o'stephanie's Open Salon Blog

Small Miracle in the Blogosphere

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:01:10 -0500

There is a small miracle happening in the blogosphere.

After the tragic Tucson killings, there was an explosion of stories and articles on the bogosphere blaming both rightwing and leftwing vitriol for the violence. Emotions were at a fever pitch. Under this firestorm, a few bloggers were not diving into the maelstrom but began a discussion of how we debate each other. We represented the full political spectrum and had often heatedly debated issues just the week before.

We met on a post regarding speaking out about hate speech published by a Republican. We continued the conversation on another post about the call for civility resonating with the public by a labor leader. As we began to really communicate with one another, some apologized for any hurtful words they may have used in debate. Some pledged to never be as uncivil as they had been in the past. Others said they would try. We agreed that both the right and the left wing media and public figures had contributed to the present uncivil public discourse. We began crossing the political divide, friending those we had passionately disagreed with only the day before.

The idea of a nonpartisan, nonpolitical petition supporting civility in our public discourse was born. A dozen of us agreed to cosponsor an agreed-upon petition. Via email, we exchanged ideas and created a nonpartisan and nonpolitical petition. One cosponsor suggested the online petition site to host the petition. Another poster submitted the petition to the website and alerted the other cosponsors that it was up and ready.

On the the Tuesday evening following the Tucson shootings, the article about the Americans United for Civility Petition was posted with the backing of these conservative, progressive and independent cosponsors.

Direct Link to the Americans United for Civility Petition

As bloggers came by to sign the petition, they made comments such as “I don’t often agree with you on anything but I agree that we can do better”. Folks pledged to think before they wrote and to be more civil.

We witnessed a groundswell of support for the President’s call to our better angels. We now have bloggers whose avatars indicate allegiance to Palin posting articles praising President Obama for unifying the nation, embracing for the very first time that they finally feel that he is their president too. This great and good news is only a speed bump on mainstream media’s race to outrun any possibility for change in our political climate.

Below are some of the comments that this process has generated:

“The political discourse has been a runaway train for a long time now, exponentially gathering speed. This tragedy was like someone pulling the emergency brake chord bringing the problem to the forefront for discussion and resolution. Whether or not the politics had anything to do with the shooter's motivation is beside the point.”

“Left or right, Dem or Republican, Liberal, Con, Independent, Tea Party, Libertarian, it's our America and we're all making it unrecognizable with all of the hate and division.”

“I know we disagree on most everything. Your article on Obama's speech was a definite olive branch. I hope we can have respectful dialogue in the future, in fact I sincerely look forward to it. :) I make a vow to you to keep it respectful and peaceful as well.”

One conservative blogger described his evening trying to watch the news. He turned on one news program after the other and found them only rehashing the "left said" "right said" divide. He wound up watching a sitcom.

When Americans realize that both the right and left media have a monetary interest in continuing the politics of division, it can open their eyes so they may judge for themselves.

Here on Open Salon, Huffington Post blogger Ron Robinson has written a post on which I engaged him about my notion that if we choose the path of blame we cement the discord in our country and will find it impossible to return to the opportunity that our President has given us to unite as a common people. In the best you-are-either-with-us-or-against-us rhetoric, he asked me to not comment further and to convey a message to my friend Sean Hannity. (His avatar is the latest one on my friends list. You may find our interchange there.) I am in my third year here at Open Salon, and I leave it to my friends whether I have ever given any hint that I endorse right wing rhetoric.

Challenging the left or right wing media is a dangerous almost revolutionary action.

The media will not lead in any change in the political climate because they profit from discord, not discourse. The people must lead them. It was an eye-opener to me to receive negative feedback from two news media sources which are both widely considered progressive.

I have lately come to see clearly that all media is exactly like, they differ only in the Brand they push--Left vs Right. Their only aim is to protect their bottom line like any corporate entity. And they appear to feel strongly that the talk about creating a more meaningful dialogue by the American people by abandoning their Brandname Products is a threat to their quarterly profits.

We are at a crossroads and can choose the path of blame or we can choose the path of rejecting divisions and try to improve our political discourse as our President asked us to do in the name--not of being polite or nice--but of finally being able to discuss the serious issues which we are faced with as a people. If we just keep pointing fingers and using personal attacks, we will never get down to business.

