On Friday, the Media and Democracy Coalition stood with SEIU, the Teamsters, the United Food and Commercial Workers, Healthcare for America Now, small business owners, Greenpeace, PennEnvironment, AFSCME, MoveOn, Change to Win, the Sierra Club, and many other groups in denouncing the regressive policies of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at its meeting in Philadelphia.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been fighting healthcare reform, climate change legislation, and President Obama's attempt to guarantee freedom of speech and freedom of expression online. I spoke to warn my fellow organizers - and all those concerned about freedom of speech - about the growing threat from the giant corporations that control the Internet, and the need to make net neutrality the law. My remarks are below; please go to SavetheInternet.com for more information.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Will the Birthplace of American Democracy Kill Freedom on the Internet?
Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper, of Erie.
This is almost impossible to believe - but it's actually true.
About a month ago, the Obama administration announced its intent to write policy that would protect, by law, the freedom that has allowed the Internet to grow and flourish.
It's no joke that such protection is needed. Repression of the Internet by the corporations that control it has already started.
Last month, Apple told a healthcare reform group that they wouldn't carry a healthcare reform app on their AT&T network for 30 million iPhones because it was "politically charged"...
...two years ago, it was Verizon refusing to transmit text messages from NARAL Pro-choice America.
...and in 2007, in the most famous case of all, the Comcast Corporation blocked Internet users from sending the Bible.
As with most other good things that the Obama administration is trying to do, this has been lost in a flood of lobbyists, all arguing that having unchecked corporate power over the most vital part of our economy, political life, social networks, communication tools, reference libraries, and grassroots organizing would be really great for America. (I have cross posted a great piece by Jason Rosenbaum below explaining this in more detail).
Last Friday, 72 Democratic house members signed on to a letter agreeing with the lobbyists.
Among them were members from the great state of Pennsylvania, where American democracy was invented and the Bill of Rights was written - ensuring freedom of speech, freedom to assemble - all of the democratic powers that the Internet magnifies for millions more.
Here's who came out against the future of the Internet last week:
Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper
Rep. Chris Carney
Rep. Allyson Schwartz
Rep. Chaka Fattah
Rep. Tim Holden
....AND Representative Bob Brady - in whose district sits the National Constitution Center, the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's first printing press, and pretty much all of the intellectual and moral heritage we are so very quickly as a nation flushing down the toilet.
The rules being written now will shape the future direction of the Internet over the next 20 years. It either can remain a village: fun, chaotic, free, humble, an experimental and educational space ... or turn into something that looks much more like a suburban strip mall: soulless, commercial, and cold.
I believe that Congress wants to protect the Internet. But they have a lot of pressure on them right now.
And they need to hear from you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Crossposted at Fire Dog Lake:
A Very Odd Letter from Democrats and Telecom Lobbyists on Net Neutrality
A very odd letter from Democrats and telecom lobbyists on net neutrality
By: Jason Rosenbaum Saturday October 17, 2009 1:00 pm
On Thursday, 72 Democrats sent a letter to the Chairman of the FCC, Julius Genachowski. The letter concerns net neutrality, which, according to the Chairman, is set to be enshrined as the FCC’s official policy.
The letter is very odd, especially if you’re not well versed in telecom lobbyist lingo. It lays out “concerns” relating to net neutrality that really don’t make much sense.
The heart of the letter reads:
As the FCC embarks on its much anticipated rulemaking addressing the subject of “net neutrality,” we therefore urge the Commissioner to carefully consider the full range of potential consequences that government action may have on network investment. We are confident that an objective review of the facts will reveal the critical role that competition and private investment have played — and of necessity will continue to play — in building robust broadband networks that are safe, secure and open. In light of the growth and innovation in new applications that the current regime has enabled, as compared to the limited evidence demonstrating any tangible harm, we would urge you to avoid tentative conclusions which favor government regulation.
Clearly, these Members of Congress are urging the Commissioner not to adopt net neutrality standards. But the argument they’re making is very curious. They point to the innovation that drove the creation and adoption of the Internet and broadband technologies as a reason to keep government regulation out of the picture.
On the surface, this might be convincing. After all, the Internet has grown up just fine without these regulations, why would we need them now. That is, until you realize that net neutrality is already the de-facto law of the land.
