisions about good or bad posts and those analysts are not being veted as "universal moral arbiters". The power of Third Reich that drove the Holocast also came from the proliferation of anti-Jewish messages paraded in front of passive bystanders who when they received it, were effected and/or damaged by it.
Now they play catch-up. Their sea of minimum wage-earning auditors are tasked with - what in another breath- Facebook suggests requires "Supreme Court-like" profound thinking . The journalist said "...While we pay these folks as if the work is low-skill labor.. it [requires] very high-skilled labor because they are making these very nuanced judgemnts about the boundaries of speech in the Internet..." . The journalist said " Not all of [the content] is benign though] because it turns out, "[For the content reviewers] there is something traumatizing about vewing these images. .." "There is no policy that can account for every imaginable variation.. [of a violent, pornographic, and hate-speech laden Facebook posts]. " "My hope is...by devolving some of the power these tech companies have back to the people,,,we can bring some semblance of democracy to what will always remain private companies..." .." And here is the kicker "I think we're really kind of having one of the great reckonings over free speech globally that we've had in a long time. And there isn't one great answer. it's always a question of, how are you going to manage all of the trade-offs?'
Identifying "freedom of speech" as the liberty on the line ignores the abusive impact on the passive bystander. People have suicided after reading Facebook posts targetted at them, not only because they read it but because of awareness that a large bystander group anonymous to them sees it too and they are powerless to shut it down .
Pre-meditation might have led them to use their technology (they have it) to let every user know exactly who the members of the universe are who would see their post and then make an informed choice about whether or not to post. They did this ineffectively- not restricting friends of friends' access to posts let alone public posts. Just as Dow Chemical Company de-emphasized the impact on just one Vietnam veteran of Agent Orange exposure , DDT makers did not pre-meditate how one nesting Bald Eagle could be the perpetrator who crushes the shell of an unhatched nestling, Facebook has minimized "the one person"who sends in a complaint and recieves the "this doesn't reach the level of our standard of abuse" automatic reply and the passive bystander- the Facebook voyeur- replicating that damage. Even while they act to limit the damage of their "unlimited access" product, Facebook still are tries to keep hidden abuses of their product they uncover. Even now, the newly hired content reviewers must sign "non-disclosure agreements."
A marker at a private school I walk by memorializes a 14 year old boy who suicided . It reads, "There should be a way so that everybody could know everybody." Knowing each other and knowing who your posts are reaching might solve some of the damage Facebook's unlimited access creates. It is not one that minimum wage Quality Analyst hiring solves, even as Fresh Air tells us, Facebook is considering a Supreme Court- like Content Advisory Board to make final judgement on content decisions. Remember, even Supreme Court decisions often give weight to one plaintiff in deference to a repeatedly tested document- the Constitution.
So Independence Day in our real country celebrates our measure of democracy which includes everyone, a happenstance of place offering humane protection through a Bill of Rights for every single one of us. One way to assess whether a society is just is see whether those at the top of the social hierarchy are treated with the same dignity and fairness as those at the bottom. Facebook has not figured out how to do that- even as exploitation of anonymity and unlimited access are exploited NOT just by those posting but by the passive unidentified bystanders too who use it to gain power over others.
Teaching A Computer to Find You- A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:29
Internet anonymity now is presented as ‘the standard’ . But being anonymous when online really is optional . If like many other human activities, anonymous engagement on the Internet required mutual consent, many of our new Internet ‘problems’ might soon end.
-Susan Cook-
Misinformation
Unsolicited Pornography
Dangerous Chat Rooms
Trolling and Smearing
Financial Scams
Spam
Bullying
False Information
Computer Viruses, Worms, Bots
Identify Theft
The Ethics of Facebook
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:49
The ethical challenge for Facebook has been to re-create the ethics of community where there are real consequences for using information in a destructive way within the community. Facebook has not yet figured out what those should be and why ignoring ethical considerations is not trivial. They have known for at least 3 years how difficult they make it for users to "block information sharing" with apps. I know that because I wrote to them and told them that, then wrote this for my prx.org series.
Long, long way to go to make sound ethics for the cyber world.On Facebook, in particular.
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- The Ethics of Facebook
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- Susan J. Cook
The Ethics of Facebook -Susan Cook-
One day, about 3 1/2 years ago, I went on Facebook to try to block information sharing, what people can acquire and take with them in their apps if you are linked to them. I wanted nothing to be shared. A Nothingburger, as we now say. The instructions to do that are the most ambiguous blocking instructions ever- in a section where there are a series of “categories” of information that you do not want someone who has an app linked to your account to share. What is left out of the instruction is whether you have to check the box or leave it unchecked to not have the information shared. Wouldn’t you think the first verb in the instructions would be “check” or “uncheck”?
My thought is "Do not put the person who wrote that sentence in charge of nuclear war button instructions." But that brought to mind the ethics of Facebook and their problems.
Information can be nuclear war; in fact, these days- it is the preferred approach or deterrent. Mark Zuckerberg and his friends seem to have a short-sightedness kind of like the physicists who invented the atomic bomb who did not see its capacity for unparalleled destructiveness. Einstein did. The unethical destructiveness of information used to be tempered by community or in the absence of community an understanding that even the people who wrote the Bill of Rights had. People have a right to privacy. Facebook by using the word” friends” to describe those you let in gives the illusion of community but it lacks the ability to temper or provide the ethical mediation that a real community has. Because it’s cyber- not real- it doesn’t really temper. The ethical challenge for Facebook has been to re-create the ethics of community where there are real consequences for using information in a destructive way. within the community. Facebook certainly doesn’t get harmed or feel the consequences. They have not yet figured out what those should be and why they are not trivial to prevent.
We can’t just blame the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world because using information destructively is glibly accepted as part of our culture, certainly our political culture, in “gotcha politics”.
In a recent Congressional race, the candidate hired as a spokesperson a staffer who at one point had made her primary agenda searching for destructive information she could use to harm another person. She stood in front of a major gathering of possible supporters of the candidate and mentioned trying to find the married name of an individual she was focused on tarnishing. And the political party paid her to do it.
No one batted an eye. So if Facebook has a big blind spot so don’t “gotcha” politicians and their hired hands. who do not see how using information destructively( to tarnish, harm, humiliate) undermines community and certainly at times, destroys it. In rural areas, community is a saving grace because the people you are trying to harm today may be the people who you need to stop and help when you have a flat tire, tomorrow, when emergency road-side services are one hundred miles away. Cyber communities will never do that . Yes they can send a message but the members of them can disappear in a second and will not be driving by you the next day. They can be as far away as they like. The cyber person stopping to help if is not the same as the real person in the real community who knows the translation of “do unto others” is they might need roadside assistance tomorrow. Facebook is a long way from translating these ethics of community into ethics for the cyber world. Let’s hope Facebook and “gotcha politics” for that matter catch up with the ethics of community, and stop pretending they are good candidates to be the “spokesperson” . Their blind spot about the destructive use of information undermines communities and the privacy the game-changer politicians who wrote the Bill of Rights were talking about.
Honoring the Dead, the Bardo and Facebook Voyeurs
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:10
Honoring those who have died, as we witness in the display of remembrance of Senator McCain and Aretha Franklin and, near me, a young Buddhist, includes protection of who and what they loved, touched, tasted, felt, experienced, wore. The last, of course, is what the Dalai Lama referred to when he was asked about death, and remarked "Different clothes."
Honoring the Dead. the Bardo and Facebook Voyeurs
-Susan Cook-
I went to the 49 day ritual of a recently died Buddhist friend. He was a 38 year old who astonished the 30- somethings in the sangha- the Buddhist fellowship- by showing up in his mid teen years hoping to meditate. Someone that age fending off all of the usual unhelpful adolescent distractions who seeks out meditation and Buddhist practice seems serious about their quest for enlightenment. It would seem that samsara- the anguished hatred and cruelty of the world- would be more deftly kept at bay. He moved toward and away from Buddhist practice- over and over- sometimes reappearing completely transformed from a skinny gangly kid to a young man with huge biceps- a reincarnate gym afficianado. He suffered, still.
Buddhists believe in reincarnation- they really believe in reincarnation. This body is impermanent- the bare essentials of the soul- the fury or its energy are not. I once heard a Buddhist teacher talk about a fellow monastic who often said he was going to dissemble the Soviet Union . When Gorbachev came along, the other monastics silently acknowledged whose consciousness they witnessed.