There is a sense that we are no longer allowing the politics of division to divide us. There is a sense that we the people can lead our media and public figures to heed the challenge that President Obama gave us to make America every bit as good as Christina imagined.

Petition for Civility

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:01:08 -0500

Americans United for Civility Petition

WE THE UNDERSIGNED American citizens,

Mournful of the deaths of many at the hands of one in Tucson,

Inspired by the bravery of heroes who risked their lives to save
others, and

Mindful of the present state of incivility which exists in public discourse;

Do hereby call upon elected officials, the media, and all citizens to:

Reflect upon the recent tragedy,

Examine their contribution to our present political climate, and

Commit to discourse that is civil and does honor to the United States of America.

Link to petition Americans United for Civility.

This petition is not intended to endorse any political group or stance nor am I acting as a representative of any one or another political group. This is a petition to support freedom of speech with responsibility to the society as a whole, indifferent to political, religious or organizational beliefs.

The intended recipients are elected officials and media of all political persuasions. If you have suggestions of specific recipients, please send PMs to me in order to free the comments from point and counterpoint arguments.

Please feel free to post a link to this petition in email to friends, websites, elected officials or organizations which you may feel are appropriate.

Peace to all!

Photograph from Connecticut Times online.

Corvallis Muslims Condemn Terrorism in Portland

Tue, 21 Dec 2010 10:12:32 -0500

On Sunday, Amir Mohammed Siala brought the healing of my small town of Corvallis, Oregon, full circle to Pioneer Square in Portland—the scene of the recently foiled Christmas Tree Lighting bomb plot.

After the candlelight vigil in Corvallis which was organized to reassure our American Muslim community over the firebombing of the Mosque, Amir Siala was so moved by the response that he wanted to share it with all Oregonians and the world, so he brought this message to Portland where the cycle of violence began.

The story of how our town of 50,000 reacted to violence with love attracted international attention. Members of the Mosque reported that friends and family overseas had contacted them to express joy and thankfulness that Americans had done such a thing. Amir Siala expressed the hope that the world could learn from “our little town with its big people” about how to meet violence with love and forgiveness.

In the best Oregonian diversity-rich tradition, the list of almost three dozen organizations who sponsored this rally included Buddhists, Unitarians, Catholics and alternative Catholics, Jews, Christians, Quakers, the Japanese Americans Citizens League and many more.

Pioneer Square is rightly called Portland’s "living room". The crowd began small but grew as shoppers were attracted to the hand-lettered signs of peace, love and unity that the American Muslim youth had made the night before. Portlanders joined with Corvallis folks to listen to the speakers and stand together in the bitter cold.

What was heard that day as Christmas music floated over the square:

Amir Siala told the crowd that "We Muslims living in the United States of America and throughout the Muslim world would like to declare once and for all that we all reject, abhor, condemn and denounce all forms of terror and violence done to any peaceful people." He told us that he spoke from his heart to our hearts as he called the response to these events in Portland and Corvallis a “victory of peace and love over hate, over terror and over violence”.

A man from the Japanese American Citizen's League spoke to the experience of the Japanese internment during World War II, saying that he and his people knew what it felt like to “have the face of the enemy”.

The Tigard police chief said that “...someone must have the courage to stand up and model a different direction. Someone must have the courage to stand up and model a different path...for the benefit of the common good.”

One Latino man in the crowd said that this rally was, for him, the true meaning of the Christmas spirit.

A man who identified himself as Harvey, a retired US Navy Commander and local leader of the Veterans for Peace group, told me that they were there “to support freedom of religion. The Muslims are getting a bad shake here lately. We are here to support them.”

A Corvallis American-Muslim family reported that, after the bombing, they were afraid and doubted that coming to America had been a good thing. When I asked the mother if she was afraid now, she gave a brilliant smile and said, “No, I am not afraid now.”

One lone pure-white dove flew over the speakers as they addressed the assembled crowd.

Closing remarks by Amir Siala:

“By your coming today, you declared loud and clear that we all stand by each other’s side, protecting each other against all forces of evil, injustice and terror. Most of us do not know each other and what we all share--the same principles, the same goals--and for this you are indeed the friend that I never met before.”

“We should give peace a chance. We should give peace another chance every time we face a conflict. Peace needs time, needs place and needs a land. I sincerely believe the time is now. I sincerely believe the land is this land of the free. And I sincerely believe that this should be coming inside our hearts and the soul--inside the hearts and the soul of peace-loving people, Muslims and non-Muslims.