Right now, we have net neutrality in deed if not word. The FCC has enforced the provision, too, as Chairman Genachowski explained:
We’ve already seen some clear examples of deviations from the Internet’s historic openness. We have witnessed certain broadband providers unilaterally block access to VoIP applications and implement technical measures that degrade the performance of peer-to-peer software distributing lawful content. We have even seen one service provider deny users access to political content.
And as many members of the Internet community and key Congressional leaders have noted, there are compelling reasons for concern about even greater challenges to openness in the future, including reduced choice in the Internet service provider marketplace and an increase in the amount of Internet traffic, which has fueled a corresponding need to manage networks sensibly.
The rise of serious challenges to the traditional operation of the Internet puts us at a crossroads. We could see technology used to shut doors to entrepreneurs instead of opening them. The spirit of innovation stifled. A full and free flow of information compromised.
Or we could take steps to preserve a free and open Internet, helping to ensure a future of opportunity, prosperity, and the vibrant flow of information and ideas.
I believe we must choose to safeguard the openness that has made the Internet a stunning success. That is why today, I delivered a speech announcing that the FCC will be the smart cop on the beat when it comes to preserving a free and open Internet.
In other words, the Internet grew up to be the amazing tool it is today precisely because net neutrality reigned. Recently, telecom companies have started to change that.
In this light, the 72 Democrats who signed this letter don’t have much of an argument. They correctly note that the Internet has grown up well in the open platform it was given, a platform that includes net neutrality. And then they proceed to argue against making these rules formal. It makes no sense…
…until you consider the lobbyists.
As Free Press notes:
The big phone and cable companies have launched an all-out assault on Capitol Hill to try to stop Net Neutrality. They’ve hired hundreds of lobbyists, spent tens of millions of dollars, and unleashed sleazy Astroturf groups to mislead politicians, distort the facts, and resurrect long-debunked myths.
The bad news is that these dirty and deceitful tactics appear to be working on a few people who should know better.
This afternoon, several dozen Democrats sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission asking them to walk away from their plans to protect Net Neutrality.
Their letter parrots telco talking points — which had to come from somewhere, and it certainly wasn’t from the more than 1.6 million people who have signed a petition in support of Net Neutrality.
This is a campaign by telecom lobbyists to block net neutrality from being preserved, using a false talking point about increased regulation. And yes, these Democrats really should know better, especially people like Jared Polis, who’s trying to have it both ways by defending this letter and saying he supports net neutrality.
It is because of net neutrality that we have blogs like this one. It’s because of net neutrality that we have Google, YouTube, Facebook, and all the other sites we take for granted every day. And there’s nothing wrong with the FCC making net neutrality a formal rule so this innovation can continue into the future.
Sign the petition supporting net neutrality and watch out for that telecom spin.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
This Week in WTF is this?!?
You know, I love it here. You know, I hate it here. You know, I am really lucky to be here and be doing this. You know, why the hell did I decide to get into politics. You know, I am lucky just to have a job. You know, I am cursed, I am cursed cursed cursed. You know, I have never been happier in my life. You know, I was so much happier when I was 22 and waiting tables. You know, it’s just going to get worse, all of it. You know, my life is going to get better and better every year until I die. You know you know you know you know no no no you don’t know. You don’t know anything at all. Anything. At. All.
1. Hospice. The word ‘hospice.’ WTF is this??!? Is this a made-up word? Is this another motherfucking made-up word? Is this a word that was made up to sound just a little bit like ‘hospital’ to avoid talking about the end of life? What kind of person would make up a new word like that? A lying word like that? What kind of person would make up a word to cover the truth? What kind of person would sin so fundamentally against the nature of language – that being, communication – that they would make up a word to avoid communicating?
2. Lyrics. Lyrics being a lot harder than music. WTF is this?!?!? Why are lyrics so much harder than music? So our little cadre – the Impromptu Task Force to Inject Hilarity into Technology Policy – we have been writing some songs about broadband. So inspired by Mary Alice's AMC-side stylings, I get into my head the word ‘BROADband’ to the refrain of ‘Roxanne’ by the Police.
“Hey guys!” I say. “We should write lyrics to the Sting song…broad-band/You don’t have to turn on the red light/turn on the red light…walk the pipes for money...something like that!”
But what I discovered is, the lyrics don’t just follow. Writing lyrics is really really hard, especially if you already think of an overlay to a tune. We sat at Busboys and Poets on the last night of Knowledge Exchange and tried, and it was very difficult to do, regardless of the amount of red wine consumed.
