All posts tagged alternative media
Ronan Farrow's Beacon of Hope
"One of the most difficult things to do is to infuse in young people a sense of empathy and a larger world…to give them a perspective that is more macro and less narcissistic," Jon Stewart said in his recent interview with Ronan Farrow.
Farrow, when asked how he came by his desire to make a positive difference in the world, replied that it was growing up in a "mini-United Nations" sort of family (many of his 13 siblings were adopted from all over the world, some with serious physical or mental disabilities) that gave him the desire to become an agent for positive change on a worldwide scale.
Mia did something right to have set such a force in motion!
Ronan Farrow was a prodigy, going to college at my home institution, Bard College at Simon's Rock, at the tender age of 11. Although I never had him in class, I remember seeing him on campus, his bright blond hair always a stand-out, his small frame bent beneath a heavy backpack of books.
He went on to Yale Law School at 18, after serving a two-year stint as a youth ambassador at the United Nations; then became a Rhodes Scholar, worked at the State Department, and is now about to launch his own cable news show.
At 26, he's done more than most of us will ever do.
I am quite impressed by the agenda he's set for his show. It will be news aimed at a youth audience, specifically designed to spark the empathy Stewart referred to, and not only that but to give his audience concrete options for taking action on the issues and situations presented.
Every show will have a "call to action," Farrow said, and "a menu of things to do"; ways "to move the needle" on important issues.
I have noticed from my years of working with young people on social and environmental justice issues that they get very impatient and turned-off by discussions of problems that don't also include solutions, preferably along with ways that they can get involved in moving the solutions forward.
It must be his twenty-something instinct that is prompting Ronan Farrow to put his talents and connections to work in creating just the kind of show his own generation is longing for.
It will have the celebrity pizzazz that his handsome face and famous name brings; the erudition and seriousness of purpose that his education and professional experience has provided; and with any luck, it will be a real beacon of active hope for millions of potential young change agents.
Go Ronan! It is great to see a young person who is so clearly in the flow of living his purpose.
Posted in Activism, Education, Empathy, media, Social change
Tagged alternative media, Bard College at Simon's Rock, Jon Stewart, MSNBC, Ronan Farrow, youth activism
https://bethechange2012.com/2014/02/21/ronan-farrows-beacon-of-hope/
Watch out, Grey Lady! We're watching you….
Maybe I should just do the right thing and swear off reading The New York Times.
I've been reading The Times more or less every day since the time I could read–going on forty years now, give or take.
Never have I felt less confident that I can rely on the editors there for solid, unbiased information. Never has it been more obvious to me that The Times represents the viewpoint of the 1%. The liberal 1%, perhaps, but the 1% after all.
Why am I ranting about this today? I just got around to reading a piece from the Sunday Magazine section, "It's Not Just About the Millionaires," in which author Adam Davidson, co-founder of NPR's Planet Money show, argues that to solve our financial crisis in this country, "we have to go to where the money is — the middle class."
Davidson constructs a cockamamie story about how it makes more financial sense to raise taxes on the middle class–families earning less than $68,000 a year–as well as close "despised loopholes (or beloved incentives)" for these middle class folks (we're talking about the mortgage interest deduction, for example) than to raise taxes and close loopholes for corporations and those making more than $1 million a year.
Has Mr. Davidson and his family ever tried to live on $68,000 a year?
As someone who is struggling as a single mom in this tax bracket right now myself–in a home that is now worth less than its mortgage–I can say with personal conviction that raising my taxes would have a huge impact on my life. For most people in my position, it would mean the difference between starting a life of permanent credit card debt bondage, or staying very precariously in the black.
But that's not all. Mr. Davidson proposes that the middle class should also "give up some benefits (Social Security, Medicare)."
So not only are you proposing to raise my taxes, Mr. Planet Money, you're also going to shrink the paltry benefits I may receive when I'm old and worn out and expecting at least some support from the society to which I've given all the best years of my life?
What's wrong with this picture?
In Mr. Davidson's scenario, a middle-class worker like me works hard every day, both in the public arena and at home (and remember, no benefits accrue for the years and years of unpaid home labor I've put in since I married and had children), and because of a downturn that I had nothing to do with, I am now going to be squeezed harder through taxes, and then hung out to dry in my old age with reduced Social Security and Medicare benefits.
This kind of attitude is EXACTLY what the Occupy America movements are protesting.
Hell no, we are not going to take this kind of B.S. anymore.
If you want to raise taxes, Mr. Planet Money, it will have to be on the wealthy and the corporations who are making out like bandits while the rest of us tighten our belts and do the best we can.
If that's not enough money to make our national ends meet, then how about reducing the military budget? How about reducing the billions we spent on the nuclear arms program? How about directing more taxpayer funds into programs that actually benefit taxpayers?
I am beyond frustrated with the one-sided reporting of The New York Times.
I know statistics can be manipulated to support any side of an argument. But I expect the most respected source of news on the planet to do a better job at being truly even-handed. Sure, give Mr. Davidson and his monied folks some space. But his should not be the only voice we hear.
Fortunately, in the internet age, there are plenty of alternatives to The New York Times.
Watch out, Grey Lady, or even longterm devoted readers like me may be simply switching the channel.
Posted in Activism, Economy, Media analysis, Politics, Social change
Tagged alternative media, economy, middle class, millionaires, Occupy America, Planet Money, tax loopholes, The New York Times
https://bethechange2012.com/2011/11/14/716/