So, what is this about? Read on.

Truth can wither in the throes of too much self-aggrandizement.

For the record: Casavant, with her mentor’s considerable support and help, was selected for a Chips Quinn Scholar but she never represented the WORD in that matter (as well as manner) as she alleged in her post. But that’s a minor quibble. She was blocked from the Hunter WORD facebook page for lying and deceit and for calling, absurdly, for a boycott of the publication because facebook friends didn’t agree with her reasoning. [They were a lot more tolerant of her than I was but they didn't know she was lying. I did.]

Also, there was no posting of 9/11 jokes in the WORD. Nor was there ever any consideration for that, only for a serious discussion in a restricted forum about what was appropriate and inappropriate. It has to be said that sometimes some facebook “friends “act like morons and have to be quickly dispatched.

More to come on this after the period ends, that is, the time I allotted  for a response from the news services regarding this writers queries and alerts. Also, here is the link to her tumblr page. It’s beginning to make sense why her tenure as a newspaper reporter probably was short: The truth can be daunting for those who prefer to engage in un-truths and deceptions.

Nevertheless, this whole matter will make for a great discussion in my journalism classes.

!

[Soon to be a Major Motion Picture — ]

Also, posted on Hunter-L

Attention D:F/M Colleagues Tami Gold***Ricardo Miranda***Bernard Stein***Kelly Anderson***Isabel Pinedo***Tim Portlock

OCCUPY D:F/M, Part 2
A Public Service Announcement 

As a result of Hunter Alumnus Jed Brandt – of Envoy & SLAM Ill Repute – being identified as one of the co-founders of the OCCUPY Newspaper, this came to mind: Colleagues proselytizing students to join the Z-Revolution should remind them to beware of nefarious, opportunistic, carpetbagging, ersatz Freedom Fighters posing as liberals, super-liberals and super-super-cool-liberal-radical-whatevers.

We don’t want our students exploited and mislead? We want them informed, right? Ersatz Freedom Fighters are worse than Barnacles. Would you not agree? I am considering a Beware List for students in my classes. How about you? Yet, I stand prepared to join you in a Zuccotti Tribute after we:

OCCUPY D:F/M and end the tyranny. End the flimflamming. Stop The Comatose Journalism – Comatose Media Studies Movement (TCJ-CMSM). Spare the department increasing dollops of ignominy. Provide students The Skinny they so rightfully deserve since they have to pay increasing tuition and we don’t want to stand accused of phony promises that D:F/M can’t deliver the goods, so to speak, that students need to compete for the best internships and grad schools.

 Remember: True Democracy Begins at Home. OCCUPY D:F/M

G Morris
D:F/M

— “Need to Know the Skinny” and “True Liberation Begins at Home” and “The Bard Had It Wrong,  But We Can Get It Right: Out with the Barnacles” posters and T-shirts could be soon in the making.

Writer’s Note: This post contains minor corrections and slight changes not included in the original post on Hunter-L.

[Soon to be a Major Motion Picture — ]

The following screed was posted on Hunter-L, a Hunter College listserv, in response to a petition posted to support OCCUPY WALL STREET. Hunter-L is used by faculty and students and staff for disseminating information and has a long history of turbulence and relevance . The petition  can be found much further down in this blog.

 >
>Democracy only can flourish if all voices are both heard and heeded …”
>

Attention D:F/M Colleagues Tami Gold***Ricardo Miranda***Bernard Stein***Kelly Anderson***Isabel Pinedo***Tim Portlock.

OCCUPY D:F/M! Part 1

A Public Service Announcement

 Yes, liberate America from those voraciously greedy, ravenously anti-Democratic, money-grabbing financiers but True Democracy begins at home. Would you not agree? For example: Who was the SlumDogVigilante who ripped down the students’ Klemente Soto Velez posters last year? Should other students be concerned about SDV stalking their projects?

OCCUPY D:F/M can address these other daunting, haunting issues as well: The cancelling last year of the Klemente Soto Velez Screening because of “hurtful” emails? Where was the Democracy in that decision? Are there more “hurtful” emails in the works? Colleagues still trying to enforce a no-flunk policy on non-tenured Colleagues: Adjuncts be wary? Allegations of Grade Appeal decisions so despicable that they can’t be posted on this listserv? There have been some lulus, right? The D:F/M Academic Freedom Mavens should have been all over this, right?

Nevertheless, together, we can address: The skeletons rattling in the closet. The ones beating on the door to get in? Should some Colleagues be concerned about their public personas going the way of the Dodo?

God(s) forbid!

Democracy begins at home. OCCUPY D:F/M! Bring Democracy home.

End Part 1.