The 49 day ritual marks the time when rebirth takes place and the person's next incarnation emerges, another go for enlightenment. The time between death and rebirth is spent in the Bardo (or gap) where six different instructions on how to achieve liberation are experienced. Hearing, wearing, seeing, remembering, tasting and touching give the person "sudden glimpses" of enlightenment. Prayerful recitation, before a shrine on which the person's picture is placed along with flowers, incense and some of their favorite foods is the liturgy. At the end, the person's picture is burned, symbolizing the liberation of consciousness.
For this young Italian , pepperoni, salami, and chocolate chip cookies were placed on the shrine, things he had liked but now left behind.
The particulars of the Buddhist honoring of the dead comes to mind with the national rituals for Senator John McCain and Aretha Franklin. In Buddhism, the consciousness has left the earthly body, liberated to seek its next manifestation or incarnation.
There are so many reasons to grieve the transition of these individuals. Who hasn't hoped for Aretha Franklin to forever record new material or new versions of her old songs; for Senator McCain's higher principle and dignity to prevail in the US Senate. Consciousness which for each them was as clear as the resonance of the gong Buddhists ring att he beginning and end of each meditation session has, at the end of 49 days, in Buddhist theism, found its next manifestation. It prevails, when we love who and what they loved, and resist and avoid those who harm and demean the people and things they loved.
To demean who they loved is to not honor the dead, if not to complicate the next incarnation of their consciousness.
Which brings us to Facebook and current techniques to suppress if not undo the manifestation of the person's consciousness by Facebook posters and Facebook voyeurs in particular. Those who drool and salivate as they read the casual, the cruel, the demeaning posts of others who will never be held accountable for their hostility- and the voyeaurs who view it passively- irresponsibly- compromise consciousness. It as if, in their voyeurism they believe themselves non-participants in the hostility, contempt, whatever it might be.
After the death of one family's patriarch, one of the offspring took on- for over 20 years- stealing and enabling the theft of the inheritance of close to a quarter of a million dollars from the other offspring. The offspring who carried out the stealing and demeaned the dead patriarchs had a revelation or perhaps just wanted to make herself feel better. Her solution? To friend on "Facebook"- I'm not kidding- the children whose parents she had stolen from- literally- as the children's parents lay dying, suffering from illnesses and disabling circumstance, that prevented them from ever being able to earn an income again.
Honoring the dead means loving what they loved rather than stealing from the offspring they loved or stealing the inheritance they left or demeaning them in death as they had been demeaned in life no matter what spiritual bardo they are traversing.
Privacy Rape, the Right to Be Free from Exploitation and Facebook
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:28
A recent Fresh Air interview with Heidi Schreck about the Supreme Court recognition of privacy as the premise for a woman's right to control her own body reminds me of a word I've been thinking about. "Privacy Rape".
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Privacy Rape, Facebook and the Right to Be Free From Exploitation
-Susan Cook-
I was listening to Heidi Schreck, the playwright whose Broadway production "What the Constitution Means To Me" discusses "How Women Have Been Profoundly Left Out of the Constitution", as the Fresh Air Heading says. Ms. Schreck talked us through the long arduous constitutional journey from the 1965 Supreme Court Ruling that finally legalized birth control for married women, to legalization of birth control for unmarried women to legalization of abortion in Roe vs. Wade. All 3 of those, decided by Supreme Court justices, all white men, whose premise is that the Constitution protects Privacy.
Ms. Schrek brought to mind a term I have been thinking about for some time. "Privacy Rape".
It's very clear that the public still doesn't get or perhaps laws and the Constitution still fail to protect Privacy: privacy of personal information, the privacy of the person, the privacy of what people do in their lives.
The casual oblivion to matters of privacy was exemplified in a message posted on Facebook by an Executive Director of a major political party directed to a significantly influential political organizer who previously was single-handedly responsible for the election and re-election of hundreds of Democrats from the largest Legislative district to the state Legislation. "We noticed you signed up to volunteer for GOTV. As you know, we've asked you not to volunteer with us anymore. That has not changed. Please don't come into our offices for GOTV." This a post ignoring Privacy violation to publicly shame let alone damage Reputation by an Executive Director giving herself permission to communicate using Facebook.
Privacy is and has been better acknowledged by other politicians, Senator Ted Kennedy in particular. He significantly influenced passage of the Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act which insures that patients are told about the limitations of information sharing, when the patient has not signed a Consent to Release. HIPPA specifically states that psychotherapy notes are off-limits to those seeking to access HIPPA-protected information, their exclusion hopefully the strength of Kevlar.
But the use of Facebook to casually exploit privacy (and abuse) is reflected in ongoing public permission to minimize privacy. The platform, after all, has repeatedly failed to legitimize complaints from users about personal abuses and the intrusions Facebook used to capitalize on private material as revenue.
Date Rape only became fully acknowledged form of sexual assault after it was given a name. The familiar, the seemingly socially solicitious becoming the sexual perpetrator. The guise of innocence is similarly postured by Facebook users who go onto engage in Privacy Rape or stand passively by as others engage in it too.
On Frontline recently, the Vice-President of Social Good at Facebook Naomi Gleit repeated the company's mission in the wake of the company now beginning to own up to the abuse and violence the platform's unique chemical mixture of anonymity and mathmatical exponents. "Bringing the world closer together" by doing good, she said, is the company's mission. Is it all in the past?
The quest for closeness through sharing information and listening to others is a human magnet for psychological intimacy. It is a magnet that can spiral into voyeurism and Privacy Rape much as physical touch can descend into Date Rape.
That Mark Zuckerberg's team, the company's beatific Vice President of Social Good and others did not consider that something called Privacy Rape could evolve out of anonymous , mathematical exponent-driven information sharing perplexes. History explains that human exploitation is preceded by social shaming, stigma creation and anonymous permission to ostracize. The isolation of Jews in pograms and ghettos came after generations of social stigmata, all of which gave way to exportation to concentration camps. The same could be said of Native Americans and their forced emigration to Reservations . Well-educated, privileged Facebook executives did not- and probably still don't grasp that their mission to create human connection does not undo the power of anonymity and math exponents. as lubricants of abuse.
Like generations before the Supreme Court privacy rulings, Facebook has ignored how their users posts might- and have evolved into- Privacy Rape. Their many, many "This post does not reach the level of abuse" automated replies to complaints echo- the sanctioning of violations of women's privacy- violations of a woman's bodies- violation of the right to privacy.
Despite repeated legal volleys- the Supreme Court has not backtracked on the Constitutional right to privacy. The surreptitious succoring of private information that Facebook freely engaged - like generations before them- says the temptations to transgress in secrecy - abusively- persists among the most privileged and innovative. And in the Facebook users who passively stand by as Privacy Rape continues without posting one word to stop it.
The Beginning of Mean: This Country's Epidemic of Permission For Meanness
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:01
The widespread permission in this country to be mean, to arm oneself to be as mean as possible is deeply alarming. The beginning of this permission to be mean, to use language to demean, to arm oneself with weapons, to act impulsively on meanness came from somewhere. No one would disagree that meanness in this country is rampant- violence and retribution over and over. Where the entitlement to be mean, to use mean to control , to act as if the meanness need not be accountable to any authority is a question we have a moral imperative in this country to answer.
Moral imperatives I think can be fostered by human experience. So my question becomes how does this country tell the truth about the meanness we find ourselves in and how do we use the truth to stop it.
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: Is Apple's Refusal to Open the I-phone An Egocentric Worldview
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:14
Today's Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks 'Since Apple claims they refuse the order to open the San Bernadino murderer's I-phone to respect the civil liberty privacy, has Apple noticed they ignore civil liberties by anchoring their business firmly in China- one of the world’s worst human rights violators and Apple doesn’t say a word to protest Chinese violations ? .Does Apple get it that because they don’t say a word about Chinese human rights violations, they passively support a government that doesn’t let adolescents refuse orders to open I-phones? If the order were in China , Apple’s big boss, little boss and medium bosses would be in jail by now, and wouldn’t have an I-phone or its software in their pocket to worry about until their jail sentences end?'
