WWW www.habermas.org

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: November 19, 2004
Latest Update: December 2, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Topic of the Week:

Frozen Actions: The Families Are Frozen, Too

Jessica Graham came across a poem about a young woman who died in a car crash caused by a young driver who was drinking. The dominant discourse has had a strong tendency over all genders, races, and classes to accept drunk driving as socially acceptable. It's not. It kills. Now there's a piece of dominant discourse we can change, each one of us, by keeping each other aware of the dangers, and by not accepting them as trivial or socially acceptable. And this is one of those social issues on which we are NOT a people divided. Talk to your friends, your neighbors, express your disapproval. Make them aware.

You'll find the poem and suggestions for using it in a project on Sometimes What's Done Cannot Be Undone. WAR is not the only kind of killing we need to stop.

Note that the painting has changed. Peter Aguilera made me realize how very deep the harm and pain go:

I was reading the project ideas on drunk driving, as well as this week's post on Dear Habermas and felt I had to share this.

Obviously, when there is a drunk driving accident, both the victim and the driver must undergo a lot. But I watched someone suffer who had no part in the accident, my mother. My mother's husband was driving under the influence and hit someone else who ended up dying. He was taken into custody, and although he was guilty, it was a year and a half before he was actually sentenced. During that year and a half I watched the torment the legal processes placed upon my mother. She has spent a fortune paying legal bills, collect phone calls, and basically supporting a husband in jail. She in no way condones his actions, and her whole heart went out to the victim's family, but she still loves her husband who caused the life of another to be no more. Her husband was recently sentenced to life in prison. I literally watched her heart ache. Prior to this marriage, my father left her a widow. I've seen my mother struggle my whole life, and now she continues to, because her husband did not think when he got behind the wheel of that vehicle. I guess what it boils to is that drunk driving is such a grand scale problem. It clearly does not only impact the victim and the drunk driver, but like many other social problems, it spreads like wildfire to effect many others who were not even involved.

Peter A. Aguilera, 595
Message No. 1596

To which Penny responded in Message No. 1701:

I just wanted to say how i feel for u and your family. it's traumatic because it's an indirect way that she suffers for the actions of someone else and what do u do to take away the pain? it's similar to that of watching my mom deal with the child that she brought into this world that she'll probably never see outside of prison again. there is so much involved in these types of situations and the impact they can have on the lives of so many people. Many people don't understand it, but like u, i've lived and still am.....Penny

To which Delphene responded in Message No. 1739:

Nobody can imagine the pain that drunk drivers, and people driving under the influence can cause. My great niece was six years old when she was hit by a car, that was being driven by a man that was under the influence of PCP . The results of the accident caused so much damage to her little body. All of her cousins and aunties suffered depression, grief and sorrow. Her leg had to be amputated due to the damage that was done by the truck that hit her. This man drove into the tire station where her and my sister, which is her grandmother were waiting to have the tire changed on my sister's car. To this day, she suffers also from bladder disfunction and must wear diapers. The accident happend two years ago and I can not tell you what it has done to me as well. My daughter made a story that she reads often. The name of the story she wrote is called, "The girl with the Barbie leg. My great niece name is Selenia, she is such a beautiful little girl. God has blessed her with an exceptional spirit. She had finished her treatment at Shriner's Hospital and has recieved her prosthesis (leg). She is such a trooper. Her mother suffers depression. We are constantly praying for the family. My sister was sufferig from deep depression because she feels like it was her fault that her granddaughter was hurt in her care. I must admit, I was very hesitant about babysitting my grand children. I could not visit my little grand niece in the hospital and it was a year before I could even face her. I can not tell you how my heart hurt when I did see her. This man was not accountable for the privilege that he had been given to drive. Driving is a privilege that comes with a great responsibility. I think a person that drives drunk or under the influence is showing disrespect for life. There should be stiffer penalities for people that are this irresponsible and have no understanding of how precious life is. Defensive diving, does anyone know what this entails? Yes, we are our brothers keeper. We need to restore some type of humankindness. This is what respect is really about. If you drink, don't drive!! If you smoke some type of chemicals, don't drive!!! If you don't have a drivers licenses, don't drive!!! This lack of respect causes pain that doesn't go away, it takes years to adjust to the damage that has been done.

If we provide enough naked space forums in which people are welcomed in good faith to understand one another, we learn how much we have shared of human experience. In the same community in which we find our victims we find our perpetrators, and all their families trying to put the pieces back together. This, my friends, is called restorative justice, this putting the pieces back together and healing together.