G Morris
D:F/M

October. 24, 2011

STATEMENT BY FACULTY MEMBERS OF HUNTER COLLEGE, CUNY,
IN SUPPORT OF THE OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT

We, the undersigned faculty and staff of Hunter College of the City University of New York, express our support as professionals and citizens for the protest movement, “Occupy Wall Street.” We see it as a new, creative awakening about the need for social justice that reflects the best traditions of American democracy and resonates with democratic protests across the globe.

This movement emerged in response to the continuing economic crisis in our country and much of the world, starting with “the economic meltdown” of September 2008.  When that crisis occurred, our governmental leaders told us that the livelihoods of all Americans were threatened if we did not respond immediately with massive taxpayer support for our country’s biggest financial institutions.  They were “too big to fail.”  Since then, the endangered big banks have recovered; corporate profits have skyrocketed; executive bonuses continue unabated; thousands of small banks have been forced out of business, and millions of Americans have been put out of work.  Yet the response by our elected leaders to the many Americans who have suffered because of the irresponsible and dangerous behavior of a few has been meager.  Since 2008, thousands of families have had their homes taken from them; students are increasingly burdened by colossal debt to pay for their college education; New York State’s governor remains intent on lowering taxes for the richest New Yorkers while cutting back on education and health care, and economic inequality has reached its greatest heights in this country since the Great Depression.  These economic and political phenomena evidence a continuing policy that regards most Americans as “too little to help.”

Democracy only can flourish if all voices are both heard and heeded and if the political order is understood.  The Occupy Wall Street movement has given voice to citizens from across the political spectrum that have been neither heard nor heeded; it has shed light on the way in which the economic and political system in our country unfairly, but really, works.  In this vein, it honors free speech, intellectual inquiry, and human well-being.  It also has found common ground with economically and politically disenfranchised persons throughout Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Australia–all protesting corrosive inequalities.

As civic intellectuals and professors at a great public university, we hereby declare our support for this important movement.  In so doing, we join our colleagues in colleges and universities across the nation and the world.  May it grow.

SIGNATORIES

John R. Wallach (Political Science/Human Rights)
Ros Petchesky (Political Science/Women & Gender Studies)
Tami Gold (Film & Media Studies)
Bernard Stein (Journalism, Film & Media Studies)
(continued)
Gregory Johnson (Anthropology)
Isabel Pinedo (Film & Media Studies)
Rupal Oza (Director, Women & Gender Studies)
Diana Conchado (Spanish, Romance Languages)
Ricardo Miranda
Sarah E. Chinn (English)
Tim Portlock
Cheryl Harding
Kelly Anderson

At the J Walter Thompson agency on Lexington Avenue, 46 Street today.

The nervous energy before the start of the press conference announcing the SUS campaign to help U.S. military vets and soldiers could not be denied. And then things got serious.

There wasn't a dry eye in the place by the end of the press conference.

WORD writers got an unexpected dose of real-world journalism and rose to the occasion. Lots of stories in the works.

Each day 18 current or former military personnel take their own lives. Over 2,300 active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces have killed themselves since January, 2001.

Listen here.

[Editor's Note: For some reason yet to be understood, the mp3 connection doesn't work with Firefox. Safari works. Sorry about that.]

Click here for AftertheParade on Facebook.

SUS: Unemployment also is a problem. Click here for radio announcement.

Marine Corps News reports:”The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, November 4, that the national unemployment rate remains mostly unchanged at 9 percent, while the jobless rate for veterans of all generations dropped to 7.7 percent in October, down from 8.1 percent in September.

But for Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans who left active duty since 2001, the unemployment rate for October was 12.1 percent, up from 11.7 percent in September and from an average of 10.5 percent in 2010. Read more here.

The New York Department of Housing and Urban Development calculates that there are approximately 3,500 homeless veterans in the Big Apple. NYC.gov reports that the law allows 3,100 year-round food vending permits. Do the math. Homelessness Radio Short.

The Usual Suspects

True Liberation Begins at Home: A reminder to my Colleagues after several of their names appeared in a petition being circulated on Hunter-L, a principal Hunter College listserv, in support of OCCUPY WALL STREET. A copy of the petition is just below this note included in an Hunter-L post response about the petition:

As a result of Jed Brandt – of Envoy & SLAM Infamy – being identified as one of the co-founders of the OCCUPY Newspaper, this came to mind: There are Colleagues who like to proselytize, and are already exhorting students to join the Z-Revolution, thus, we need to remind students to beware of nefariously opportunistic, carpetbagging ersatz Freedom Fighters (posing as liberals, super-liberals and super-super-liberals) who will exploit and mislead them (the way that SLAM did many Students of Color on this campus).