“Broadband… you want to watch YouTube all night…”
“Broadband…it’s not a privilege it’s a right…ever since I knew ya, I want to download to ya…”
“I think upload sounds better than download.”
“Yeah, it’s dirtier. You know: I wanna UP load to ya (Marvin Gaye vocal thrust)”
“We can’t think about broadband as a prostitute. We should think about her as a prude, and she should spread her love with everyone?"
At this point, Dan opens a GoogleDoc of lyrics… but lyrics are still hard, WTF.
3. The incredible police repression at the G-20. WTF is this!?!
4. Elliot Smith, currently playing in the Big Bear café as I write this. Still, Elliot Smith. Still. WTF is this?!?!?
5. “Death!” said Lauren Townsend. “What is that? What is that?!”
6. The trailer for 2012. WTF is this?!? Another movie about the end of the world, with a black President. In the last shot of the trailer, the giant destroyer U.S.S. John F. Kennedy falls on top of the White House. WTF is this?!?
7. According to the Washington Post, the Democratic Party is having a hell of a time raising money from rich people because of the ‘extreme anti-business tone of the current administration and Congress.’ WTF is this?!?
8. Amalia Deloney’s passionate speech about communications rights and oppression of poor people under that bigass American flag in a hearing room in the Rayburn building. I think this is an anti-WTF is this!??!
9. Everyone in this coffeeshop has a computer on their table. Everyone. WTF is this?!?
10. Ship-to-shore radio. My grandfather - he was a Communications officer in the Navy for 8 years – he took my hand, and he put it over the two metal nails under his skin above his chestplate. “Feel that,” he said. “That’s the heart transplant.
“I’ve been through hell,” he said, and he stared at me, and I had never seen so far into his eyes. “Two wars. My friends, shot. I’ve been through hell.”
WTF is this?!?
Hannah
Friday, September 25, 2009
Gotta get back to writing!
see more Lol Celebs
I gotta start writing more again! Too much stress, unfocused, too much to do, etc. I haven't even started guitar lessons yet.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Lest Ye Forget the Tale of the Zombie Budget
A couple of weeks ago I got an impassioned email plea from a group called Save Our Safety Net. “The Washington city budget faces massive cuts that would do the worst damage to the poorest members of our community!” it said. “Call council and say that the city needs to raise taxes!”
The email had a laundry list of, indeed, last-ditch social service organizations that keep people from literally dying on the streets. It was horrible. So I, barely in the city a couple of months, did what I was supposed to do: went to the rally, lobbied city council. I signed the petition.
“You know, I just moved here from Philly,” I told one of the organizers. “We just went through this. Same horror movie: lost revenue, no political will to raise taxes, and so on.”
“How did it turn out?”
“Well, actually, it has been rather a miraculous thing so far. The community really came together, even altered the budget process itself. We ended up forcing the city to raise taxes with an administration that was never going to do it, through the most democratic process I’ve ever seen in a city government.”
“Wow.”
“Except that, despite the fact it started in 2008, it’s not actually done…”
The Philly budget saga has been going on three seasons now. Winter, spring, summer…and now, it threatens to stretch into the fall. There is a Republican state Senator in Pennsylvania named Dominic Pileggi whose greatest legislative achievement last year was blocking health care reform that would have insured 42,000 impoverished Pennsylvanians, and this year, starving the Philadelphia government by blocking approval of the sales tax increase that would keep the city operating. He should not be in public office at all.
I get very defensive of projects I have worked on. I am mad about this. Amnesia sets in really fast – and it’s been a busy year – but all you have to do it rewind to the chill dark of last December to remember the civic mood in Philadelphia when Mayor Nutter came out with the first pools-and-libraries cuts. I have never seen so many depressed progressives in my life. Really bad bar graphs in winter. That Obama/Phillies high wearing off reaaal fast, and those thirty seconds that Nutter had to prove to the grandmothers of West Philadelphia that he was going to be different from all the other mayors falling off the shot clock.
Remember that?
I was talking to a libraryista this week, and he was going on about Nutter pro-business grumble grumble nothing ever changes…and I realized that people are already forgetting everything that happened after that.
So I am going to sketch out a brief chronology to remind you:
- Mayor Nutter announces budget cuts
- Friends of the Free Library begin campaign
- Firefighters begin campaign
- Lawsuit filed to keep libraries open
- Mayor holds disastrous town halls where people show up, and scream at him
- Mayor holds PhillyStat, round two of town halls, where people show up again, I think these were a little more sedate.