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry- Is Apple's Refusan to Open the I-phone an Egocentric Worldview -Susan Cook- As Apple refuses to open the San Bernadino murderer’s I-phone , is Apple seeing right and wrong like a 15 year old egocentric adolescent ? Doesn’t Apple’s argument ’We can make the software for just this case, but hackers will steal it and make it viral‘ sound like moral bankruptcy where right and wrong are all about what the adolescent wants when he wants it ? Since Apple claims they refuse the order to respect the civil liberty privacy, has Apple noticed they ignore civil liberties by anchoring their business firmly in China- one of the world’s worst human rights violators and Apple doesn’t say a word to protest Chinese violations ? .Does Apple get it that because they don’t say a word about Chinese human rights violations, they passively support a government that doesn’t let adolescents refuse orders to open I-phones? If the order were in China , Apple’s big boss, little boss and medium bosses would be in jail by now, and wouldn’t have an I-phone or its software in their pocket to worry about until their jail sentences end?
The Problem with Internet Search Engines: A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:37
Internet search engines have no way of taking context into consideration. The closest Google has come is to hone the search by user’s zip code, which is none of their business anyway. They have not, and probably won’t ever, come up with an algorithm able to take into account all the contextual features of the above scenario that would make the results as useful or irrelevant as possible. We have no way of knowing absolutely what is like for another person in their context but being a good observer of context and sorting through its relevance to our thinking is probably one of the things that has brought us to the top of the food chain. Thus this Citizen's Guide.
Myths, Proverbs and so on. The Sword of Damocles: A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:23
Quick and to the point! Citizens' Guides adapted from Greek myths, proverbs and so on.
The Sword of Damocles: A Citizen's Guide
-by Susan Cook-
Once in Greece, there lived a king, Dionysius. Many admired him for his wealth. One courtier, Damocles, admired him. Dionysius asked Damocles why he admired him. Damocles said he would like to do whatever he wished for a day like the king. Dionysius said tomorrow the next day Damocles would do that.
The next day Damocles was dressed in royal robes, he had fine food, and good entertainment. Suddenly he saw a sharp sword hanging from a thin thread hanging above his head. He asked why it was there. Dionysius replied, "I live with that sword above my head always." Damocles begged the king to take back his power. Damocles never did envy the king again.
COVER A
MYTHS A-
WRITING A-
SPELLING A-
Going Through the Checkout Line Alone, Anonymously Listening to Public Radio- A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:13
Amazon has announced they will soon launch an attempt to eliminate that pesky feature of day-to-day life- ‘the grocery store check-out employee’. Along with that, you will receive the pleasure of the barcode and the brief electronic sound to let you know your transaction has been successful.
This news comes not long after the public radio station in my state actually took away from the northern most part of the state classical music and poetry programming from the Public radio FM airwaves. They now are available only on something called HD radio or the Internet or a smartphone. They did not ask the anonymous population of listeners beforehand. On one morning in Maine in May, suddenly classical music and the enormously popular 5 minute Garrison Keillor's ‘The Writer’s Almanac’ disappeared from the used car’s FM radio and the household one.
Anonymous grocery checkout lines and yes, my state’s public radio pretense that the Internet is just as good for listening ignores the danger of anonymity. We are only anonymous when we let others treat us that way or we choose it for ourselves to protect ourselves. Shared human experience is human, after all, and sharing it is one way we learn how to be human.
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-Susan Cook-
What this public radio station and now Amazon celebrate with these Person-free experiences are- well- person-free experiences. Public radio offered by FM radio signal is an experience shared with other people. The shared experience creates- well, let’s just go back to something we probably learned from Classical music on public radio. It creates ‘A Fanfare for the Common Man’ or person. Like Aaron Copeland celebrated. With public radio, the Fanfare is made up of 150,000 people- in these rural counties even if they’re not all listening. The fanfare’s creation is probably what inspired public radio in the first place.
Anonymous grocery checkout lines and yes my state’s public radio pretense that the Internet is just as good for listening ignores the danger of anonymity. We are only anonymous when we let others treat us that way or we choose it for ourselves to protect ourselves. Shared human experience is human, after all, and sharing it is one way we learn how to be human.There is danger in anonymous experiences misused. We only need to look to history. The executioners’ faces are covered and there is always more than one. I am a psychologist and I sometimes see- oh, I worked with this person- and I honor their privacy. Only then, I try to be as anonymous as possible and let the person - who I may know more about than anyone else has ever known- be completely anonymous. I know at that moment the meaning and value of anonymity. Because that anonymity exists, a former client was allowed to grow and change something in their lives they didn’t like. But the meaning of anonymity is lost on a public radio station and Amazon when they choose it because it is the cheaper- and to them- better alternative. No radio audience sharing the listening experience. No Garrison Keillor reading Robert Frost’s poem about bending birch trees. No wondering if some small child is hearing ‘The Fanfare for the Common Man for the very first time. No going through the checkout line and noticing the checkout person’s pallor. Just a machine’s glassy surface that mirror’s an image- just yours- no one else’s - just you.When I go through the grocery checkout line, I always experience it with these one if not two others- the checkout worker and the bagger. I notice their tattoos, their piercing, Their gray hair, their not gray hair, the speed of their movements, their fixation on the scanner, their eye contact. I wonder how much they are paid each hour, let alone annually, if they have benefits, how long they’ve worked there, if they’re retired and have a 401 K , if they go to school or not. I am grateful when they know which aisle holds the sardines, the Chai tea, the dried cranberries. They moved them recently. At the grocery store, the Fanfare is with just one- sometimes two- the checkout worker and the bagger. Then, of course, if there’ s a line, the other Proletariat members are also waiting with you.What this public radio station and now Amazon celebrate with these Person-free experiences are- well- person-free experiences. Public radio offered by FM radio signal is an experience shared with other people. The shared experience creates- well, let’s just go back to something we probably learned from Classical music on public radio. It creates ‘A Fanfare for the Common Man’ or person. Like Aaron Copeland celebrated. With public radio, the Fanfare is made up of 150,000 people- in these rural counties even if they’re not all listening. The fanfare’s creation is probably what inspired public radio in the first place. But why would a public radio station do this? For a public radio station that has received 58 million dollars- over 90 percent in public funds- over the last 5 years, paying the transmission tower maintenance workers is an expense. To send FM signals to those 14,000 square miles requires transmission towers which cost money to maintain. Probably one or two maintenance workers- one to hold the ladder- 20 dollars an hour. During the most recent heralded one day Pledge drive, the public radio station took in about 206,000 dollars. Alas, if we only had an electronic device to quickly do the math and alert us that this only puts a small dent in the annual salary and compensation of the top CEO. The top 4 managers who made this decision are paid about 600,000 dollars a year in salary and compensation. Paying to maintain those transmission towers- is extra. Between Aroostock, Washington and Somerset counties which comprise the northern part of the state, 150000 people- more or less- live on about 14,000 square miles. In other words, they have plenty of alone time. They now have to buy a special HD radio or have high speed internet access to hear these programs. Smartphones do not consistently reach all areas of these rural areas. You could take your Chinese-made I-phone to the highest Himalyan peaks in Tibet and probably have better smartphone cellular service than you will on part of Rte 9 in Washington County. Or buy a brand-spanking new car with HD radio in counties where used cars prevail because the median income is 41,000 dollars a year. This news comes not long after the public radio station in my state actually took away from the northern most part of the state classical music and poetry programming from the Public radio FM airwaves. These programs now are available only on something called HD radio or the Internet or a smartphone. They did not ask the anonymous population of listeners beforehand. On one morning in Maine in May, suddenly classical music and the enormously popular 5 minute Garrison Keillor ‘The Writer’s Almanac’ disappeared from the used car’s FM radio and the household one. Amazon has announced they will soon launch an attempt to eliminate that pesky feature of day-to-day life- ‘the grocery store check-out employee’. Along with that, you will receive the pleasure of the barcode and the brief electronic sound to let you know your transaction has been scanned successfully.
Apple and The 15 Year old's Myopic World View
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:07
So we now know that Apple has made the extraordinary contribution called ‘Enter the wrong password 10 times and all the data on your way-too-expensive made in human-rights-violating China I-phone' disappears.
This leads me to believe that yes, Apple is run by and its products designed by those with worldviews like 15 year old Information Technology hackers who live with their parents but stay in their rooms most of the time and have never actually read a newspaper printed on actual paper held in their hands, not even The New York Times.
There are worse things in life than having your parents know what’s on your I-phone. Finding out who mass murderers have contacted is important for the whole world. Many 15 year olds don’t realize that.