NEWS, Announcements, and

Current Discussion Topics:

Freeing Dominant Discourse
A Site Map: Click on Divisions for Table of Contents Sections

Plans for Promoting the Naked Space Exhibit:

Ben Plaisted wrote:

"Ok, so we have an idea to try and drive some traffic to the exhibit on Dec. 1 and 2nd. Jeanne can you please put this on Habermas so that people there can see what we are trying to do. I agree with Penny, that we need to make some catch phrases or statements (see article below on exhibit in Austria) that will make people stop and question what they are reading. The statements don't even need to relate to the Naked Space, a sign could say "Beheaded in America?" and at the bottom naked space this way with an arrow or directions.

"The posters only need to catch people's attention. This way we are promoting the Gallery Exhibit along with making an artistic statement. So far Penny, Sawson, and Nancy have expressed an interest. All we need to do is collect phrases off of Transform from classmates (all who are interested please help) and then meet for a short time before Dec 1st and create our posters. I would estimate we need at least 20 posters to make an impact. Maybe Jeanne can give us some insight as to whether or not we will encounter resistance from administrators for our promotional campaign."

I can't see why there would be any resistance to such a noteworthy academic undertaking. Go for it. jeanne

My Weekend and Weclome to It:

jeanne and Arnold and Funny Face and Black Pharaoh and Talking Cat, all in the space where their waterbed used to be. That's virtual water around the bed (oops, NOT-bed). We mopped it all up before we laid down all the blankets and pillows and stuffed animals and whatever we could find for camping outdoors. (oops, indoors)

• Wednesday, November 17, jeanne and Pat will be available in SBS E104 for project work and activity from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.,

• then upstairs in our office from 4:00 to around 7:30 p.m. and in our office on Tuesady and Thursday from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m. When we get desperate for something to eat we go to the cafeteria (the soup and pizza side), so come find us there, if you need us.

  Exhibit Projects

• First Version of Table of Contents for Hypertext Poem: Freeing the Dominant Discourse

• Proposed Issues for Inclusion in Exhibit

• Exhibit Projects on Respect
• Exhibit Projects on A Nation Not Divided
• Exhibit on Campus Parking
• Exhibit Projects On Building Effective Bridges to Awareness with Agencies

• How to Produce a Project for the Naked Space Exhibit
• Coordinating Collaborative Naked Space Exhibit Project Work
• Syllabus for Graduate Seminar in Women and Poverty, Fall 2004 Sample syllabus instructions on exhibit.

Last Spring's Online Naked Space Exhibit

Freeing the Feminine Other:

Hypertext Gallery Exhibit from Fall 2004

 

Hypertext Project Map
Link on Section Titles for Hypertext Poem and Different Sections of Table of Contents.

• Debriefing Readings for the Hypertext Project: "Freeing the Feminine Other" Many new readings added. The discourse goes on. This material is later presented at conferences and in articles.

Joining and Participating in the Yahoo Groups
on Transforming Dominant Discourse

I know that the elections have taken time from our traditional class activities. They are important. I accept that. But PLEASE do not forget that you are responsible for following the weekly issue of Dear Habermas, AND for participating in some manner in the class and/or Transforming Dominant Discourse discussions. AND the day after the elections is the day to start getting your project for Naked Space ready. You are also responsible for checking the class rosters on Collaborative Learning Reports:

• 328cllst.htm
  what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Agencies Class.
  
• 367cllst.htm
  what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Sociology of Law Class.
  
• 370cllst.htm
  what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Moot Court Class.
  
• 395cllst.htm
  what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Women and Poverty Class.
  
• 595cllst.htm
  what jeanne knows about what you're learning in Grad. Women and Poverty Class.

• Home Page for transform-dom You can read all the messageson Transforming Dominant Discourse from this page. Just click on messages in the left hand frame. You can read the messages, even if you're having difficulty signing up.

• Home Page for transspan You can read all the messages in spanish on Transforming Dominant Discourse from this page. Just click on messages in the left hand frame. You can read the messages, even if you're having difficulty signing up. And you're welcome to put up messages for friends, relatives, community messages, who want to join the discussion but are not used to the computer. You can print the responses for them later. Make technology work for freedom and democracy

• Home Page for Obesity Support

• Instructions page for joining transform_dom and transspan
• Link for joining tranform_dom:

  
  Click to join transform_dom

Shared Projects for Transforming Discourse:

I Lost my Answerability Somewhere

Understanding social justice and criminal justice: Telling Police What They Want to Hear, Even if It's False Backup of Los Angeles Times Article on Confessions. Where is the naked space in the criminal justice system? Does that matter?

Life Space and The Front Porch Art Crawl

My Psychological Life Space and Welcome To It! (Thurber reference)
I have no idea why the dairy cow is there; I just know that she's important.