- Coalition to Save Libraries formed, bringing together library advocates, community groups, and other endangered city services
- Bowing to pressure from Philadelphians, Mayor designs and then holds round three of town halls with facilitated process designed by the Penn civic-engagement DJs to take public input to design the city budget.
- Despite deeply ingrained and not unwarranted distrust of their elected officials, hundreds of people show up AGAIN to design the city budget in these fora
- Coalition to Save Essential Services formed, which was a different yet overlapping Venn diagram from the Coalition to Save the Libraries
- Library lawsuit successful, happy New Year!
- New branch of FFL forms in West Philly as a result of the organizing - I think there might be others. At any rate, many branches of this organization were strengthened by the fight.
- Mayor redesigns budget, including tax increases initially including sales and property tax increase.
- (here’s when I skipped town, so my knowledge of the remainder of the story is a little thin, and needs to be augmented)
- Philadelphians find out that property taxes = bad. Again, they take the time and make the effort to organize, go to city council, lobby, go to the umpteenth rally.
- City council hearings result in more participation
- City council cancels the property tax increase
- Mayor rewrites budget
- Mayor sends budget to Harrisburg. Dom Pileggi sits on it.
- Mayor calls for rallies to put pressure on Harrisburg and YET AGAIN AMAZING PEOPLE SHOW UP AND USE THEIR VOICES, including a bazillion social service organizations, taking day trips out to Media.
- …and this is the quick version.
This has all been amazing. This actually all happened. Hundreds and even thousands of people worked very hard to make all this happen. The amount of learning that has gone on by so many people who had no idea what a real estate transfer tax was has been pretty incredible. It’s the kind of thing that changes a city forever. I tell people in D.C. how proud I am of Philly, that we decided as a city what the budget should look like, that we chose to come together and make sacrifices in order to keep homeless shelters and HIV treatment clinics open.
Just the effort required to make this happen is beyond belief, sometimes. Civic engagement is really hard and really time-consuming. People who aren’t political weirdos actually would rather be doing anything other than showing up to a town hall and talking about L&I; this shit has been going on so long, organizers have had to tear people away from Eagles, Sixers, and Phillies games consecutively. And they did it.
Comparatively speaking, our nation’s capital is completely disempowered. Its the capital of the richest country on the planet, and here we were in the DC office building at 13th and Pennsylvania, begging them to not cut the Grandparents Caregivers program! Apparently DC has, for the last 20 years, allowed national and multinational corporations doing business in the District to get out of paying a portion of their taxes. It was like Philly for many years.
“That’s ridiculous,” I told the chief of staff to my city councilman, Councilman Graham, Ward 1. “This is D.C. It would take the Apocalypse for Starbucks to close its stores in Adams Morgan.”
“For years, we couldn’t get anyone to build anything here,” he said. “Getting a Starbucks in your neighborhood – well, that’s when you know you’ve made it.” He smiled.
I was shocked at his assessment of his own district, and its potential power. Ward 1 includes Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle, Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights, and most of the other really expensive real estate in the district. If there had been a bad financial history for the city in the past, there had been no recalculation since. The city government of Washington, D.C. is afraid. It doesn’t even get self-determination – they face a possible APileggaclypse every year with the federal government! Cities have been beat down for a long time, and even with Mr. Urban President, there are still gonna be a lot more bad bar graphs ahead until things change.
It’s time cities stopped being afraid. Cities just need to figure out a way to own it again. And soon.
----
The DC budget fight, which really just begun as a public campaign a month ago, is so differently aligned that the comparisons almost can’t be made. I will write them down eventually though, because there is something to learn. One thing that they do have that Philly lacks is a really smart policy thinktank – the DC Fiscal Policy Institute– that is an appendage of the federal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, whence came Peter Orzag. It’s one benefit of having the federal policy class here. There’s also a much more well developed local blogosphere here than in Philly - but with an equally bad digital divide, which still hampers organizing in both cities.
Mais…. ou sont les operatifs?
I’m going to get involved because I miss city politics. It’s the antidote to cynicism, the political space where one can best see the effects of good work – even if cities are the least financially capable, often, to accomplish their own goals. I feel terrible for all these kids on the Hill, little mites in a gigantic federal power structure that they can barely understand, let alone affect. A lot of the people who come here have no experience with local politics – they are often suburbanites, or come straight out of grad school.
