Potpourri of News

I am not going to dance on their store closures -- but I am going to say that their lack of interest in customer service, particularly in this kind of economy, brings into question their business model. Can't say that I will miss them, and won't be sad if the last one I visited is on the "to be closed" list.

Research -- does it tell us the truth, what we want to hear, or something novel?? I am not sure ... and it is what I plan to engage in as my profession ... scary.

So, there is another flurry of news about Trayvon and George Z. ... we are becoming so intimate with these two characters, I wonder where we go next.  I can't help thinking that if either the police or the prosecutors had been willing to take responsibility for this situation, we would not have to be prosecuting this in the media -- a space where "facts" dribble in and sometimes turn out to be "opinions" and it is generally difficult to untangle the truth from scandal.

One piece of interest is the use of photos ... old, out dated, positioned to make us feel, think, see either one or the other as vulnerable or predatory... fascinating and terrifying - we are making policy based on this craziness, otherwise there wouldn't be such a thing as "stand your ground" laws...

I am super interested in the notion of "Hispanic" or "Latino" of any kind being equal to "minority" in popular media, his mother is Peruvian, hmmm... what does that tell us about him in terms of how he identifies himself ethnically or racially? Or more importantly, what does it tell us about how he is viewed by others? I would venture to say that race has never been an issue for him, until now.  And that it is quite ironic, but I guess not surprising, that in our society, you can grab for the "darkie" race when you are trying to exculpate yourself.  Thank you, Angela Davis, for bringing that perspective to our debate the other night!

While I am on the subject of Dr. Davis, let me say, I was pleased to hear her say that "one" of the things we "can" attribute to the Occupy movement is the "ability to talk about Communism in public" -- pleased because I was heartened to hear her intimate that these protesters might leave something to be desired for an og radical such as herself.  Here is the one thing they have done that I can whole-heartedly back, from the NPR piece:  Groups within the Occupy Wall Street movement are trying to overhaul the banking system — and they even dream of a new kind of bank. One activist sees "a bank that would be democratic, that would be owned by its employees and by its customers."

Whenever we lose one of these voices there is a part of me that wonders if there is someone coming behind that will be able to fill the void.  I guess I can take solace in the fact that her voice is recorded for posterity in her literary work...

[photo credit, me, 2010 June, Tahoe, at the best wedding ever.]