As we weather this election, lots of life spaces, with lots of different issues and lots of different valences or priorities, are coming together in what could become the seeds of newly transformed dominant discourse. Try using this image to color your preferences differently, resize them, rename them, and generally redraw your own life space. Then asked parents, spouses, children, friends to join with you and create a whole scrapbook of life spaces out of this election and our coming together.

Review the theory on Kurt Lewin and Psychological Life Space. It helps me understand communication lots of times. There are myriad other theories that work. As you come across them, pick the one that works best for you. You can locate stuff on James Thurber by entering James Thurber "My life and welcome to it" as a Google search. And youll find more on this topic under Rhetoric and Reason and Ideology and Governance Discourse and . . . where I accidentally started over after Halloween Trick or Treat.

The Front Porch Art Crawl Here is an example in which our Naked Space Exhibit takes on some of the same concern for an academy-community bridge as a Learning Center in St.Paul, Minnesota. This project will revolve around contacting them, adapting as much as we can from their project, and sharing our project with them.

jeanne's Lecture Notes:

• Chronological Index to Lecture Notes Not yet updated. Have to go to Emmanuel Presbyterian Church tonight - no time to update. sorry.

Mentoring

• Mentoring Help for New Students with Frequently Asked Questions
  
• Mentoring Help for Returning Students with More Frequently Asked Questions
  
• Shared Reading Suggestions

• Preparing for Graduate Study:
• Test Prep Preview Joshua L. Stewart, recommended this site because it has free practice tests. If you're thinking of taking the GRE, the LSAT, or any other graduate entry test, this might be a good place to gather some early information. Joshua suggested it for Praxis Practice, but a quick first look suggests they don't mean by praxis what we do. Check it out, anyway, if you have some spare time. jeanne

Academic Support

• A Range of Sources on Global Events

  Left/Right Perspectives - Cursor - New York Times - The National Review
  Arts and Letters Daily - The Economist - The Sierra Club - The Guardian
  Wall Street Journal - The Weekly Standard - The Nation - BBC NEWS | Americas
  Los Angeles Times - Chicago Tribune - La Opinion - The Washington Post
  Cursor's Al Jazeera Archive - Ha'aretz - Palestine Monitor - Palestine Report

  Indymedia - Mother Jones - BBC News - New Profile - KPFK Progressive Radio
  Progressive Sociologists Network Environmental Working Group

• Mentoring

  Resource Literacy

  • Plagiarism Watch www.streetgangs.com site. The intelligent and effective use of resources means that you have to be careful not to plagiarize other people's material. We have several files on plagiarism, but I think the one that might make the most sense to you is this complaint on streetgangs.com. They give you samples of sites that have taken their material without citation, even at colleges, and they also give you examples of sites that have used their material with proper attribution. I find the irony poetic, and hope that their message will get through to you the importance of attribution. Dr. O'Connor on his Mega Criminal Justice site led me to streetgangs.com and noted that others frequently hack into the site. For that reason I have created a backup copy for your use in case you cannot access the actual site. Please be sure to attribute any citation to streetgangs.com. jeanne Backup.

    Shared Reading Suggestions, many with templates already filled in.

Using Academic Language Effectively

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

and Careers

• Resumes:

  • College Journal Resume Suggestions . . . Backup

• Letters of Recommendation:

  • Letters of Recommendation: How to get me to respond to your request. Many of you need letters. If you will follow this format, I can do them quickly and make them good.
  • Dog Letters If you do not give me adequate information, but do manage to get my attention, you may end up with a dog letter. That is a letter that says that you work well with people, that you are enthusiastic, that you persist at getting things done, and that everyone likes you. Of course, my dog gets along well with people, brings his ball to them, is enthusiastic, and persists at getting them to take his ball. Everyone likes my dog. That's a dog letter. It's so general it could be about my dog. jeanne

Play:

• jeanne and the 2004 election
  minor modification of Ward Sutton's NY Times drawing

   

  
  
  Human's Ancestral Tree Adds a Twig

  See how much we "know!" So Munchkins could have been some of our ancestors. Happy Halloween and Day of the Dead.

  
  

  Tales of Halloween
  Visit National Geographic for Learning and Fun

Sneaky Strokes and Flying Good Dogs

Flying Dog is also a painting by Zhang Kai. Best I've every come across to illustrate our site with magic numbers and unicorns and whipped cream cats and now, flying dogs:

Flying Good Dogs: Whenever something happens in class that works out well, that inspires you, that helps in studying, whatever, take a few minutes to send us an e-mail. We'll post it where all of us can learn from it, including other teachers.

You can also send an email to the Who to Take Site:

• Who To Take at Cal State Dominguez Hills
• Who To Take - Colleges in General

---

---

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Individual copyrights by other authors may apply.