There is no reason, really, that they couldn’t learn. And take it back when they go home later. That would really change things, long term.
The email had a laundry list of, indeed, last-ditch social service organizations that keep people from literally dying on the streets. It was horrible. So I, barely in the city a couple of months, did what I was supposed to do: went to the rally, lobbied city council. I signed the petition.
“You know, I just moved here from Philly,” I told one of the organizers. “We just went through this. Same horror movie: lost revenue, no political will to raise taxes, and so on.”
“How did it turn out?”
“Well, actually, it has been rather a miraculous thing so far. The community really came together, even altered the budget process itself. We ended up forcing the city to raise taxes with an administration that was never going to do it, through the most democratic process I’ve ever seen in a city government.”
“Wow.”
“Except that, despite the fact it started in 2008, it’s not actually done…”
The Philly budget saga has been going on three seasons now. Winter, spring, summer…and now, it threatens to stretch into the fall. There is a Republican state Senator in Pennsylvania named Dominic Pileggi whose greatest legislative achievement last year was blocking health care reform that would have insured 42,000 impoverished Pennsylvanians, and this year, starving the Philadelphia government by blocking approval of the sales tax increase that would keep the city operating. He should not be in public office at all.
I get very defensive of projects I have worked on. I am mad about this. Amnesia sets in really fast – and it’s been a busy year – but all you have to do it rewind to the chill dark of last December to remember the civic mood in Philadelphia when Mayor Nutter came out with the first pools-and-libraries cuts. I have never seen so many depressed progressives in my life. Really bad bar graphs in winter. That Obama/Phillies high wearing off reaaal fast, and those thirty seconds that Nutter had to prove to the grandmothers of West Philadelphia that he was going to be different from all the other mayors falling off the shot clock.
Remember that?
I was talking to a libraryista this week, and he was going on about Nutter pro-business grumble grumble nothing ever changes…and I realized that people are already forgetting everything that happened after that.
So I am going to sketch out a brief chronology to remind you:
- Mayor Nutter announces budget cuts
- Friends of the Free Library begin campaign
- Firefighters begin campaign
- Lawsuit filed to keep libraries open
- Mayor holds disastrous town halls where people show up, and scream at him
- Mayor holds PhillyStat, round two of town halls, where people show up again, I think these were a little more sedate.
- Coalition to Save Libraries formed, bringing together library advocates, community groups, and other endangered city services
- Bowing to pressure from Philadelphians, Mayor designs and then holds round three of town halls with facilitated process designed by the Penn civic-engagement DJs to take public input to design the city budget.
- Despite deeply ingrained and not unwarranted distrust of their elected officials, hundreds of people show up AGAIN to design the city budget in these fora
- Coalition to Save Essential Services formed, which was a different yet overlapping Venn diagram from the Coalition to Save the Libraries
- Library lawsuit successful, happy New Year!
- New branch of FFL forms in West Philly as a result of the organizing - I think there might be others. At any rate, many branches of this organization were strengthened by the fight.
- Mayor redesigns budget, including tax increases initially including sales and property tax increase.
- (here’s when I skipped town, so my knowledge of the remainder of the story is a little thin, and needs to be augmented)
- Philadelphians find out that property taxes = bad. Again, they take the time and make the effort to organize, go to city council, lobby, go to the umpteenth rally.
- City council hearings result in more participation
- City council cancels the property tax increase
- Mayor rewrites budget
- Mayor sends budget to Harrisburg. Dom Pileggi sits on it.
- Mayor calls for rallies to put pressure on Harrisburg and YET AGAIN AMAZING PEOPLE SHOW UP AND USE THEIR VOICES, including a bazillion social service organizations, taking day trips out to Media.
- …and this is the quick version.
This has all been amazing. This actually all happened. Hundreds and even thousands of people worked very hard to make all this happen. The amount of learning that has gone on by so many people who had no idea what a real estate transfer tax was has been pretty incredible. It’s the kind of thing that changes a city forever. I tell people in D.C. how proud I am of Philly, that we decided as a city what the budget should look like, that we chose to come together and make sacrifices in order to keep homeless shelters and HIV treatment clinics open.
Just the effort required to make this happen is beyond belief, sometimes. Civic engagement is really hard and really time-consuming. People who aren’t political weirdos actually would rather be doing anything other than showing up to a town hall and talking about L&I; this shit has been going on so long, organizers have had to tear people away from Eagles, Sixers, and Phillies games consecutively. And they did it.
