Digital Media at Work in Politics

Learning Block #3 is all about digital media. It's about using music, pictures, and video in powerful ways to get your message across.

This video is no way an endorsement, but rather what I feel is an excellent demonstration of a use of digital media to do exactly those things.



What Wikipedia has to say about the video: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_We_Can

Here is a bulk of the text used:

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.
We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.
But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.
Yes we can. Yes we can. Yes we can.
It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.
Yes we can.
It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom through the darkest of nights.
Yes we can.
It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.
Yes we can.
It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.
Yes we can to justice and equality. Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity. Yes we can heal this nation. Yes we can repair this world. Yes we can.

The full text can be found here: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Remarks_of_Senator_Barack_Obama_on_New_Hampshire_Primary_Night

Hooked on CNN

I have no idea what's wrong with me; I'm addicted to CNN.

I've never been much of a politics guy (in fact, it more often than not churns my stomach), for some odd reason though, I'm totally into this primary season... I mean come on, its the primaries, Indiana doesn't even get a voice in this race. But every night and every morning I've got to get my fix of politics. How's Billary (yes, that was intensional) doing in the polls? What's new with Obama? Is Mike Huckabee still in the race? What's this, Ralph is at it again?

I've always been a red state kind of guy, but could I go blue this year? Can you vote for someone with whom you don't totally agree on everything? It's all very interesting me.

What do I really feel about the issues? Does my voice really matter?

More than anything the thing that I am most shocked about is that all those important decisions are decided by less than 30% of the population (more people vote for American Idol than for president). Whatever the outcome I find it all fascinating. So CNN has become my new daily staple.

Well... balanced with a little humor:

Thanks Mike, you made my Saturday.

Status Quo

Do ever get tired of just being the same? Of going to the same places of doing the same things? Do you grow weary of never moving beyond your comfort zone?

I do.

I think of the biggest dangers of any educator is to just stop learning. “Well, that’s it, I’ve got my degree, I’ve got my job, and I’ve got my lesson plans. I’m all set. All I have to do now is sit back, coast, and perhaps grade a few papers.”

As a culture we settle too much. “Things, are fine, why rock the boat?” “I’m good enough, what’s the big deal?” This was my curse in high school and college. I didn’t care about pushing myself at all, I merely concerned myself with beating others. I graduated valedictorian of my High School class (probably didn’t know that did you?). But it wasn’t until my final term that I got straight A’s. The only reason why I did is because I wanted to see if I could do it taking Honors English, AP Calculus, AP Physics, and some other nerd-eque class. And I did… Meh, no big deal, but I didn’t finish with a 4.0 over all, I didn’t have to, I only ever did enough to be better than everyone else.

College was much the same thing. I took 23 credit hours, and worked two part time jobs, just because I could. I was the guy who hated who went the library the night before a huge paper was due, checked out a few books, opened them all up on my desk. I started writing my paper at around 10:00 pm, stopped around 1:30, got back up and 6:30, and turned in 15-20 pages fully sited at 8:00 am. I never proof read anything (this is one thing that I *still* struggle with, not so much so because I am lazy [any more], but rather, I since I know what I “wrote”, I cannot see the words that are missing or completely wrong, because when I read it, I see what was in my head and not what was in on the page).

But I never really pushed myself. I never really tried my hardest. It’s one of those things that despite my “accomplishments”, I am ashamed of.

When I think of my wasted opportunities, my wasted chances; not because I could be richer than I am now, or because I could have a better car or house (God forbid I live some place warm or cultured), but because I could have made a difference. I could have made a change in the world around me.

It’s because of those regrets that I push myself in learning new things each and every week. Those weeks that I consider failures are the ones where I didn’t challenge myself to grow from where I am currently. The ones where I didn’t create, I didn’t explore and I didn’t challenge.

