Browsing Archive: April, 2010

At Best, Our Work and Our Lives Result in the Creation of Joy

Posted by Sarah McCann on Monday, April 26, 2010, In : Community Arts 
There is a conversation in the community arts field about best practices. I have not really been involved in this until now, I am not sure I understood what "best practices" meant because it seems to me that every individual artists' best practice will be different, every community's best practice will not be the same, and that every new combination of people, resources, and place will foster a new kind of practice based on the circumstances. This weekend, however, I realized that there is so...
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What if Advertisements Didn't Make Us Fear Each Other?

Posted by Sarah McCann on Thursday, April 22, 2010, In : Entertainment 
I watch tv online so I have a different experience of commercials than the normal tv viewer.  I have found online ads focus on one product or theme for the duration of a show and that they are a little more intense than the quick succession of broadcast television ads. The most recent advertisement I have been bombarded with is one about HPV. It begins: What if this happens or that happens? "What if you meet someone? What if he likes you too? What if he gives you HPV? What if it never goes aw...
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Why I Want to Hunt

Posted by Sarah McCann on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, In : Responsibility 
Life requires that we are brutal, but only when necessary. Unnecessary brutality is damaging. That said, I have recently decided that I need to go hunting, that there is something in the experience of killing what I am going to eat that is beneficial and that I need to do. I question whether this act would be unnecessary brutality however, when in fact, I can go to any of the grocery stores near me and eat something that is already dead. I don't know if these dead things have been killed with...
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Accountability is the Base From which Real Social Change Becomes Possible

Posted by Sarah McCann on Tuesday, April 20, 2010, In : Responsibility 
Excellent article on www.counterpunch.org yesterday, April 19 The Diversity Dead End: Inclusiveness Without Accountability by Robert Jensen. Jensen's piece is a response to a comment he received after speaking at a diversity conference on racism and other illegitimate hierarchies. Someone asked him why he thought it was necessary to focus on the divisiveness of language instead of just accepting differences and asked if he wasn't being part of the problem instead of the solution of bringing p...
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What is How to Train Your Dragon Training Us For?

Posted by Sarah McCann on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, In : Entertainment 
I saw How to Train Your Dragon in 3-D. I enjoyed it, I don't get to the movies often, had been hankering to see something, and after the recommendation of both friends and my brother, I decided to see Dragon. The movie tells the story of a young Viking named Hiccup who, regardless of how hard he tries cannot seem to live up to the Viking ways of being a big, strong, dragon slayer. People keep telling him he needs to change all of "this" and he responds with, "You just gestured to all of me!" ...
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Making Space for the Voice of Soldiers that Will not Return to War

Posted by Sarah McCann on Tuesday, April 6, 2010, In : Communication 
Last Saturday, the Civilian-Soldier Alliance  and Iraq Veterans Against the War organized an event called "Refusing to Fight: Iraq War Resisters Tell Their Stories" a talk and meet and greet with former soldiers turned anti-war activists at 2640, a cooperative events venue in Baltimore.  I did not have the pleasure of attending the event, but I heard that it was a success and believe it.  I did have the opportunity to meet two of the men who spoke at the event and even though we did not talk ...
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Children's Choices

Posted by Sarah McCann on Friday, April 2, 2010, In : Youth 
Children need choices. They need to be able to decide the things that impact their lives. From picking out their clothes in the morning, to where to go to school, to what they learn at that school, they need to be a part of the things that affect them. Of course they need guidance and adults who will encourage, model and advise on healthy, rational decisions. Of course they will make mistakes, we all make mistakes, it is how we learn. The problem of not allowing children to make decisions com...
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This blog will address issues of communication, art, and life from my point of view. It is a means for me to keep writing, thinking critically, and finding meaning in my life and work.