Comparatively speaking, our nation’s capital is completely disempowered. Its the capital of the richest country on the planet, and here we were in the DC office building at 13th and Pennsylvania, begging them to not cut the Grandparents Caregivers program! Apparently DC has, for the last 20 years, allowed national and multinational corporations doing business in the District to get out of paying a portion of their taxes. It was like Philly for many years.
“That’s ridiculous,” I told the chief of staff to my city councilman, Councilman Graham, Ward 1. “This is D.C. It would take the Apocalypse for Starbucks to close its stores in Adams Morgan.”
“For years, we couldn’t get anyone to build anything here,” he said. “Getting a Starbucks in your neighborhood – well, that’s when you know you’ve made it.” He smiled.
I was shocked at his assessment of his own district, and its potential power. Ward 1 includes Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle, Mount Pleasant, Columbia Heights, and most of the other really expensive real estate in the district. If there had been a bad financial history for the city in the past, there had been no recalculation since. The city government of Washington, D.C. is afraid. It doesn’t even get self-determination – they face a possible APileggaclypse every year with the federal government! Cities have been beat down for a long time, and even with Mr. Urban President, there are still gonna be a lot more bad bar graphs ahead until things change.
It’s time cities stopped being afraid. Cities just need to figure out a way to own it again. And soon.
----
The DC budget fight, which really just begun as a public campaign a month ago, is so differently aligned that the comparisons almost can’t be made. I will write them down eventually though, because there is something to learn. One thing that they do have that Philly lacks is a really smart policy thinktank – the DC Fiscal Policy Institute– that is an appendage of the federal Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, whence came Peter Orzag. It’s one benefit of having the federal policy class here. There’s also a much more well developed local blogosphere here than in Philly - but with an equally bad digital divide, which still hampers organizing in both cities.
Mais…. ou sont les operatifs?
I’m going to get involved because I miss city politics. It’s the antidote to cynicism, the political space where one can best see the effects of good work – even if cities are the least financially capable, often, to accomplish their own goals. I feel terrible for all these kids on the Hill, little mites in a gigantic federal power structure that they can barely understand, let alone affect. A lot of the people who come here have no experience with local politics – they are often suburbanites, or come straight out of grad school.
There is no reason, really, that they couldn’t learn. And take it back when they go home later. That would really change things, long term.
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Future of America, and How to Stop It
So I was on the Chinatown bus from DC to Philly last Monday, and I was reading a book called The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, by a guy named Jonathan Zittrain. It is one of those required reading tomes for most people who work in my field, and Zittrain is one of those required panelists that cycle around in what you could almost call a karmic wheel from one conference to the next – that is, could almost call a karmic wheel, were anyone ever to actually break the cycle of panelist death and rebirth, achieve nirvana, and be freed, in a blinding flash of light from behind a cloth-covered table at some convention center, the lav mic left behind dropping gamely into the empty seat.
Apparently, that has yet to happen.
The book is a great explanation of how the Internet works and what flavors it comes in; I suspect that there is going to be a really scary part about information control, commercialization, etc. later on in the book, that will spur me on to further action. But so far, I have only gotten to the fun parts, like the case of Captain Crunch. Before there were computer hackers, there were ‘phone phreakers’ – people who hacked the phone system.
This guy Captain Crunch was a man who spent years jerking at the skirts of Ma Bell, and whose greatest phreak was accomplished with a whistle found in a box of said cereal. The AT&T phone system was not digital, but analog, which means that you hacked something not with 100110010, but with actual sound. Captain Crunch discovered that these cereal-box whistles, when blown into the phone at the end of a call, signaled to the AT&T system that the line had been reset, and then was free to call anywhere in the world for free and talk as long as he wanted to.
So I was reading this book, and getting a little sleepy, and thinking about what I was going to do the next day at the Media Mobilizing Project, and maybe feeling a little bit of a smarty pants for being able to toss around this new term ‘generative network’ in some work context down the road – maybe even Tweet it in some adorable little bon mot – when I look up and see the enormous sign that says “HARLEM TURN RIGHT”. Then there’s one for BROOKLYN. Then if there’s any doubt that I am not actually in Philadelphia, there’s TRI-BOROUGH BRIDGE… and so on. And so on. It’s about 10 pm. Shit.
