It’s the idea of how we’re able to build bases in our society where tolerance, understanding of diversity, integration and not discrimination will be the main policies.

When I’m speaking of love, when I’m speaking of reversing hate, I’m speaking not only of reconciliation - even I don’t use that word — I use another word in Spanish, that’s called “reencuentro”– it’s not reconciliation.

– Michelle Bachelet

On this fourth of July, 2024 it is appropriate to look forward to a time in the United States of America when the hateful passage marked by the intolerant era of twen-cen Republican repression will finally end, a time when concern for human rights, public service, and equal treatment under the law returns as a focus of government; a time when the great criminals are tried, found guilty, and punished; a time when the Rumsfelds, the Bush family, the Cheneys, and their hidden partners in corporate life are offered an opportunity to stand at the bar and speak honestly and share their motivations for all of us to understand.

Looking forward, how will we depolarize the American consciousness? How will we cut through the carefully cultivated hatred, strip away the barriers of wealth and class and reveal our common conditions?

Looking backward, how many layers of the onion must be peeled to reveal the roots of this evil? Is it enough to acknowledge the genocide perpetrated on our indigenous people, the terracide that continues from great mountain leveling coal excavations in the east to the cyanide laced mineral extraction that desolates further the landscape in the west?

Looking around us, is it enough to acknowledge the vile behavior of the corporate and wealthy elite? What about the racism that is part of the dialog at kitchen tables in the suburbs and inner cities all across the country? How can we stop the terracidal mania of the energy industries? How can we take these people and powers out of the game, put them on the bench, tear the greed and racism out of our play-book, neutralize the poison so that people of good will can go forward together improving the common lot of all life on the planet?

What can the United States of America do on this fourth of July to draw the line? I believe we must tell each other, “Up to this point, these vicious impertinent acts, this anachronistic competitive behavior was tolerated. Beyond this point we have no room in our power structures for people who behave this way, though we have love for them in our hearts.”

How did South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission deal with denial? What challenges does Chile face with their program of re-encuentro? How hard will it be for the people of the United States of America to dismount from our high horse and accept the facts, realize how we have acted and behave responsibly in the face of that realization?

Here are two links that might help us get started…

Greensboro

History and Reconciliation

Among the many things I find I have in common with Doc Searls…

One: Dentistry. Although Novocaine (the familiar brandname for procaine) had come into use in the 1950s, it didn’t become widespread in the dentistry profession until the 1960s. For reasons of convenience and cost, my parents sent me Dr. Phillips, whose office was upstairs over the candy store at the corner of Pleasant and Maywood Avenues, in downtown Maywood, New Jersey. And Dr. Phillips didn’t believe in Novocaine. In fact, he didn’t even use a high-speed drill until after 1960. His torture instrument of choice was a pulley-powered mother that dated from the 1930s. Since I required a lot of dentistry, I spent many very long hours gripping the arms of Dr. Phillips dental chair while he repeatedly said “Open…”

For me, it was Dr. Ryan on Monona Drive, and he was upstairs over the soda fountain, not the candy store, but the irony plays out just as well I think.

In praise of panel discussions… Sovereign Whores and Seditious Technology

“It’s in the interest of the city of Hamburg to make sure that its sex workers are protected.” … heels are incapacitating … but wait … there’s a fundamental power associated with height … spike heels are a tool of gender equity a tool of power … get Manolo on the phone right now!

Aside:  Massive multiplayer art work?

Thanks this morning to ArtFagCity without which, etc…

… I think is really great about the Eyebeam model is that they chose different reblogger every two weeks, thus ensuring a greater range of web surfing. Rhizome takes the superuser model (in other words they have staff rebloggers as opposed to rotating in guest rebloggers), which works well for them since their “superusers” actually live up to their titles, but no matter how good a reblogger is, you can become accustomed to their style and anticipate what they will post. In theory, the Eyebeam set up eliminates this problem, but they have been using the human tech-bot web surfer for some time now, so a little investigation into some new curatorial vision…

Aside:  Massive multiplayer networked music performance?

“Mass production is the lingua franca that tests the legibility of an idea… this project does have the social probe… the manufacturing pragmatics of shoe technology… we’ve seen a lot of tech introduced into shoes to service athletes and the military…” So hookers make sense, particularly in the area of stiletto heels, aren’t they just as deserving?

“It does test intimacy to share shoes…”

Aside:  Props to Purse Lips Square Jaw for sending me down this road via the rebloggers this morning…

“…with boots you could do so much.”

These are no ordinary shoes.

A compass and flashlight dangle from one shoelace. The pocket in the tongue is for money or pain relievers. A rough map of the border region is printed on a removable insole.

They are red, white and green, the colors of the Mexican flag. On the back ankle, a drawing of Mexico’s patron saint of migrants.

On this side of the border, the shoes sit in art collections or the closets of well-heeled sneaker connoisseurs. On the other side, in Tijuana, it’s a utilitarian affair: Immigrants-to-be are happy to have the sturdy, lightweight shoes for the hike - or dash - into the United States.

Their designer is Judi Werthein, an Argentine artist who moved to New York in 1997 - legally, she notes.

Finally, Reblogging Reeboks…