Mitzvahs Archive

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

I love this particular paragraph - reminds me of Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena“:

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West - know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

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….and needed a recommendation, can I suggest a friend of mine from New York City.

Noel (known by his friends as “noneck”) has been a staunch advocate of coworking (Change You Want to See), Democratic ideals and has been incredibly busy with supporting Obama and his personal enthusiasms for a better world (read his blog).

He is looking for a “community organizer” role - specifically in New York City - with a new-media bent. Rather than spelling it in my words, let me use his post for clarity:

I (noneck) will be…

• Working with a team that empowers people and educates them on community media techniques
• Working with online and offline communities to further unify the global connections we all share
• In a position to explore artistic creativity, hone multimedia production skills and explore innovative outreach techniques
• Working with an organization that has a track record of innovation and is willing to fully document techniques for all to enjoy
• Working with an organization that desires new partnerships to test out theories of empowerment and communication
• And….this position should be located in New York City and allows for flex workspace (I will have to travel.)

Any takers? His resume is found here: http://noneck.org/RESUME_HidalgoNoel.pdf

Sent by a friend from Naomi Wolf and the American Freedom Campaign:

Doing my part for the Internet ecosystem:

From Susan Crawford with OneWebDay:

OneWebDay is an Earth Day for the internet.  The idea behind OneWebDay is to focus attention on a key internet value (this year, online participation in democracy), focus attention on local internet concerns (connectivity, censorship, individual skills), and create a global constituency that cares about protecting and defending the internet.

The Internet is under enormous pressure in this country, as it is around the world.

Here are some examples:  Access providers want to track what everyone is doing online and use it for their commercial advantage.  They’re developing prioritization technology that will be like a cellphone layer on the internet - able to bill differently for different uses.  They’re working closely with law enforcement and Hollywood in ways that will make internet use unpredictable and heavily-surveilled.  The greatest engine of free speech and democratic outreach the world has ever seen is being co-opted by telephone companies.  This isn’t good for our future.

At the same time, we’re suffering from enormous digital divides.  Lower-income and rural communities don’t have adequate connectivity.  Senior citizens and minorities are often left out.  Skills are inadequate, and there is a lot of fear of the Internet.

OneWebDay is an environmental movement for the Internet ecosystem.  It’s a platform for people to educate and activate others about important issues for the Internet’s future. It’s happening all over the world.

Here in the US, key figures involved include Tim Westergren (Pandora) and Larry Lessig, speaking in NYC; the Future of Music campaign and Rock the Net, in Chicago; the Berkman Center at Harvard; a host of public interest groups in Washington; the City of San Francisco (using OWD to install tech centers in low-income housing using refurbished City computers); Doc Searls, Craig Newmark, David Weinberger, Mary Hodder, Craig Newmark, Jimmy Wales, Joichi Ito, Jerry Michalski, Deb Schultz, and a huge host of volunteers.

See more OneWebDay stories at: http://onewebday.org/stories/

Well - after a number of years of thinking about doing it, I finally completed the task of migrating from MovableType 4.1 to WordPress 2.6.

Truthfully, after researching and working with both platforms over the past two years with clients and personal projects, I have to agree with a number of people that WP has become the default, tweakable blogging/CMS platform. What took me 2.5 days in the last upgrade of my MT installation back in 2006/2007, this was relatively easy, and modifiable. Heck, even when I was worried about the permalink problem, it took a bit of hunting to cobble up my own solution and launch the site. So now, with all of the elements (mostly) fixed, I have redirected the domain to this site - and looking forward to seeing how the site performs.

If you have any suggestions for improvements - or specific plug-ins that would help in engagement. Feel free to add to this post.

This morning, I saw an article that made my heart run slightly cold - which lead me to post it on my Facebook Notes. The response was quite intriguing that I decided to republish it here on my site.

So this morning, I see an article in the International Herald Tribune which made me stop cold (please, note the pun)

As temperatures rise, a greening of Greenland

NARSARSUAQ, Greenland: A strange thing is happening at the edge of Poul Bjerge’s forest, a place so minute and unexpected that it brings to mind the teeny piece of land that Woody Allen’s father carries around in the film “Love and Death.”