Apple doesn’t seem to see that clever 15 year old hacker privacy features which they use to promote faith in the I-phone is as damaging as any privacy breach. Eliminating all the data on an I-phone can be as damaging and terrorist-like as reading what’s on the I-phone in the first place- depending on whose I-phone it is. And you don’t even need a password to do it. You just need to enter the wrong one ten times. I don’t see too many I-phones being carried around in armored vehicles- more usually in back pockets.
Apple and The Fifteen Year Old ‘s Myopic World View -Susan Cook- So we now know that Apple has made the extraordinary contribution called ‘Enter the wrong password 10 times and all the data on your way-too-expensive made in human-rights-violating China I-phone' disappears. Which leads me to believe that yes, Apple is run by and its products designed by those with minds like 15 year old Information Technology hackers who live with their parents but stay in their rooms most of the time and have never actually read a newspaper printed on actual paper held in their hands, not even The New York Times. There are worse things in life than having your parents know what’s on your I-phone. Finding out who mass murderers have contacted is important for the whole world. Many 15 year olds don’t realize that. Apple doesn’t seem to see that clever 15 year old hacker privacy features which they use to promote faith in the I-phone is as damaging as any privacy breach. Eliminating all the data on an I-phone can be as damaging and terrorist-like as reading what’s on the I-phone in the first place- depending on whose I-phone it is. And you don’t even need a password to do it. You just need to enter the wrong one ten times. I don’t see too many I-phones being carried around in armored vehicles- more usually in back pockets. Eliminating all the data from a 15 year old’s phone so parents can’t see it may be absolutely inconsequential- depending on the health and well-being of the 15 year old. If the I-phone belongs to a Chief of Staff or an Airlines executive, that amplifies the consequence. But the 15 year old hacker is often the most important person in the 15 year old’s world. Which brings us to the difference between a visionary world view and the myopic one of Apple’s 15 year old worldview. Making products in China with no acknowledgement that China remains one of the worst violators of human rights in the world is a passive acceptance of human rights violations. In China, the government Mom and Dad get your information and you are in jail like Liu Xiaobo- but of course they don’t need your password to do that. Publish a paper very similar in content to the political platforms of the Democratic or Republican parties and the Chinese government will eliminate access to paper, pens, and yes, I-phones by putting you in jail. Ask Nobel Peace Prize winner Lui Xiaobo when they let him out of jail. Apple’s 15 year old world view brings it to make products in China which ties this enormous American company to Chinese workers whose human rights survive by a string. It ties Apple to the Chinese economy which is kind of how the Chinese like it, of course. And the Chinese figured out a long time ago that accessing your private data by figuring out your password is old school. They will tae that I-phone completely and eliminate any data making- privacy feature or not- and sentence you the other way- in a court. Apple in its 15 year old worldview has not yet realized parents do that kind of thing which - by making I-phones in China- Apple makes itself vulnerable to- the parent Chinese government taking things away. That only changes when China has civil liberties - not just an I-phone privacy feature. Which brings us back to having an easy way to eliminate I-phone data that does not even require a password- just 10 wrong ones- is as damaging as being able to read the data itself. Apple could solve the problem by getting rid of the eliminate data feature. If Apple could just get over itself- and realize there is a big human rights violating world out there- which a psychologist could lain is extremely difficult for most 15 year olds who stay on their I-phones all day to do.
Never Take Money For What You Love Deeply: Money Hustlin' in D.C.
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:05
Selling whatever this country has, for money, of course, at every turn, even at the highest echelons of government, has become the highest priority in the new administration.
Even the President's daughter- who you would think had all the money she needs- tries to sell more of her clothes so she can make money too. I re-watched ‘Madame Rosa’ the 1977 French film in which Simone Signoret stars as an Auschwitz survivor now an aging or aged-out prostitute who earns her living as a foster parent to the children of Paris prostitutes. From her sixth floor walk-up on Place Pigalle, she is the magistrate of care and mediates between the harsh indulgences of Paris street-life and the tender vulnerabilities of the children she gives harbor to.
While the pimps and ladies and men of the night, transgendered and otherwise come in and out, she tends to all of them and sees to the things that will make their lives their own in a world that- in its own indifference- or for the sake of what others will pay money for- lust, indulgence, sex, earthly pleasures- has left them at her door. She makes room for them all- even the immigrant Nigerian who has become ‘the King of Kings’ on Pigalle- the most influential pimp of them all who she can influence to put an end to the cruelties other pimps mete out. The King of Kings dictates letters to Madame Rosa that he will send to his Nigerian village- letters touting his success and his promise to return home with lots of money to build roads, bridges and make infrastructure improvements.
Like on the streets of Pigalle, in this country hustling to make a buck- and better yet getting it- seems more important than love- love of morality, ethics, human decency, human integrity, respect. Money the cure-all and not having enough the problem. Even worth selling your ass for, as Madame Rosa acknowledged doing. But never ever ever ever take money for what you love deeply and best. It is the only way to keep it.
Fake News and the Violation of Civil Liberties
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:55
Some years back, Maine Public Radio fired the host of a 30 year popular jazz program, The humble Farmer because he criticized the Iraq War. His criticism of Real News led to Maine Public Radio demanding he sign Guidelines to not make ‘political statements’ on air. He refused. Fast forward several years, and we now see Fake News displacing Real News. A Bangor Daily News reporter who was formerly the Communication Director for Sen. Susan Collins in one particularly outrageous example created his own Fake news to demean me. A complete untruth about Me! Period. Fake news is the scourge of the free press and free speech. But it only ends when ethical individuals call Communication Directors and reporters out on it. In the incident described, explaining the ethical problem in his reporting falls to me. I'll do it.
Fake News and the Violation of Civil Liberties: Political Retribution in the form of Fake News
-Susan Cook-
Some years ago, Maine Public Radio fired the host of a 30 year popular jazz program, The humble Farmer because he criticized the Iraq War started in retribution for -stop me if you already know this- the terrorist attacks of September 2001. His criticism of Real News led to Maine Public Radio demanding he sign Guidelines to not make ‘political statements’ on air. He refused. The Real News that emerged was that heavy Republican Donors populated the Maine Public Broadcasting Board of Trustees- 160000 dollar donors who then influenced humble‘s firing.
Fast forward many days, and Fake News is not only prevalent but a scourge of the free press and free speech. But it turns out Fake News has been around for quite a awhile.
Rewind to 2011 and we see Senator Susan Collins’ then Director of New Media Matthew Gagnon responding to my- yes, me- testimony during the congressional Redistricting Hearings. I made the statement that a Maine Legislator was disrespectful of constituents by recording constituent phone calls without their consent or knowledge. In small communities, that means people stop calling and thus have no voice representing them. An asphalt plant had been built on the shores of a pristine lake (and water aquifer feeder for the water source for the Legislator's home town). Mr. Gagnon in his Bangor Daily News column immediately started creating Fake News about me and what happened at the hearing. ‘Susan Cook is a Lunatic‘, he titled it. ‘A rambling, slurring‘ Susan Cook, he went on to say- garbage then and garbage now. Now Mr. Gagnon admires his Fake News so much that he not only put it on the Internet-it is still there- even after at least one phone call from a police officer and the Internet Service Provider. He was Senator Susan Collins’ hire, still on Susan Collins' payroll as her Director of New Media. He did not know me, was not at the hearing and in his anonymous long-distance Virginia home tapped out his Fake News. It took a certain amount of IT sophistication on my part to identify him, his location and his then- on-the-payroll position with the Fake News supporting Collins.
New Jersey’s US Attorney General indicted and convicted the staff of Governor Chris Christie because of their Fake News in the form of FakeTraffic Jam Creation. Political retribution violates civil liberties. The rights of those stuck for hours in Faked Traffic Jams were violated because Chris Christie wanted political retribution for a Mayor who criticized him.
The Fake News Mr. Gagnon created after my testimony at the Redistricting Hearing remains part of his media strategy. He later became a talk radio host and more recently tried very hard to generate Fake News about the suicide of a local meteorologist . Mr. Gagnon told the local newspaper that “the investigation of a sexual assault” that had not been shown linked to the suicide of the meteorologist was worth “some air time”. In other words, creating ‘fake news’ between 2 events that were not linked.
Suicides are always lonely situations. Mr. Gagnon's idea of air-time is to seize a one-sided circumstance- a suicide cannot speak after all- to inflate and amplify two situations with no factual basis. Fake News thrives on anonymity, loneliness and isolation.