“Yeah uh Lauren, I don’t really think I need that place to stay tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks though. I just…overshot my destination a bit,” I say, blushing and sweating into my smartphone. “Yeah. I got on the wrong bus and I’m in New York. Yeah, I’m such a winner.” Pakistani and Chinese families exit the bus en masse, secure in their own sanity and their survival instincts, warm, pudgy, holding white plastic bags of ingredients. “Yeah. I know. Well actually you are right. It is kind of a cool thing. Yeah. Hell yeah. I’d been wanting to come up here. I don’t have to be back until the morning anyway. I’ll just wander around!”
At this point the night turned into an all-night kaleidoscope, which runs through the wasabi peas I ate in the terminal, through a bar called the Redhead which served me the oldest cocktail in America, through the Bowery Poetry Club (I had no idea they still did that in New York), through a congee restaurant (congee is like Chinese grits), then the last few hours, where, as I end up doing over and over again between the hours of 4 and 7 in the morning whenever I am in NYC, I sit on the street with homeless guys, smoke cigarettes, talk, and watch the sun come up over the city.
There are more people living on the streets of New York now than I have seen in 15 years. They are almost all black men. They are lined up on the sidewalk in the Bowery in row after row of crumpled cardboard boxes like an IKEA warehouse of human beings. (Model # ANTHRO). “It’s just the recession,” one guy said to me. Fair enough. But New York is where all our sins come out in the wash, I think. It is the Empire State, after all.
For all of the ‘social conditions’ that lead to ‘homelessness’, these mass encampments are very much a form of protest, perhaps not as political as Tent Cities, but defiant in their own way. If the city of New York – and our culture in general - is going to treat poor black men like trash, then these guys are out there on the street to confront it, parked underneath the pale hipsters laughing and scurrying by, their very presence saying yeah, if we are trash, then we are going to be here, we’re not going to let you forget it, we are going to be the wave of human trash that engulfs this city, engulfs the tourists, engulfs the financial sector until the entire island is buried under a tidal wave of human throwaways. Their very actions are a form of witness. All I can do is treat people with respect, and hear what truth they have to offer, since between 4 and 7 in New York, I am homeless too. I consider this a particularly important stop on my listening tour of the universe. No better place to really discuss healthcare reform - or the fate of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
At any rate, the guys I hung out with were way more worried about me (especially once they’d heard the story), and called me on my cell several times to make sure I got back to Pennsylvania. Survival instincts are hard to define.
The two days before, I had been in Detroit. I didn’t get to see much of it when I was there. However, I was fortunate enough to land in the tangle of leftie community organizers who are trying to cope with the massive shocks that the entire city is going through (and who had the political dirt).
I had no idea how bad it was. Detroit high schools have a 75 percent dropout rate. But from some of the problems and solutions I heard being discussed, it became clear to me that Detroit is very much a preview, a dress rehearsal of sorts, for the coming long-arc collapse of the American economy over the next 50 years. My lifetime. I don’t think I am over-exaggerating in any way to say that it will be the unique challenge of my generation to determine the nature with which we confront this coming storm – whether we remember and uphold values of community, sharing, love, and enlightenment, or if we descend into, even more than we already have, into selfishness, individuality, violence, and brutality. The immensity of this task is almost too much for me to think about, sometimes. I cannot say that I am not scared for us. But we have no choice. This is our home.
As pessimistic as this all sounds, I want to write this so I can hold up Detroit like a candle. I think there is a lot of darkness there, but I think what people are doing is kind. The spirit with which they are confronting their region’s economic cratering is to move towards their neighbors, not away from them, and it is centered on what is good in life.
If that is the epicenter, then I have hope.
Who knew? The Motor City!
Apparently, that has yet to happen.
The book is a great explanation of how the Internet works and what flavors it comes in; I suspect that there is going to be a really scary part about information control, commercialization, etc. later on in the book, that will spur me on to further action. But so far, I have only gotten to the fun parts, like the case of Captain Crunch. Before there were computer hackers, there were ‘phone phreakers’ – people who hacked the phone system.
This guy Captain Crunch was a man who spent years jerking at the skirts of Ma Bell, and whose greatest phreak was accomplished with a whistle found in a box of said cereal. The AT&T phone system was not digital, but analog, which means that you hacked something not with 100110010, but with actual sound. Captain Crunch discovered that these cereal-box whistles, when blown into the phone at the end of a call, signaled to the AT&T system that the line had been reset, and then was free to call anywhere in the world for free and talk as long as he wanted to.