Its four oldest trees - in fact, the four oldest pine trees in Greenland, named Rosenvinge’s trees after the Dutch botanist who planted them in a mad experiment in 1893 - are waking up. After lapsing into stately, sleepy old age, they are exhibiting new sprinklings of green at their tops, as if someone had glued on fresh needles.

“The old ones, they’re having a second youth,” said Bjerge, 78, who has watched the forest, called Qanasiassat, come to life, in fits and starts, since planting most of the trees in it 50 years ago. He beamed like a proud grandson. “They’re growing again.”

When using the words “growing” in connection with Greenland in the same sentence, it is important to remember that although Greenland is about four times the size of France, it has only nine conifer forests like Bjerge’s, all of them cultivated. It has only 51 farms. (They are all sheep farms, although one man is trying to raise cattle. He has 22 cows.) Except for potatoes, the only vegetables most Greenlanders ever eat - to the extent that they eat vegetables at all - are imported, mostly from Denmark.

But now that the climate is warming, it is not just old trees that are growing. A Greenlandic supermarket is stocking locally grown cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage this year for the first time. Eight sheep farmers are growing potatoes commercially. Five more are experimenting with vegetables. And Kenneth Hoeg, the region’s chief agriculture adviser, says he does not see why southern Greenland cannot eventually be full of vegetable farms and viable forests.

As someone who recently read and watched Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, looks like the second canary is signaling…

In my travels, I have met some very interesting people - some of which are looking to address problems that have have a serious impact on life in this world. Dafna Tal is one of them. Dafna is a photographer from israel that has been frustrated with the division between Israelis and Palestinians and has been working to make a difference in the lives of others.

The following press release of her upcoming event in New York is her way of making things happen. Consider this a personal invitation from Dafna.

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At the time when the Jewish community is celebrating the holiday of Hannukah and the ongoing clamor from the President of Iran over the “myth” of the Holocaust, a story is being run on 60 minutes tonight that might shed some “evidence” on this “myth”:

At cbs.com:
(CBS) One man holds his fate in his hands: a list of inmates — his name among them, but crossed off — who were sent to a notorious slave labor camp few ever emerged from. Another holds the very card he signed as a teenager upon his entry to a concentration camp. A third sees a form the Nazis created to track the mail he never received in Buchenwald because the rest of his family had already been murdered at Auschwitz. All three Holocaust survivors are viewing for the first time the records the Nazis meticulously kept on them and 17 million other victims of Hitler’s Third Reich.

Their stories and other revelations from the secret archives previously closed for 60 years are part of correspondent Scott Pelley’s report, this Sunday, Dec. 17, at 7 p.m. ET/PT on 60 Minutes.

Is there something else that needs to be shown as to the reality of the horrors of those times? How can the decimation of 17 million people be a “myth”? Is there something fundamentally wrong when a story can be misconstrued and facts be rearranged in such a way that they can lead credence to such impossibilities? Just because of a position of power, can a person be assumed to be “correct” just because they claim a “fact”?

Tags: Holocaust, Bad Arolsen, Fact versus Fiction, 60 Minutes

Last Friday, I took my podcasting kit with me to the Village 7 in the East Village and met up with Writer/Director Robert Edwards to chat about the launch of “Land of the Blind” in New York City. Over the course of two hours, we created a couple of podcasts talking about a number of things including how he came about to create such a film, the various reviews and reactions the film generated, and how he came to raise $5M and attach Rafe Fiennes and Donald Sutherland to a first effort by a novice fiction director. You can hear the podcasts below:

Introduction (mp3)
Robert and I discuss the origins of the film and how he created the story and the hidden meaning behind the imagery.
Recap of Reviews (mp3)
Robert discussed the impact the film has had on audiences and reviewers alike.
How To Make an Independent Film (mp3)
After being a documentarian, I wondered how he was able to attract $5M in funding for his first writing effort and then attract such powerhouse talent such as Donald Sutherland and Rafe Fiennes.

Since our meeting, Robert sent a message:

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Quick Update: Both Olga and Anna have met are planning on meeting with President Bachelet and have been successful in generating some news coverage (See Centre Daily and Santiago Times). For more information, they have also released a press release clarifying some of the mistakes on the Santiago Artle (including the fact that now 27 lawmakers have signed on, above the original 14). I include the press release for clarification and you can learn more at http://www.findboris.com.

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