Finding Obama’s Reality Check at a gathering of disabled people in Second Life
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 02/17/2008 - 09:59Last night, as I sat at a gathering of disabled people in Second Life, friends were providing me quotes from Sen. Obama’s speech at the Wisconsin Founders Dinner via Twitter. The juxtaposition was striking.
Those who read my blog know that I write about whatever strikes my fancy, from technology, to Second Life, to group dynamics, to politics, to the personal. I seek to draw themes from all of them to mix them together and the combination of Obama’s speech and the talk in Second Life provides a wonderful opportunity.
In politics, I supported Sen. Edwards this time around. Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama both seem a little too conservative for me, a little too closely connected to the corporate interests and existing power structure. Yet the current criticisms of Obama actually lead me to be more supportive of him. His critics talk about all that he has to offer is just words. Well, as a writer, I find that criticism offensive. Legislation is, after all, just words. The landmark civil rights bill of the 1960s is just words. More importantly, it is the ‘just words’ of Martin Luther King, Jr. that helped bring about such legislation. The Letter from a Birmingham Jail was just words. The “I have a dream” speech was just words. No, if you want to alienate people, disparaging other for having just words seems like a good starting point. Maybe that is part of why Oprah has endorsed Obama. She realizes that words are important, that they can move people to action.
Yet more importantly is the question of Barack Obama needing a ‘reality check’. Personally, I think we’ve had a few too many reality checks of late. We do need a little more hope. Dr. King’s letter from Birmingham jail was a response to those asking for reality checks back then. Critics were calling the actions of Dr. King that landed him in Birmingham jail, “unwise and untimely” and the calls for a reality check on Sen. Obama sound very similar.
So, let’s take a reality check from an unlikely and unreal venue, Second Life. Second Life is a place where people can create avatars, representations of themselves, that interact with one another. These avatars can be different from how people are in real life. The unattractive can become more attractive, people can become animals, they can change genders and they can experience disabilities or freedom from disabilities that they can’t in real life. The woman with a fused backbone can jump on a trampoline, a wheelchair bound person fighting MS can go down a waterslide.
Institutional Memory
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 02/16/2008 - 20:38I believe it was at SXSW Interactive 2005, that I was on a panel exploring the future of democracy, deliberative, direct and digital. As we explored the role of political parties, the idea of institutional memory came up, and it seems as if the Internet is changing the way we maintain institutional memory.
In 2003 and 2004, I was a volunteer in Gov. Dean’s presidential campaign. I established many close friendships during that time. When Gov. Dean decided to end his presidential bid, many of us reached out to each other online. We dealt with our grief about seeing the person we thought would best lead the country leave the race. We talked about what Gov. Dean’s delegates should do, and whether we should still vote for him in the primary, or if not, whom we should support.
We vented our frustrations about the sort of campaigns other candidates had run. We complained about the media, and most importantly, we sought ways to remain together to work on the issues that were important to us.
During that time quite a few mailing lists and websites formed. Sometimes there were conflicts between people from different groups. After all, we were all people that had cared passionately about Gov. Dean and the issues he stood for, and we cared passionately for how things would be handled afterwards.
People looked created different legal entities, 501(c)3’s, 501(c)4’s, State PACs, Federal PACs, 527s, and so on. Dean for America shut down, and a new organization, Democracy for America emerged.
I wasn’t involved with the Kucinich campaign in 2004, but it seemed like a similar process happened there, and out of it the Progressive Democrats of America emerged. PDA and DFA had a lot of similar goals and looked at ways to work together, me, and many of my friends ended up getting involved in both.
Now, it is 2008. This time around, I was a Sen. Edwards supporter. He has now suspended his campaign, and I’ve been invited to join two mailing lists of Edwards supporters, in addition the dozen or so I had been on during the campaign. I’ve been asked to participate in various online sites and hear discussions about other ones yet to emerge. Like in 2004, I, and all of us, wait to hear what Sen. Edwards will suggest we do going forward.
Researching Superdelegates
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 09:34Democracy for America has a petition to Let the Voters Decide, asking superdelegates to respect the popular vote. In those electron filled back channels of the internet, which may be replacing the smoke filled backrooms of yesteryear, and which I must admit, I’m a member of several, there have been lots of discussions about superdelegates and how they should vote. Should the vote be winner take all? Should it be based on the state a superdelegate is from? The congressional district? Some other constituency?
One person sent an email to a discussion on Minnesota Campaign Report started by a Superdelegate. I’ve been spending some time helping with the www.superdelegates.org website, so I thought I would organize the notes on Superdelegate.org about the Minnesota superdelegates. I wrote about what I found in a comment on that thread, and am copying the comment here:
This is a great discussion. I want to thank Megan for getting the ball rolling everyone for their comments. I'm not from Minnesota, and this is my first post here. I hope you will accept it for what it is and that it will add to the discussion.
I've been helping out a little bit with the Superdelegates.org websites. It is a Wiki where anyone can post information about superdelegates. I've spent a little time looking into the superdelegates in Minnesota and have helped get the Minnesota page into shape.
Based on CNN, Minnesota has 16 superdelegates. Superdelegate.org has identified 14 of these superdelegates. It doesn't include Megan. Any information that can be posted about Megan and the other unknown superdelegate would be greatly appreciated. Also, any corrections would be greatly appreciated.
Also, according to CNN, Minnesota went 67% to 32% for Obama in the caucuses, and the ratio matched the pledged delegates assigned, 48 for Obama and 24 for Clinton. Amongst the superdelegates, as identified by Superdelgates.org, the same ratio is playing out by superdelegates that have endorsed one candidate or another. 6 of the 9 have endorsed Obama and 3 of the 9 have endorsed Clinton.
We can spend a lot of time arguing about whether or not Superdelegates are good for the system, and I find it an interesting argument. One of the most compelling parts of the argument against superdelegates is the lack of transparency and accountability. One way of addressing this is by working together, and making the process more transparent and more accountable.
So, stop by at Superdelegates.org, add whatever information you can, and help make the process more transparent and accountable.
1983 Journal: Jan 26-28
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 20:28January 26, 1983: Feeling particularly romantic today. Again, very tired. Polished up documentation at work and learned more about security. Didn’t read today except the paper. Not feeling much like writing
January 27, 1983: Letter from Mom, investigating Omegamon etc. at work. Health food. Perhaps more important as Karmic massage oil. Towel hanging next to print of St Peter reflected in mirror. Not much reading today. I think I’ll read other than Tolstoy. Old glasses frame dig in behind ears.
January 28, 1983: Shining lips, shining eyes. (“Shining as she reeled him in”). Juror on a case about a con-man. (17 convictions) who pretended to be South African questions perceptions, like a philosopher on the jury. It’s rough living in a meet-eating world. We only perceive what people allow us to perceive (including ourselves?) Late for meetings. It is frustrating to see an artist put everything possible into a work and see others glance, perhaps even enjoy immensely, and move on.
Rain, work, and no profound thoughts
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 02/13/2008 - 20:17It’s been a busy day, driving through rain and slush, talking with an old friend about the importance of decentralized grassroots political action, working with a new Drupal 6.0 installation, and at the end of the day, catching up on emails and twitters. I’ve not been connected to Twitter or Second Life all day, nor have I looked at any emails since early this morning. Somehow, I feel a bit disconnected from the conversations, and don’t feel like I have much to say. If I wasn’t trying to write something every day, I this is a day I could easily have skipped.