Fake news creators like Mr. Gagnon, and the Chris Christies and Susan Collins of the political world who hire them support exploitation of anonymity to deceive. They also violate civil liberties.
We can hope Attorney Generals make the connection between Fake News and the Violation of Civil Liberties. But some Attorney Generals grasp- first and foremost- Fake News as a tool of political retribution . In states where Attorney Generals are elected- they too can ignore that Fake News violates civil liberties. But that's a true story for another day.
A Citizen's Guide to the "Fear of Gotcha" in American Political Life
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:04
In the 1950’s and 1960’s American citizens and the stalwart among them who were brave enough to run for political office had to learn to live with the “red scare”. The “red scare” was a manufactured and sometimes elaborately embellished accusation that a politician or a citizen was a communist. In a word that meant “horrible” and willing to sacrifice every liberty and freedom we enjoyed. These days, “red scare-ing” has been replaced in political life by “gotcha” and “fear of gotcha” ”Gotcha” you may remember is the “fruit” of the intensive effort in politics to identify -hey, in the information age, “information” about a candidate or officeholder or political operative that can be cast as dirty, nefarious, some tiny window into the heart of darkness that beats inside an individual previously seen as pure and good who also happens to be in or running for office or working for someone who is. Usually, the “gotcha” obtained has nothing to do with or is irrelevant to the tasks or dignity and respect involved in holding political office.
Red-scare-ing changed the political landscape and turned political life into far more of a looking over one’s shoulder activity than was necessary or productive or useful on the taxpayer’s dollar. These days “gotcha” or rather “fear of gotcha” threatens to do the same thing- if it has not already.
What remains most important is how the officeholders do the job, their respect for this democracy and their constituents and their ability to resist the temptations of power- i.e. the abuse of it.
This Political Year of Women: Smears, Cheap Shots and Character- A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 08:11
If you missed the smearing, cheap shots and character assassination against women this year, and one woman in particular, maybe you were cut off from earth-bound communication. This year was ‘proof’ strategies flourish, to undermine the credibility and judgment of women- no matter how many credentials she’s acquired, critical responsibilities she’s taken on or professional advances she’s made. If someone wants to reduce her through name-calling, lie invention, Facebook reputation smearing that she has poor judgment, is a crook, a controlling bitch, a substance abuser, is a 'no filter' big mouth, or indifferent to sexual assault, all they have to do is start saying it. Put it on Twitter, editorialize it in the local newspaper, or post it on Facebook. There you have it. Like a public offering traded on the stock market, the smearing gains value the more it’s traded. It is doesn’t matter if you are Hillary Clinton. Or Madeline Albright. It could be you. It could be me.
Stunningly though, permission for smearing and discrediting of a woman- ‘trial by the court of public opinion’ one Party chair called it to justify a smear campaign he actively took part in- ’taking out to the woodshed’ another Party Chair called it- is shored up by gender-bias. Stereotypes that demean women and give others- including men -permission to keep her in her place, discredit her or not trust her are the archetypes summoned by the fury of the smearing. Even though 59 percent of women in this country identify themselves as feminists, there is a blind spot that hides the spontaneous and willing engagement in sexist smearing- if you are a woman -as not feminism. This is what Madeline Albright meant when she said there is a special spot in hell for women who do not support other women.
This Political Year of Women: Smears, Cheap Shots and Character -Susan Cook- If you missed the smearing, cheap shots and character assassination against women this year, and one woman in particular, maybe you were cut off from earth-bound communication. This year was ‘proof’ strategies flourish, to undermine the credibility and judgment of women- no matter how many credentials she’s acquired, critical responsibilities she’s taken on or professional advances she’s made. If someone wants to reduce her through name-calling, lie invention, Facebook reputation smearing that she has poor judgment, is a crook, controlling, a substance abuser, indifferent to sexual assault, all they have to do is start saying it. Put it on Twitter, editorialize it in the local newspaper, or post it on Facebook. There you have it. Like a public offering traded on the stock market, the smearing gains value the more it’s traded. It is doesn’t matter if you are Hillary Clinton. Or Madeline Albright or it could be you or it could be me. The G-force is heightened when other women take part in it. If you are a woman who criticizes the prevailing regime in this country, that only men become President- you are an attacker. If women join in, it amplifies the case that you are. Stunningly though, permission for smearing and discrediting of a woman- ‘trial by the court of public opinion’ one Party chair called it to justify a smear campaign he actively took part in- ’taking out to the woodshed’ another Party Chair called it- is shored up by gender-bias. Stereotypes that demean women and give others- including men -permission to keep her in her place, discredit her or not trust her are the archetypes summoned by the fury of the smearing. Even though 59 percent of women in this country identify themselves as feminists, there is a blind spot that hides the fact that spontaneous and willing engagement in sexist smearing- if you are a woman -is not feminism. This is what Madeline Albright meant when she said there is a special spot in hell for women who do not support other women. If only permission to smear women was old news. It is not. What is still news is the lack of protest against it by other women. Few labeled what we saw this political year as sexist. Few labeled the women who freely engaged in it- many being paid to do so by through their political jobs- as Not Feminist, Traitors to the Core of Feminist Achievement and Belief, and yes, the progenitors of a return to no reproductive rights, more gender pay inequity, and every other public policy that demeans women‘s judgment and her capacity to choose. Feminist political ideology becomes just so much loose cannon talk and no-filter thinking. You know how women are. Directors of Communication, lofty members of the Judicial branch of Government, - an FBI Director, Attorney General and yes members of the Democratic Party either joined in or couldn‘t really think of anything to say. They said nothing. Where have feminists gone and more importantly why did they go. Sometimes I think it is just a time warp because of all the advancement the women‘s movement has brought and everybody‘s forgotten that the necessary condition for feminism to exists acknowledging that gender makes a difference. I was on a train to the Democratic National Convention and spoke with the leader of a very large Feminist organization. I decried the Democratic Party for openly supporting the Independent man instead of the bright, capable female candidate. ‘It‘s ok, ’ she said. ’He’ll still vote with the Democrats.’ It was not, then, nor is it now ok to ignore the gender of a female political candidate. Femaleness still brings a different voice systematically devalued and overlooked in male-dominated cultures. . Female Genital Mutilation remains a culturally accepted practice in Muslim countries. Women still experience gross economic inequity. Carol Gilligan, the Harvard psychologist, who wrote ‘In a Different Voice-’ openly questioned the exclusion of female subjects from studies used to define human development- from National Institute of Health studies of heart disease to studies of moral development, male experience was routinely seen as equivalent to human. Women’s decision-making about right and wrong is often defined by violations of care for others and one’s self and connection as central to moral awareness. This political year brought back exclusion of women by women . They overlooked gender as a critical political consideration. Carol Gilligan was chosen the first Ms. Magazine ‘Woman of the Year’. She quoted a student of hers who said women become the float in relationship to men-and male culture- the variation in what they think and choose dependent on what males think and choose. Of course, we tend to think women have come a long way from the days when women were humiliated or shamed or bullied into accommodating male beliefs and thinking. I am afraid we have returned to a time when bullying and shaming is the preferred cultural tool for changing what women think. A New York Times columnist editorialized about ‘What Women Lost’ in this political year. I’m not sure that we’ve lost anything. Rather the permission to bully and discredit women has been there all along. This year we had a National stage for it and a male candidate and his team particularly well-versed in pursuing it. And maybe we’ve all just returned to not noticing the women are missing. And women becoming ‘the float’ - bullied, called out as untrustworthy loose cannons and liars, - who change their minds depending on male decisions- like the student Carol Gilligan quoted- that was me - said.
Seeing Things As They Are, Updated
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 07:05
This US Presidential campaign has been characterized by a striking absence of empathy. No empathy between candidates and a Social Code that defines appropriate behavior focused on exaggeration of flaws and differences between them. When Hillary Clinton withholds information- a minor 2 day delay in announcing to the world she has pneumonia , it becomes news, a possible indication of inferiority, her physical well-being repeatedly bandied about. The empathy-impoverished hate speech of Donald Trump continues unabated. Empathy for others intends to make us equals. Democracy the great progenitor of the Social Code of what’s acceptable intends to make us equals too. In this election, one has to wonder which Social Code has taken over as an influence on voters, which group’s social code they now align themselves with.