We all demonstrated today by coming in this cold weather, the cold did not stop us. Long distance did not stop us. Let this caravan of peace, love and unity go to every city and every state to mobilize all people to stand all together united against hatred, against injustice, against violence and against terror.

Let us call our people to work together, to live together in the atmosphere of cooperation and trust. We did it in Corvallis two weeks ago. We did it in Salem last Friday. And we are doing it now here in Portland. And I hope, inshallah (God willing), it will be done in every city in our country and it shall spread all over the world.”

“The journey of a thousand miles starts with only one step. We started the journey and we started it with three huge big steps so let the enthusiasm and victory not fade away from us by time. The journey is long and hard.

We should all work together to continue our mission to bring peace, love, fairness, security and cooperation to all people everywhere regardless of faith, race or nationality. I want to tell you that we already started the journey. We already started breaking all barriers and walls that divide and separate us from each other, to build bridges of communication, of understanding. We already started building the trust and confidence in each other.

People told me “let us open a new page” and I say “Let us open a new book”. That book is based on peace, love, trust, truthfulness and understanding."

My own personal harvest: a young college-aged man I taught when he was a second grader!

All photographs are mine.

Article adapted from newsvine.

Put Congress Back to Work!

Sun, 5 Dec 2010 18:12:25 -0500

Oregon Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley is becoming Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

Senator Merkley has a plan.

On January 5, 2011, Senator Merkley and like-minded Senators will make a motion to alter the rules of filibuster.

Under these rules if you want to filibuster a bill, you cannot merely threaten to filibuster; you must do the work and stand on the floor of the Senate and talk for hours. When you stop talking, the bill would be put to an immediate vote.

In Senator Merkley's memorandum about Senate Reform, he cites the following "perverse effects" of the filibuster on the governing process:

** Failure in Budgeting Responsibilities: Given the shortage of floor time, in 2010 the Senate did not adopt a budget and passed no appropriation bills.

** Failure to Craft Digestible Legislation: There is no floor time for smaller bills, so issues get assembled into large legislative packages that make it difficult for senators to fully understand and debate the contents.

** Failure to Consider House Legislation: The shortage of floor time also means that House bills languish unaddressed. Indeed, Senate Committees don’t even bother to take up most of the bills the House sends to the Senate, recognizing in advance that they are doomed.

** Failure to Consider Executive Branch Nominations: Over 125 executive nominees are pending [note, this includes members of commissions, etc.], damaging the executive branch. This is an abuse of the Senate’s “advise and consent” responsibilities.

** Failure to Consider Judicial Nominations: Forty-eight judicial nominations are bottled up in the Senate, leaving crucial federal judgeships unfulfilled.

** Deepening of Partisan Divide: The minority party’s use of the filibuster power to paralyze the senate creates enormous frustration between the parties.

Merkley describes in detail the reforms that he and others would like to see insituted. My personal favorite:

#5) Require filibustering senators to hold the floor: "The public believes that filibustering senators have to hold the floor. Indeed, the public perceives the filibuster as an act of principled public courage and sacrifice. Let’s make it so."

Gentlemen, that is how the business of government should be done.

Why Hate Speech is as Dangerous as Fire

Sat, 4 Dec 2010 12:12:03 -0500

This morning, the authorities have publically identified a 24-year-old man who lives with his mom close to the Salman al-Farisi Islamic Center, as a person of interest in the Corvallis arson.

A Muslim neighbor was quoted as saying, “If that was him, it would be shocking…You cannot judge the person if you don’t have all the evidence against him.”

The young man in question was reported as saying that he had read on a blog that the Muslims set the fire themselves.

The hate speech that this young man accepted at face value is a warning of how dangerous this kind of misinformation can be when it twists a mind vulnerable to hatred. I hope it was not a neighbor. We can only wait to see how this develops.

Over at a Facebook site where I contribute, a man made some remarks which I thought might indicate that he felt that this was a hate crime only because it was a Mosque and not a Synagogue or Christian church. I followed him to this page and engaged him in a private civil conversation. I gave him some information, sent him some links. And he wound up coming back to like a comment I had made about “being honored to be at the candlelight vigil”.

One person at a time.

Someone Set Fire to the Islamic Center in my Town

Oregon Muslims Gathered Last Night in Solidairity

No Fear in Corvallis Last Night

Image from NewsBlogNYC.com