Talk on the road

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Peggy L Chinn

Wow — it has indeed been 2 weeks since I last blogged! During that time I have covered hundreds of miles – Connecticut to visit family, back home after a 24 hour delay in Atlanta with enough time to do some laundry and re-pack, then off to Albuquerque for a few wonderful days with good friends.  Of course the highlight of this kind of travel is being with family and friends, woman speakercatching up on all the stuff that life brings in ways only possible when you sit together and chat (or ride around in a car, etc.), and having great conversations about some of our favorite topics, one of which for me of course is politics and the state of the world.

So in the car yesterday I posed a question to the 4 other women riding along: “How long do you think it will be before we have a female version of the ‘Weiner’ case?” Of course this prompted a lively discussion, and I am confident that many readers of this blog will have something to say about this!  The question itself presumes that women are of course no less vulnerable Continue reading →

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Perfect day for a bit of comic relief!

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Peggy L Chinn

Today the political news highlight — Anthony Weiner’s confession — was very disturbing. Here is a man who seemed to be a politician with integrity, good sense, and most important a terrific ability to stand up for a cause with good humor.  So this confession was a huge disappointment.  If you missed the Melissa Harris-Perry’s interview on Rachel Maddow’s show – check it out.  As she so elogquently points out, this is not just a scandal, but this sort of thing, in this day and age, represents a betrayal of public trust, and it is no longer acceptable for public officials to indulge in “ick” (unlike prior generations of politicians during times when private lives could be hidden from view).

So in bad need of comic relief, I turned to one of my very favorite YouTube videos … one I hope the our President watches every single day of his elected life!

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Anatomy of Peace

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Peggy L Chinn

I am almost done with this book and I highly recommend it … I found it in my quest to find current ideas related to Peace and Power, which I am currently revising. There are lots of very similar ideas in this book to the ideas in Peace and Power, but the ideas are Cover of the book Anatomy of Peacepresented in a story-like fashion.  It is a (fictionalized) story about the real lives of real people, is a very engaging way to get across some really challenging and deep ideas about human nature and human experience.

It is the story of a group of parents who are enrolling their delinquent teen-agers in an intensive program to turn their lives around, and the parents are required to attend a 2-day intensive workshop themselves at the time they drop their kids off. In the book, you follow the narrative of the workshop, and get a glimpse into the underlying thoughts and challenges that many of the parents are facing. The group is facilitated by an Israeli Jew, and a Palestinian Arab, both of whose fathers were killed in the Palestinian/Israeli conflicts in the early ’70’s. When they met (both families had moved to the United States) they were both harboring deep wounds and bad feelings about the other side of the conflicts, but had begun a journey to heal, not only their own inner Continue reading →

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Frustrated with TV so-called “news”? You (we) are not alone!

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Peggy L Chinn

Recently I came across a blog that caught my attention – Left Coast Voices.  Alon Shalev blogs every day (which kind of boggles my mind) and is very interested in having some discussion based on his posts.  But one thing that drew my attention to his blog is his comment, on today’s post, about the total insanity of the week-end chat shows.  In my Horrified viewer watching the newsearlier adult years I recall some of these shows as being prestigious public media outlets for serious debate, and reasonable coverage of current events.  But now I, like Alon, can hardly bear to have them on.  Everyone talks over everyone else, and most of what they are pushing amounts to pure propaganda.

I think one reason that I have turned to blogging is that it is possible to find some reasonable perspectives about conditions and events in the world that move light years beyond what we are fed on TV, and even surpass Continue reading →

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Reflections on digital literacy

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Peggy L Chinn

Many of my friends and family have the impression that I stay ahead of the curve where all things digital are concerned … but this is not exactly an accurate perception!  Indeed, I love new tech gadgets, and continually search for ways to do things more efficiently.  My love of efficiency actually comes from reading “Cheaper by the Dozen” when I was about 10 years old (I think this book was first published in 1950, when I would have been 9!).  So given this life-long propensity, it is true that I have welcomed the digital age with open arms.

But the main reason that I am reflecting on this particular topic is that I have been embroiled in a digital challenge to understand “backchannels.”  When I face a challenge like this, it always renews my appreciation and empathy for folks who self-identify as “technologic peasants” (credit to Althea for this very fun and descriptive phrase!).  For those of us who started life with the idea that efficiency was closely connected to reducing physical motion (as the Gilbreth Dad advocated in “Cheaper”), digital literacy just leaves us in a forest where we cannot find our way out.  We marvel at the agility of our kids and grandkids who navigate the digital world with lightening speed and come up with stuff we never imagined possible!  There is something that they can see and do and think about in ways that we missed … very akin to what those of us who can only speak one language missed early in life.  We are far behind in what our minds, eyes and hands will “do” Continue reading →

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Bless the Grass — and the Truth!