- Playing
- Seeing Things As They Are, Updated
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- Susan J. Cook
-Susan Cook-
"My Funny I.T. Guy" To the Tune of "My Funny Valentine'' (The song and dance genre)
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:08
A musical tribute to "My Funny I.T. Guy" . Blackberry phones - like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had- used to be considered difficult to hack. The F.B.I. - having revealed their lack of technological competence very recently- now claims with conviction that her emails could have been hacked even though they have found no evidence of that and found fewer than 10 out of 30,000 emails worthy of a higher level of security- afterwards.
If the FBI now has new information technology sophistication, why don't they spend our taxpayer dollars on getting rid of truly offensive material anonymously sent in emails.
-Susan Cook-
The Cheap Shot in American Politics- A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:26
We live in extremely violent times. Words can provoke aggression, insult and personal harm very quickly. Politicians spend much time trying to reassure us that they will protect our enormous bodily and psychological fragility with their policies and bravado. But the Cheap Shot gives it all away. And Bernie Sanders has quickly joined the fray- filling his pockets as best he can with what he hopes is political capital.
Then there’s, Donald Trump, who has used every form of cheap shot making known to polarize the electorate- i.e. ‘earn’ votes. He has nationalized cheap shot taking like we have never seen before. It kind of takes your breath away because there used to be a baseline assumption that overt disrespect was not silently accepted as kind of a political asthma we just had to get used to. It’s hard to find a one word slur he has not used to reduce his critics to objects- implying they are not worthy of any respect at all. ‘Pocahontas’ he called a tenured Harvard Law School Professor and United States Senator. As if the anonymity that word cast on Native American women for generations was deserved- they worthy of no mark of distinction or individuality for us to know who they are.
I am making a larger call is for us to stop the Cheap Shot making that now plagues American politics. Cheap shots always say more about the politician who makes them than they do about the person it’s tossed toward whether you are the Bernie Sanders supporter screaming them out at Hillary rallies or Sanders banking on the good will of American liberals to cover him while his rhetoric becomes increasingly hostile. Or Donald Trump banking on the limited attention span of the angry and cash strapped to ignore that the hostility he speaks of is generated by himself.
#Stopthecheapshots I say. Now.
#Stopthecheapshots I say. Now.
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: Shouldn't Facebook Be Accountable for their Exploitation of Anonymity - the Faceless- by FacebookTrolling?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:35
Shouldn't Facebook also be held accountable for their moral indifference to the human consequence of Facebook trolling that the platform's anonymity has helped flourish?
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: Why Won't Facebook Show You Exactly Who Will See Your Post as Soon As You Post It Since They Know That Already?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:12
Sixty Second Moral Inquiry! The Right Thing for Facebook to do is to tell posters immediately- as soon as the post is written- who will be seeing it- including all the photos. Eliminating the anonymity of the poster and the viewer.
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: Why Won't Facebook Show You Exactly
Who Will See Your Post as Soon As You Post It Since They Know That ?
Today's 60 Second Moral Inquiry asks: why doesn't Facebook show the user exactly who will be seeing your post before you post it? I mean the names and the funnny little photos which come up immediately ? Hasn't anonymity been the primary breeder of the hostility that Facebook creates? I mean ending the anonymity of those who will see the information- not just the poster- that naive and sometimes quite frankly malicious senders post? Since Facebook knows who exactly will see the post as soon as you write it, isn't it right for them to share that so the friend of the friends of the friends will think: wow, that's malicious to post this. And do the right thing and not post it? Isn't it possible people would be let's say morally embarassed if other people knew they were gawking at private information? In real face-to-face communication like Mark Zuckergberg doesn't like having, the speaker and the receiver are known and isn't that the right ethical way to do it?
A Citizen's Guide to Limiting the Influence of the Internet and the Digital Age
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:03
Are you concerned about your child emailing too much? Are you concerned about the effect on a child's spine of a head bent over a gaming system for hours on end? Are you concerned about the constant checking and re-checking of text messages or people who don't talk to each other anymore, just text?
Parents- any parent- has the skill to combat this proliferation of the Internet and the Digital Age. First, you say, "Give me your phone, please."
The Conscience of Anonymity:Naming Native American Artists
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 05:25
I went to an exhibit of Native American basketry recently- made by Maine Penobscots and Passamaquoddies. The reception was as polished as any other art exhibit opening- except in one respect . None of the artists whose work was displayed were named. No brass plate. No calligraphy on an ivory placard. The artists- all of whom- were Maine Indians -were anonymous. With the exception of the one Indian artist whose talk explained the origin and lineage of the art of basket making, none were named- no birth date- no home town- no tribal affiliation. At an exhibit intended to warmly acknowledge, they were excluded by being made anonymous. What is it that lingers when gifted artists of a brilliant tradition are not given the recognition any artist in any art gallery or museum in the country is given- a name? The consequence of cultural anonymity is often indifference . Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island given different names as they left, Jews with their identity papers taken as they board a train, young men first targeted because of race . Making people anonymous makes it easier to hurt them.
-Susan Cook-
Native American Indians have so often been anonymous to popular culture, except through stereotype. The ones history gives names to are those who fought back- and died- or the ones who provided some indispensable service to white men. Most are anonymous. Not in the graveyards of tribal reservations. I remember walking through one, at Peter Dana Point, in Maine, one time, and reading the names- of Indian men whose dates of death subtracted from their dates of birth- for many- meant they died at age 45, 38, 49. By 2000 the average age of death among Native American Indians in Maine was 60. The average age of death among whites in Maine was 74.1 years then. Now in 2012, for whites it is 79. (https://www1.maine.gov/dhhs/mecdc/files/nar/nar.htm)
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: What's Wrong With Politicians Placing Political Gamesmanship Above Honoring the Public Trust?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:19
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks questions about what is right and what is wrong. Today's Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks what is wrong with politicians placing political gamesmanship above honoring the public's trust? When did political gamesmanship become more important to Senators, Congressional representatives and state legislators than respecting the public trust? Is it wrong, as Gallup polls tell us has happened, to destroy the public trust just so the “politicians” will be winner of the day at political gamesmanship?
-Susan Cook-
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: How To Tell The Difference Between Mudslinging and a Reality Check
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:01
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry asks questions about what is right. Thinking about what is right sometimes means finding the question that needs to be asked. Today's moral inquiry asks: How do you the tell the difference between mud-slinging and a reality check when criticizing a politician's' actions? Daily, political life begs this question, and certainly former Congressman Weiner's cyber-sex (that's what it is called) activities do. So, what questions might we ask in our moral inquiry?
Where Mean Spiritedness Hides- A Citizen's Guide
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:48
Spirits are invisible, never caught in the flesh, imaginary presence usually. Children think they hide under the bed, in dark places, the darkness a perfect place for mean spiritedness to hide. Unseen, mean spiritedness is accountable to no one.
A Citizens' Guide to The Brand: Democracy By Fear and Branding
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:55
The Constitution does not say "We, the Brand Consumer". It says "We, the... thinking , questioning, remembering, mind-changing, advocating and yes, voting... People". We are Constituents. But The Brand has become the new approach to getting a candidate elected.
Getting The Brand off the ballot, and the Candidate back on, is what we the People do simply by doing what we do: asking, questioning, remembering, trusting our perceptions, telling the truth and yes, voting.
Speaking Truth To Power in the Kingdom Called Home
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:39
Those who grew up in the era of Richard Nixon knew a time when "The Kingdom" took an especially frightening aura of power and glory. One speaking truth to power persisted only with great difficulty. It was called stone-walling. Really, it was just that the glass doors of transparency in government had long been replaced by big prison-like steel-bolted ones.
Then there's my local city government and its manager who waited months and months watching one (or was it two) petition drives to recall every city councilor, plus thousands of dollars spent on a "credible" independent report written by a judge to let's see, discover a cure for cancer? Find the new best thing since sliced bread? Invent shoes that would let you fly home like Dorothy's did in the Wizard of Oz?
No. It was to tell the truth.
The Sixty Second Moral Inquiry: Why Not Mangle the Information If You Can?
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:04
The Sixty-Second Moral Inquiry asks questions about what is right and wrong. Today's Sixty-Second Moral Inquiry asks: Why not mangle,`distort the information, if you can? If we all have the ability to think, isn't it each person's responsibility to find out for themselves? Why not pick and choose the facts you like and the facts you don't, selectively leaving out the ones you don't?