STATEMENT BY FACULTY MEMBERS OF HUNTER COLLEGE, CUNY, IN SUPPORT OF THE OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT

We, the undersigned faculty and staff of Hunter College of the City University of New York, express our support as professionals and citizens for the protest movement, “Occupy Wall Street.” We see it as a new, creative awakening about the need for social justice that reflects the best traditions of American democracy and resonates with democratic protests across the globe.

This movement emerged in response to the continuing economic crisis in our country and much of the world, starting with “the economic meltdown” of September 2008. When that crisis occurred, our governmental leaders told us that the livelihoods of all Americans were threatened if we did not respond immediately with massive taxpayer support for our country’s biggest financial institutions. They were “too big to fail.” Since then, the endangered big banks have recovered; corporate profits have skyrocketed; executive bonuses continue unabated; thousands of small banks have been forced out of business, and millions of Americans have been put out of work. Yet the response by our elected leaders to the many Americans who have suffered because of the irresponsible and dangerous behavior of a few has been meager. Since 2008, thousands of families have had their homes taken from them; students are increasingly burdened by colossal debt to pay for their college education; New York State’s governor remains intent on lowering taxes for the richest New Yorkers while cutting back on education and health care, and economic inequality has reached its greatest heights in this country since the Great Depression. These economic and political phenomena evidence a continuing policy that regards most Americans as “too little to help.”

Democracy only can flourish if all voices are both heard and heeded and if the political order is understood. The Occupy Wall Street movement has given voice to citizens from across the political spectrum that have been neither heard nor heeded; it has shed light on the way in which the economic and political system in our country unfairly, but really, works. In this vein, it honors free speech, intellectual inquiry, and human well-being. It also has found common ground with economically and politically disenfranchised persons throughout Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Australia–all protesting corrosive inequalities.

As civic intellectuals and professors at a great public university, we hereby declare our support for this important movement. In so doing, we join our colleagues in colleges and universities across the nation and the world. May it grow.

SIGNATORIES

John R. Wallach (Political Science/Human Rights)
Ros Petchesky (Political Science/Women & Gender Studies)
Tami Gold (Film & Media Studies)
Bernard Stein (Journalism, Film & Media Studies)
(continued)
Gregory Johnson (Anthropology)
Isabel Pinedo (Film & Media Studies)
Rupal Oza (Director, Women & Gender Studies)
Diana Conchado (Spanish, Romance Languages)
Ricardo Miranda
Sarah E. Chinn (English)
Tim Portlock
Cheryl Harding
Kelly Anderson

There be phonies among the SINATORIES. Guess which ones?

More later.

The Usual Suspects

More to come, obviously.

Promise (for those interested).

ALBANY – Gov. Cuomo’s speech on Sunday night to the Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators was interrupted with chants of “Tax the rich!” led by City Councilman Charles Barron. — Glenn Blain, NY Daily News

Barron is a baron. Word! Makes one think of Bill Thompson’s “Term Limits” in the 2009 Mayoral Election. Thompson could have won if voters hadn’t been convinced by the mainstream news media that Bloomberg was strutting on the path to victor. Thompson lost by 4 percent.

Full story here.

Blogs were once the outlet of choice for people who wanted to express themselves online. But with the rise of sites like Facebook and Twitter, they are losing their allure for many people – particularly the younger generation. — Verne G. Kopytof, NYT, February 21.

Blogging’s soaring popularity reminded me of the mass appeal of  Citizen Band Radio when it was hot. Everyone had a handle. T.B. Knight was my moniker. After a while the sizzle faded. The amateurs had had enough. And the airwave returned  to the highway cops and the truckers who were using it before its mass appeal.  QMfE, “The same thing’s going to happen to blogging,” I told my students.

Wrote Gopytof: Former bloggers said they were too busy to write lengthy posts and were uninspired by a lack of readers. Others said they had no interest in creating a blog because social networking did a good enough job keeping them in touch with friends and family. [NYT article here.]

I encouraged my student reporters at the 2008 Democratic National Convention to experiment with blogging and they didn’t like the rewriting that I required them to do to post their blogs. Also, I was new to wordpress and it was too much to expect them to pick up on wordpress while they hustling for stories the Convention.

I was doing way too much copyediting and editing and layout. When we returned to campus, I noticed increased excitement – not action, just excitement — about getting students to blog either for the world or just as an intranet. I wasn’t excited.

The technology would evolve, I was thinking, and millions of bloggers would move on just as happened with CB. But where they would specially move was beyond my imagination. They  moved where personal information could easily be exchanged and writing was not paramount and multimedia was made simple and they could attract a group that would be interested in their mewing.

The heavyweights will continue to blog on — and facebook and twitter and … !!!