WWW www.habermas.org

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: December 11, 2004
Latest Update: December 16, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Topic of the Week:

May Your Faith, Your Ontological Hope,
Guide and Support You

I didn't have a lot of time to put up this week's issue. I'll finish it later this weekend. The idea of the painting has been with me for the better part of this last week. I think of religion and spirituality as bringing support, ontological hope, awareness of the Other and of the need for social justice in inter-relating with the Other. I believe that that philosophy is true, even for atheists and agnostics. Though you may have missed the opportunities that would have given you a shaman-like connection with God (whatever that term means to each of us), ethics, ontological hope (the kind Freire describes that gives us the strength to go forward in life), social justice are still on the agenda if you are to be able to look back on your life with satisfaction that you lived it as you did. Whether you take that hope, ethics, social justice agenda from a formal religion, or from your own or your family or community's counsel, these are still the issues that bind our communities in the world of humans, who are social, very social creatures.

As I lectured this week, I also think of mythos (which includes spirituality and transcendence as we understand them) and logic (which seeks scientific approaches of rational thought to guide us as we advance in some ways through the ages) as not so separate as we are sometimes told. Just as almost every social issue is inter-dependent on the infrastructure in which it occurs, so also is mythos and logos inter-dependent, shaping the world interdependently.

What I was trying to say in this painting is what i have proposed for the independent study project on Religion as a Present Social Issue for next semester. At it's core, spirituality reaches out to mythos, to transcendentalism, to all that we as humans cannot "know," in the logos sense of that term. I used a kind of Rothko abstract as the base of the painting to indicate that.

But in times such as these, logos interferes with whatever mythos we have chosen for our belief system, and there are those who would control our beliefs, both for personal gain, and for the assurance that they are "right" in their sense of "knowingness." Jonathan Lear on Knowingness. This results in the kind of humor we saw in the election with "Jesusland" and the United States of Canada. I represented that kind of split by placing three religious symbols over the original Rothko-like piece: Over the center an agitated, somewhat aggressive Christian cross; in the lower corner, a collection of curves and decoration I identified with Islam, and in the top left corner my first version of religions like Zen and Buddhism that aspire to guide us into the peace of the transcendental state.

The result, for me, is a painting that reflects the turmoil of our present differences laid over the calm and peace and love we seek beyond difference.

References:

• Rothko Painting National Gallery of Art.

  "Rothko largely abandoned conventional titles in 1947, sometimes resorting to numbers or colors in order to distinguish one work from another. The artist also now resisted explaining the meaning of his work. "Silence is so accurate," he said, fearing that words would only paralyze the viewer's mind and imagination."

• Mark Rothko Untitled Work

  
  Mark Rothko, Untitled [Seagram Mural],c. 1958, National Gallery of Art, Gift of The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., 1986.43.156
  "Rothko's work began to darken dramatically during the late 1950s. This development is related to his work on a mural commission for the Four Seasons restaurant, located in the Seagram Building in New York City. Here Rothko turned to a palette of red, maroon, brown, and black. The artist eventually withdrew from this project, due to misgivings about the restaurant as a proper setting for his work. He had, however, already produced a number of studies and finished canvases, two of which are included in the present installation. In the Seagram panels, Rothko changed his motif from a closed to an open form, suggesting a threshold or portal. This element may have been related to the architectural setting for which these works were intended."

NEWS, Announcements, and

Current Discussion Topics:

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 messages 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.

• 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

Ideas for the Spring 2005 Naked Space Exhibit:

• Life Space and The Front Porch Art Crawl
  
  

  • 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.
  • On Tuesday and Thrusday of this week, I'm going to ask you to map out your own life space with concerns that you are feeling with dominant discourse. We'll work together, make suggestions to each other, and I'll try to shape the site around those concerns in the coming months. We can share your life space drawings over transform_dom.

  • Archaeological Collage

jeanne's Lecture Notes Since the Exhibit:

• Index to Interim Report on Teaching Model
• Interim Report: Technological Access to Our Teaching Model Issues raised in draft report.
• Interim Report: Diverse Needs Served by the Naked Space Exhibit
• Interim Report: Transforming Dominant Discourse on Library Quiet
• Interim Report: Fees and Cashier Problems: Tackling Problems that Occur in the System at School

• Mental Health of Returning Soldiers. Lecture based on Ney York Times article: Mental Health of Returning SoldiersLink from Truthout to New York Times. Backup.
• Link to Truthout article by Michale Moore likening Democratic depression to abuse syndrom. Very well done, very profound. I think we need to talk about this one. Miko's link, again. jeanne
• Link to Truthout story on Ohio voting in Presidential election Thanks, Miko, for the the link to Truthout. jeanne
• Affirmative Action and Unreason in the System Article up, but no discussion questions yet.
• Traveling Exhibit Plans for Social Construction of Reality Discussion questions included.
• Contemporary Art, Culture, and Social Issues Discussion questions included.
• Subtle Messages of Discrimination Discussion questions included.
• Traveling Exhibit Plans for Social Construction of Reality Discussion questions included.
• FDA Regulation in a Corporate-Based Administration Discussion questions included.
• Soldiers Retained Beyond Limits of Enlistment Discussion questions included.
• Governance Discourse on King/Drew Theory suggestions included.

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 LAST, 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:

• Up soon.

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.