Today's 2 and 1/2 Minute Conspiracy Theory: How to Be a Truer Truth-teller
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 02:40
Here we are just weeks before the 2016 Presidential election and what seems to be on the line- still- is whether or not Hillary Clinton is a truth-teller or not. I mean a real, card-carrying genuine, civil liberties respecting world-wise, intelligent Truth-teller. So what makes a person into a Truth-Teller, even a truer Truth-teller?
Today’s 2 ½ minute Conspiracy Theory ponders. Hillary Clinton has released her tax returns, her medical records, spent 11 hours in front of a Congressional Committee being questioned about the Benghazi incident during her job as Secretary of State, which by the way also included extensive vetting about her background, her integrity and her grasp of world affairs, the understanding of where different countries are located- stuff like that, and been persistently and relentlessly investigated for 24 years because she was married to someone who was a President. If all that scrutiny doesn’t make her a Truth-teller- a truer truth-teller, what would? So today’s 2 ½ minute conspiracy theory ponders:
What could the standard for being a truer Truth-teller possibly be if it isn’t all the vetting Hillary Clinton has experienced and Donald Trump has not?
-Susan Cook-
Today’s 2 ½ minute Conspiracy Theory ponders. Hillary Clinton has released her tax returns, her medical records, spent 11 hours in front of a Congressional Committee being questioned about the Benghazi incident during her job as Secretary of State, which by the way also included extensive vetting about her background, her integrity and her grasp of world affairs, the understanding of where different countries are located- stuff like that,
and been persistently and relentlessly investigated for 24 years because she was married to someone who was a President. Did I mention the ’Whitewater’ investigation of a failed Arkansas real estate project which cost tax payers millions of dollars to fund? I think the only thing she hasn’t done is give a strand of her hair or a urine or blood sample to test for cocaine or opiod or illegal drug use.
But of course, neither has her opponent Mr. Trump. And he has of course not been subject
to the relentless scrutiny or analysis because he hasn‘t been US Senator, a Secretary of State, the spouse of a President or a lawyer. Watergate-style stone walling. or sand bagging, the hiring of surrogates to do your lying for you or the rapid construction of barriers gets old after awhile.
So today’s 2 ½ minute conspiracy theory ponders if there is prejudice in the United States about who is and isn’t seen as a Truth-teller ?
a functional MRI while answering questions about Benghazi or Whitewater or using private foundations to hide income to avoid paying taxes on it.
In the Department of Poetic Justice: You Don't Know This But Your Civil Rights Are Violated
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 04:43
From The Great American Wrongbook and In Today's Department of Poetic Justice, a poetic tribute to the question: what's wrong with violating the civil rights of citizens who go to public hearings to testify. Could be sung to the tune from The Sound of Music, "You Are 16, Going On 17".
In the Department of Poetic Justice: You Don't Know This but Your Civil Rights
(and the Great American Wrongbook which could be sung to the tune "You are 16 Going On 17"
from "The Sound of Music")
-Susan Cook-
on the Internet,
can be reduced
to mush and you can't say
or even make a guess
they will not tell you.
Their IP numbers
lead you in circles
out on the World Wide Web.
Politicians and their staffers
think that their job includes
negative, hostile
demeaning, caustic
words they will aim at you.
Lunatic for criticizing,
exposing you could say,
electeds who don't know
why the voters
should have something to say.
Staffers can be good at lying
And maybe you should know,
Erhlichman, John Dean,
Haldeman, that scene,
dirty and just obscene
Politicians, dirty staffers
sometimes go hand-in-hand.
And in this Nation,
From DC to Maine
some often do slip through.
They will spend their time in the State House
trying to discredit you,
on your tax dollar,
Privacy Guarded, on sites
they've come to know
Where they'll post demeaning comments
Democrats do it too
While their Communication
Director pretends
she just doesn't know.
When it's time for applications
for jobs at the State House
misogynistic, fascist,
or sexist, oh well,
hide email notes?
Call the other party's staffer
try to get him on board.
Proxy, so toxic,
civil rights blocks it
when people file suit
Since the limitations
of the statute are not met
Solar pronouncements
liberal announcements
don't allow or defend
Violating civil rights,
the Director doth approve,
legal, illegal, law school achievers
might help prevent abuse.
Maybe yes or maybe no. Depends
if where they'd like to end
elected to Congress,
where they won't confess
their civil rights offense.
Pump it up and put it out,
the environmental news
sent to the press
now would be hard-pressed
to find out his real past.
If the Speaker brings corruption
into their messaging
there goes the free press,
Antidotally keeps
Democracy different
From some fascist dictator
who believes the public blames
who she decides
will ruin her game plan,
public jobs, personal gain.
Human rights, their violators
aren't just in one party,
Democrats,
GOP staff,
ignoring your civil liberties.
When they decide they will take
the b-i-t-ch out to the woodshed,
law school, a small school
compared to the
leadership's big decree.
bigger than Africa,
Ukraine, Rwanda,
where leaders still launder
human rights they've squandered
Are in danger of repeating
just what they've done before
violate people who
speak at a hearing.
We have seen all of this before.
In the Department of Poetic Justice: Someone Must Have Planted
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:55
Musical tribute to the Mueller investigation, sung if you like to the tune from "Some Enchanted Evening..", "Someone must have planted...."
In the Department of Poetic Justice
(and the Great American Wrongbook)
"Someone must have planted..."
(which could be sung to the tune from "Some Enchanted Evening")
-Susan Cook-
Someone must have planted
something in our laptops
or in our valises. How could they ever know?
Democracies don't
mean for sure, they won't
do whatever they can to get at the truth.
Yes, I was trying to find some friends
down there in DC,
hoping I would win.
I had never been there,
to the Oval Office
except in my day dreams
I thought that I could show
the management staff
how they could improve
the heating and cooling systems
since I know
which ones are better,
lowering the rate
for heat expenses.
I sell real estate.
Who knew Jared Kushner
went to all those meetings,
here and there a sandwich
with people who would know
the best banks to use
for funding just whose
mortgages, leases
I never quite knew.
I was quite busy
working at Trump Tower,
Mar-a-largo into
the wee hours.
So I guess I'll tell you
on my I-phone I have
gotten emails from some women I never knew.
And now I must ask,
is that where they hacked
when I exchanged messages, yes, I sent back.
Yes, they were women,
Russian what they said,
"Hot and excited"
Some wanting to bed.."
Sometime in the future
after the election
when I had some spare time,
of course, I never knew,
the first selection
for President then
would be yours truly. Even I was surprised.
Then I had no time to email back
President Trump.
They'd think their
laptops hacked.
It turns out I should have
had them all deleted
when I took a chance on
clicking the email line.
Now Mueller believes
that real estate deals
were on my mind. Does he forget my first rule?
If there are women,
looking for some fun,
shapely and pretty,
I'll get the deal done!
Someone must have planted
something in our emails,
in plants on the desk top
or in the office where
yes, when I was bored,
I'd go through the more
than 10,000 emails from Russians,
well, whores.
Now the FBI,
sent their guys too,
I bet they open
those hot emails too.
Someone must have planted
something in our laptops
or in our valises. How could they ever know?
Democracies don't
mean for sure, they won't
do whatever they can
to get at the truth.
Yes, I was trying to find some friends
down there in DC,
guess what yes, I won.
Lost Intention: Even at a Maine Vigil for Gun Violence Victims
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 06:46
Sustaining intention for good means we understand that permission for violence makes a gun what it is: a creator of violence. At a Maine vigil, the lost intention of honoring the tragedy of victims stood right across the street with a pistol in a holster on his belt loop.
Lost Intention: Even at a Maine vigil for Gun Violence Victims
In Maine, I went to a vigil for the gun victims at El Paso and Dayton the Saturday night following the weekend of those horrible events. There were maybe 125, maybe 140 people there in front of the Governor's mansion in the state capital. There, the newspapers said, to hold vigil for those who had died the prior weekend at the hands of the guns held by shooters who had no justification other than the gun they held that allowed each of them to shoot in how many seconds? 24? 5?
The vigil was, I thought, surprisingly underattended. I have met many people who have been affected by the shootings at a gut level. It is too innocently complacent - people going to Wal-mart or to a bar to socialize- to begin to grasp how such disregard of the humanity of others comes to be.