So I was reading this book, and getting a little sleepy, and thinking about what I was going to do the next day at the Media Mobilizing Project, and maybe feeling a little bit of a smarty pants for being able to toss around this new term ‘generative network’ in some work context down the road – maybe even Tweet it in some adorable little bon mot – when I look up and see the enormous sign that says “HARLEM TURN RIGHT”. Then there’s one for BROOKLYN. Then if there’s any doubt that I am not actually in Philadelphia, there’s TRI-BOROUGH BRIDGE… and so on. And so on. It’s about 10 pm. Shit.
“Yeah uh Lauren, I don’t really think I need that place to stay tonight. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks though. I just…overshot my destination a bit,” I say, blushing and sweating into my smartphone. “Yeah. I got on the wrong bus and I’m in New York. Yeah, I’m such a winner.” Pakistani and Chinese families exit the bus en masse, secure in their own sanity and their survival instincts, warm, pudgy, holding white plastic bags of ingredients. “Yeah. I know. Well actually you are right. It is kind of a cool thing. Yeah. Hell yeah. I’d been wanting to come up here. I don’t have to be back until the morning anyway. I’ll just wander around!”
At this point the night turned into an all-night kaleidoscope, which runs through the wasabi peas I ate in the terminal, through a bar called the Redhead which served me the oldest cocktail in America, through the Bowery Poetry Club (I had no idea they still did that in New York), through a congee restaurant (congee is like Chinese grits), then the last few hours, where, as I end up doing over and over again between the hours of 4 and 7 in the morning whenever I am in NYC, I sit on the street with homeless guys, smoke cigarettes, talk, and watch the sun come up over the city.
There are more people living on the streets of New York now than I have seen in 15 years. They are almost all black men. They are lined up on the sidewalk in the Bowery in row after row of crumpled cardboard boxes like an IKEA warehouse of human beings. (Model # ANTHRO). “It’s just the recession,” one guy said to me. Fair enough. But New York is where all our sins come out in the wash, I think. It is the Empire State, after all.
For all of the ‘social conditions’ that lead to ‘homelessness’, these mass encampments are very much a form of protest, perhaps not as political as Tent Cities, but defiant in their own way. If the city of New York – and our culture in general - is going to treat poor black men like trash, then these guys are out there on the street to confront it, parked underneath the pale hipsters laughing and scurrying by, their very presence saying yeah, if we are trash, then we are going to be here, we’re not going to let you forget it, we are going to be the wave of human trash that engulfs this city, engulfs the tourists, engulfs the financial sector until the entire island is buried under a tidal wave of human throwaways. Their very actions are a form of witness. All I can do is treat people with respect, and hear what truth they have to offer, since between 4 and 7 in New York, I am homeless too. I consider this a particularly important stop on my listening tour of the universe. No better place to really discuss healthcare reform - or the fate of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
At any rate, the guys I hung out with were way more worried about me (especially once they’d heard the story), and called me on my cell several times to make sure I got back to Pennsylvania. Survival instincts are hard to define.
The two days before, I had been in Detroit. I didn’t get to see much of it when I was there. However, I was fortunate enough to land in the tangle of leftie community organizers who are trying to cope with the massive shocks that the entire city is going through (and who had the political dirt).
I had no idea how bad it was. Detroit high schools have a 75 percent dropout rate. But from some of the problems and solutions I heard being discussed, it became clear to me that Detroit is very much a preview, a dress rehearsal of sorts, for the coming long-arc collapse of the American economy over the next 50 years. My lifetime. I don’t think I am over-exaggerating in any way to say that it will be the unique challenge of my generation to determine the nature with which we confront this coming storm – whether we remember and uphold values of community, sharing, love, and enlightenment, or if we descend into, even more than we already have, into selfishness, individuality, violence, and brutality. The immensity of this task is almost too much for me to think about, sometimes. I cannot say that I am not scared for us. But we have no choice. This is our home.
As pessimistic as this all sounds, I want to write this so I can hold up Detroit like a candle. I think there is a lot of darkness there, but I think what people are doing is kind. The spirit with which they are confronting their region’s economic cratering is to move towards their neighbors, not away from them, and it is centered on what is good in life.
If that is the epicenter, then I have hope.
Who knew? The Motor City!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
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