The weeks I really hate are the ones where I don’t write anything. Don’t get my wrong, I’m no Jim Butcher, no Robert Ludlum, no… well anything. But that doesn’t matter, I still love to do it. I write for an audience of one (well sometimes two), but in the end, I write for me. I write because there is something in my head that I just have to get out. Some phrase pops into my head, “Flakes of red-brown metal broke free from the rusted bolt and Jack scraped the wrench across its surface.” I have no idea who Jack is. I don’t even know why he’s trying to open the bolt… but I want to find out. So I sit down and bang something out on the keyboard.

Most of the time it’s now very long (I send stupid emails to my office mates about completely useless things just to amuse them), but they are these quick bursts that spark from my fingers.

I don’t want to be the same today as I was yesterday. I want to be better. I want to be smarter. I want to have broken something, fixed something, created something, and somehow in some small way left my tiny hand print on the this giant world.

But more than fame, more than money, more than some great discovery, I want to make a difference in the lives of the people around me. That’s where I truly want to leave my mark. I want people to be better because they’ve known me. That’s really my desire for this class. I mean sure, hey, if you get an A, that’s great. If you go out and use some of this technology in your class room and it makes your job easier, and your students get some extra knowledge in their heads, that’s wonderful.

Honestly though, I want you to be a better person. I want you to push yourself a little be harder than you would have because you’ve met me. I want you to put in just a little bit extra effort because you know that you can, and more importantly should.

This week, push yourself. Be nicer, help someone out, do something that’s completely selfless. Don’t settle for status quo.

Share in the Blame

Perhaps it's a generational thing, maybe it's just me. But it seems more and more these days that people refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. Everyone is a victim, everything is someone else's fault.

I didn't get this accomplished because someone else prevented it. I didn't get the job because so and so didn't like me. It wasn't my fault, my alarm didn't go off. I didn't get my assignment done because the computer didn't work at the last minute. People don't want to face the fact that they are responsible for their own actions and own decisions.

You.

You are the one responsible. You are. Your choice. Your actions, your consequences. Your decisions, your rewards. It's time to step and take the responsibility for where you are at in your life. We are all big people and big people know where the buck stops.

We have to stop blaming everyone else. We have to stop blaming the past and making excuses. It's time that we share the blame.

This song is from my good friends Caedmon's Call.

Share in the Blame
Caedmon's Call


Don’t blame the bullet for the wars you have sown
Don’t blame the winter when you’ve forgotten your coat
When you make the same deals for a hundred years
and you wanna make a change
You gotta hold up the mirror and share in the blame

Don’t blame your brother for the color of his skin
don’t blame your neighbor for the house he lives in
from the same cloth, we are made of, we are just the same
you gotta hold up the mirror and share in the blame

(chorus)
like a coming of age, I am learning how to say
all the failures I’m dragging behind
Finding freedom to speak, freedom to release
Oh tonight I wanna make peace with you

Don’t blame the writer for the doubts in your head
Don’t blame the preacher for the lovers in your bed
When you find out that the world is round, everything is rearranged
You gotta hold up the mirror, and share in the blame

(chorus)

Don’t blame the president, don’t blame the king
Don’t blame your history for what might have been
we will be free where the grass is green and the lion is tame
if we just hold up the mirror now and share in the blame

It's Groundhog's Day... again.

From our buddy Uncle John's Almanac:

This celebration originated with German settlers of the 1700s, who brought “Candlemas Day” to America. According to tradition, if the sun shone on Candlemas Day, which came halfway between winter and spring, a badger would see its shadow—which meant six more weeks of winter. There were no badgers in Pennsylvania, so groundhogs, emerging from mid-winter hibernation, were accepted as a substitute.


WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? WHEN GROUNDHOGS PREDICT THE START OF SPRING, THEY’RE WRONG 72% OF THE TIME.

So there you go... go out and grab a woodchuck, marmot or ground squireel and see if winter will end soon.

And then when you're done, make sure you sit down and watch Groundhog Day (starring Mr. Bill Murray and the lovely Andie MacDowell).