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Peggy L Chinn

I have long loved Malvina Reynolds and her amazing music.  On my walk this morning I saw this beautiful little flower pushing through the concrete and was reminded again of Malvina’s song — “god bless the grass.”  Unfortunately, there is not a recording of this song by Malvina on iTunes (although some songs of hers are there).  But Sara Thomsen, and also Pete Seeger, both have beautiful recordings of the song.  I had not listened to the words in quite a while, so it was especially meaningful to realize the connection that Malvina drew between the grass growing through cement, and

“the truth,
that fights toward the sun;
the lies roll over it, and think that it is done.
It moves through the ground, and reaches for the air
And after a while, it’s growing everywhere.”

I wish Sara Thomsen had a YouTube Video of “god bless the grass,” but she does have a wonderful YouTube collection of other songs, and this one in particular will be one of my all-time favorites!  A Woman’s Place … you will not regret taking a few minutes to view this!

Posted in Girls, Making change, Music, Social Issues | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Facts Trump Opinions

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Peggy L Chinn

Woo hoo!!!  This is on the ad panel of the Frank Ogawa Square bus stop on Broadway  in Oakland!

Facts Trump Opinions

Located on the Frank Ogawa Square bus stop on Broadway, downtown Oakland

I have seen it now for a couple of weeks and today got a snapshot of it! This ad alone is food for lots of commentary, but what it brings up for me recently is my quest to try to understand how, and why, so many people actually fall for the stuff that not only Trump, but so many others, are spewing forth these days, and why various forms of conspiracy theory are so appealing.  Of course I have my own rather unbecoming “explanations” for this … you can only guess!

So I googled the terms “fact vs opinion” to see what might some up — interestingly, lots of pretty lame web sites that are designed for grade school kids to learn how to distinguish fact from opinion.  OK … so why are these lessons not taking hold, and the power of blatantly false opinion still holding such power?  Continue reading →

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Living in the O

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Peggy L Chinn

For readers who live in Oakland, here is a blog you might want to tune in to … Living in the O. If you do not live here, check it out anyway, particularly if you are wishing you could live in a place where progressives rule!  I enjoy every post on this blog, but a couple of days ago, they reported on attending one of the Obama fundraising events here in the Bay area.  If you are one of the many more or less disillusioned Obama supporters, you will want to read this post …

I thought of sharing this post, and the “living in the O” blog today when I went for my walk around the city, and realizing all over again how much I have grown to love this city.  Several years ago when I lived somewhere — maybe Buffalo or Denver — I visited Kelleth, who had just moved to Oakland from San Francisco.  I could not grasp why anyone would make such a move, and only much later appreciated his explanation — “the weather is better!”  But there is oh so much more than better weather!  Yes, we are only a 15 minute BART ride from the heart of downtown San Francisco and go over often for events, shopping, meeting up with friends, etc.  But there is nothing like this gem of a city — problems and all.

I pulled out my iPhone on today’s walk and took a few photos to share — along with some comments about why I stopped for each photo!

Oakland’s Chinatown .. huge, and equal to San Francisco in every way except thatOakland Chinatown street there are no tourists, and essentially no souvenir shops!  Wonderful restaurants, grocery shops (with a huge range of kitchen and household goods) .. a very fun place to poke around!

Bordering the hustle of Chinatown and the downtown district is Lake Merritt, anLake Merritt amazing city feature that is bounded all around by lights that sparkle at Continue reading →

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Bay Area Women who Rock!

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Peggy L Chinn

Living in Oakland California means a host of “happenings” that easily lead to a whirlwind of activity, but one of the most important thing going on here for Karen

Ladyslipper Music Catalog cover

LadySlipper Music Catalog

and me is the endless opportunity to see and hear women musicians performing live! Women still have a tough challenge in the world of music, and access to their music, particularly women who are not making it on the top charts, is very difficult.  For years, Ladyslipper Music has provided an important resource for those of us who want the music, and has been even more important for the women who perform.

What we experience here in the Bay Area is far from the “Michigan” experience (the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival), but as far as the music is concerned, we have the rare opportunity to indulge in the music 12 months of the year!  I am a fan of all of them … but here are the groups that we are following most closely these days: Continue reading →

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Girls and Social Media

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Peggy L Chinn

So I finished reading Peggy Orenstein’s book “Cinderella Ate My Daughter” several days ago, and have been thinking about the last couple of chapters for days.  Here she writes about the role of technology in girls lives (from toddler-hood onward)!  Several years ago I wrote an editorial in Advances in Nursing Science about the lack of women’s presence on the Web, and what this absence means for women beingGirl in computer “present” in the world where it counts.  I should have anticipated what might be coming!  Lo and behold, among very young kids all the way through college, research shows that there is no disparity in pure numbers based on gender when it comes to knowing and using the resources of the web.  But there is a gender difference — boys tend to play games. Girls like some games (of a different sort), they love to draw and create stuff on line, but mostly — Continue reading →

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