There were a few speakers- hard to hear sometimes- the one non-office holding candidate for the United States Senate seat now held by Susan Collins spoke loudly, forecfully. The other patted herself on the back for voting for background checks, reminding us that the former Governor of the State vetoed the bill. You bet current office holders are patting themselves on the back, in the wake of these shootings. One man standing across the street held a Veterans for Peace banner, his co-holder having left. As he held his vigil, an overweight young man took a place behind him on the left. The speakers were getting harder to hear so of the organizers turned on a portable generator to power a microphone and speakers which made it even harder for the vigil keepers at the fringe- as I was- to hear.
I crossed the street to join the Veteran . "Want to hold a sign?" he said. "Of course," I said, taking the "The NRA is Dead Wrong" placard.
As we talked, a police officer came over and began to speak to the overweight twenty-something young man standing behind us.
"He has pistol in a holster on his belt," the Veteran said to me. "He's been video-taping people at the vigil and texting people on his phone."
As I turned my head to look, I could see the holster at his side and hear the police officer talking to him. Reaching out his hand, the police officer introduced himself, as the pistol holster holder responded with his name. "I parked on this side of the street," the pistol holster holder said. "Those people over there wouldn't listen to anything I'd have to say anyway." The police officer was taking notes, as they talked.
There was absolutely nothing at the vigil that called for a pistol- for safety, for reassurance, for protection. Unless its holder was fearful. And this overweight, baby-faced young man, grinning at the police officer, did not appear to be.
Of course, I don't know if he was. Or why he felt a need to carry a gun or who he was texting and sending his video recordings to. It was a serenely calm August in Maine evening, when the streets of the Capital were so deserted I had begun to think that maybe the vigil was being held on a different night.
What happens inside someone's mind and emotional landscape is not easily known. And he could have turned into a panic struck psychotic, delusions telling him, as the El Paso shooter said he had, that he was doing what President Trump wanted him to.
The fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock has just been celebrated, an event in which a half a million young people gathered and not one person was shot, not one gun confiscated. "They went with good intentions," one documentary producer said.
Good intention is being lost to Americans- displaced by hatred and permission to marshall fear and act on it. Guns give permission for violence that human intention alone cannot. Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and his Vice President for Social Good tell us, promotes good. Both of them believe the world is- at its core- is made up of Harvard and Stanford undergraduates- so happy for a way to talk to many without the encumberance of email address identification. They are profoundly ignorant of the impact of exponential math which leaves out this overweight twenty-ish boy with a pistol visible in its holster- hanging from his belt, texting on his Facebook Page and inciting more hatred. And who knows what paranoia and fear simmers inside his mind, in his communications with his gun holding texting friends, his targetted videos that slightly amped up could lead to yet another mass shooting.
I left while the police officer was still speaking to him. My breath had already been taken away that- here in Maine- a man with a gun in his belt-looped holster would come to a vigil to celebrate human tragedy- and somehow think his intention was in keeping with that of the vigil.
In Maine, we are not all of the same mind. And we still do not understand what has changed since 1969. That, "goodness of intention " even at a vigil about loss, could not hold its own.
Remembering We Have Already Said Farewell: "Epilogue: To a Fire Gone" from "Breathing: American Sonnets"
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 01:42
An American Sonnet to those to whom we have said "Farewell".
From "Breathing: American Sonnets"
by Susan Cook
(available from GulfofMainebooks@gmail.com)
Epilogue
To a Fire Gone
After "Reluctance: by Robert Frost
Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?
When was it less than treason? But what do
you mean, Mr. Frost? That’s for countries to
feel short-changed by. Loss happens to those who
see the passing on of days, years, one blue
time in life, one breaking, undoing a
treacherous rope they have been tied onto,
its deep burn. In the coldest time of day
or night, fires started that you thought grew
larger instead were, licked back into their
own intensity, remained confined on
one small patch of earth. You did not see where
the fire, some time later, died. You were gone.
Big difference, see, between countries resigned
to losing, small unfed fires, gone in time.
If Power Is An Aphrodisiac, Unethical Staff Are Surgical Implants
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:39
The Presidency and being Presidential staff are not power pills that work their way out in sweat and perspiration after swallowing. They are power pills that cause genetic and believe it or not historical mutations. How do we remind ourselves and the public that the newly Powerful may give themselves permission to deceive? How do we hold a new President and his staff accountable?
-Susan Cook-
You may remember a Democrat who got into a compromising (or rather compromised, re-negotiated, compromised again and finally blackmailed) circumstance and lied, distorted and had his staff lie for him. That would be former Presidential candidate John Edwards and his circumstance with videographer Rielle Hunter. His staff's deception in personal , professional and public relationships, however, zoom us to another level in viewing the journey of that substance called power through the human body. As Donald Trump takes The Oath, his staff’s willingness to lie for him must also be a focus of our concern.
Whatever happened to that other White House luminary who said "I cannot tell a lie" whose food must have had a really tough journey through his body because he only had wooden teeth to chew it. I'm talking about George Washington.
People are not just players in a lie, however elaborate. They are not a means to an end. They are the end. Deception is something we need to claim as what we do not like in political life. This is not claiming the moral high ground. This is taking our vitamins, believing they work and hoping they do.
A Hackle o' Meter in Every Home, A Not-Politically Fit bit On Every Wrist
From Susan J. Cook | Part of the The River Is Wide series | 03:19
Elected officials or politicians aspiring to be elected officials say things that would register on our Hackle o’ meters and our Politically Unfit Bits- if someone would just invent these tools. Our Hackle o’ meters would go up because well, our hackles would go up. And our Politically Unfit bits would practically fall off our wrists because of all the calculations of political unfitness they’d be making.
I am not taking about You-Know-Who. I think You-Know-Who, for some people, raises adrenaline by stimulating the amygdala- the part of the brain which raises adrenaline and fight-or-flight hormones because something feels dangerous. Dr. Joseph Ledoux , a neuroscientist says the path signals take to the amygdala is fast and spontaneous, thus he calls it the Low Road. We also respond to danger, he says, by signals sent to the Frontal Cortex when we sense danger but those signals are slower so he calls that path the High Road.
A Hackle O’ Meter or a Politically Unfit Bit works very differently. Both work from subtle, subtle visual and auditory cues. And they might be good for the country.
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A Hackle o’ meter In Every Home; A Not Politically Fit Bit On Every Wrist -Susan Cook- Elected officials or politicians aspiring to be elected officials say things that would register on our Hackle o’ meters and our Politically Unfit Bits- if someone would just invent these tools. Our Hackle o’ meters would go up because well, our hackles would go up. And our Politically Unfit bits would practically fall off our wrists because of all the calculations of political unfitness they’d be making. I am not taking about You-Know-Who. I think You-Know-Who, for some people, raises adrenaline by stimulating the amygdala- the part of the brain which raises adrenaline and fight-or-flight hormones because something feels dangerous. Dr. Joseph Ledoux , a neuroscientist says the path signals take to the amygdala is fast and spontaneous, thus he calls it the Low Road. We also respond to danger, he says, by signals sent to the Frontal Cortex when we sense danger but those signals are slower so he calls that path the High Road. So when we listen to You Know Who, your amygdala might get revved up and you turn off the television, radio or click ‘Power Shutdown’ on the PC. If your Frontal Lobes start firing, you just say ‘I am not voting for him.’ A Hackle O’ Meter or a Politically Unfit Bit works very differently. Both work from subtle, subtle visual and auditory cues. We Observe Mitch McConnell for the 450th time say he will not give President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee the time of day. We see the visual image of his clamped shut jaw, creating a glacier of pale skin beneath that jaw. I hope he has a sense of humor because really, landscape metaphors work best. I am not saying the man is dangerous ala’ Gorilla walking into your living room. But he may well get your Hackle o’ Meter going and if you had a Not-Politically Fitbit, it might fall off your wrist with its calculations going wild. Now, there are Democrats who effect Hackle o’ Meters and Non-Politically Fit Bit. Some of the ones in my state register so strongly on the Non-Politically Fit Bit, I had to take mine off. If only someone would invent these tools. It would be good for the country. Someone could slip one on Mitch McConnell’s wrist or one of the Politically Unfit Bit high registerers in my state and very gradually- it’s better to go slow- the Hackle o’Meters and the Politically Unfit Bits would convince them. Not their job to undo the US Constitution, not their job to use Internet Bullying to trade votes with Republicans, no amnesia about policy positions and no blocking duly nominated Supreme Court nominees.