DEFENDERS OF ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER AREA COLORFUL GROUP,by Louise Annarino,June 29,2012
| Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
– John F. Kennedy |
I am so glad I was born a woman. It has allowed me the freedom to not conform. From first consciousness of a personal identity it was clear I was not an equal to any male; not simply different from boys, but unequal as well. This message was not simply from parents and family members immersed in Italian culture. It was the American cultural premise that boys mattered more: their plans must be first-met, their hopes first-fulfilled, their preferences first-considered. They never noticed what seemed obviously appropriate for their well-being. Why should they have done so? The culture fit them well. Their shoes fit. When shoes fit well, one does not notice. One only notices when the shoes pinch. I have worn shoes that pinch my entire life. It makes me cranky, angry and tired. This is not because of individual men who treated me so badly, although there a few who shall remain nameless. Men and women agreed to share this norm within our personal relationships and cultural institutions. It always take a prince to save the princess in our stories. Thank you Drew Barrymore for your portrayal of a different kind of princess in EVERAFTER: A CINDERELLA STORY.
I cannot compare a woman’s discomfort with that felt by African-Americans,Native-Americans, Latinos and other groups hobbling along with pinched shoes seeking the American dream. Even when they are allowed to join in the race, painful feet make their chances of winning a race so much more difficult. The pain is different for each of us, but we recognize the restricted gait in others. For white men the race is also a struggle. They must work equally hard to train for the race. The course they run is the same we all run. The only difference is that our shoes pinch. We understand our struggles are common struggles. But our pain helps us become sensitized to issues of injustice, discrimination and abuse of power. This is not to ignore those white men who are equally sensitive to issues of injustice and would never discriminate or abuse power. In fact, they amaze me since it would be so easy for them to simply move ahead and leave the rest of us far behind.
As I watched the faces of those brave and committed Congressional Democrats who walked out on the Republican contempt motion initiated by Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CAL) I saw the faces of people who know an abuse of power when they see it, because they have experienced it so often themselves. And because they have never been able to conform to the white-male power model, they have been free to grow into people with the strength of character, perspicacity, and empathy for others to speak truth to power.These men and women of color were joined by white representatives who understand the common struggle we all face, and know we must face challenges together.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which initiated the protest, led the exit from the House floor, civil rights icon Rep.John Lewis (D-GA) at their head as the contempt vote against A.G. Holder began, along with minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CAL), minority whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD), and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Asian-Pacific American Caucus,and the Progressive Caucus who were joined by more than 100 representatives of the House of Representatives.
Rep. Hoyer asserted the walkout was not about race but “to call the attention of the American people, who are angry about confrontation, angry about gridlock, angry about the fact that we are not focused on their priorities: jobs, investment infrastructure, the environment, education, innovation, building our economy.” Leader Pelosi commented that the effort was a political ruse meant to erode respect for and confidence in A.G. Holder and impede the Justice Departments’ efforts to prevent voter suppression. This is what speaking truth to power looks like: men and women of every nationality, race, color and hue hand in hand to overcome injustice and abuse of power by awakening the rest of us.
annarino writes 
Love and Transcendence,Louise Annarino,April 21,2014
Love and Transcendence, Louise Annarino,April 21,2014
“Can you prove you are self-aware?” is a question posed by Johnny Depp’s character in Transcendence, a film about Artificial Intelligence or AI. AI is developing right now in labs across the world (see THE FUTURE OF THE MIND, Michio Akaku,Doubleday,2014). The mind of a deceased scientist uploaded into a computer responds to his colleague played by Morgan Freeman’s question with one of his own, “Can you?”.
Since 1970 behavioral scientists have used the mirror test1 to measure self awareness in humans and other animals. It had been widely accepted that recognizing one’s self reflected in a mirror proved self-awareness. In some cases a mark is placed on the body. If the looker explores the mark and/or tries to remove it the subject proves self awareness. Maggie Koerth-Baker2 explains, however, that there are cultural reasons amid both human and animal groups why such a test does not always appear to work. For example, an elephant is used to adding mud, and carrying around birds and insects on its skin. Even if it recognizes itself, and a mark on its hide as foreign, it will ignore the mark as inconsequential. In social groups where interdependence is valued over independence children are taught not to disclose self, but to meld self into the whole. Freezing when they view their marked reflection in a mirror is an equally profound measure of self awareness, even if a child in such a culture makes no effort to respond to the reflection nor the mark placed on the body. Self-awareness is not always self-evident.
We must be careful in judging its existence and its strength. Try looking at your self in a mirror. Not to part your hair, check for moles, or practice flirting. Look into your eyes..for a long time…until it makes you so uncomfortable you must look away from your self. In that moment you are self-aware.
We spend too little time being self-aware.Only when we are self-aware are we truly able to recognize the self in others. And recognizing the self in others is how we begin to love them. Each of us longs to be seen. This is one reason the use of technology as a replacement for face-to-face interaction is so dissatisfying, and so dangerous. We can hide where self cannot be seen. The comments to posts on blogs,news sites and Facebook are evidence of of the shadow self we keep in hiding, unleashed in the secrecy of social media unaware of self. This lack of self-awareness in social media is destructive; and, allows us to be totally unaccountable. This is why the key question in Transcendence is not about the use of AI; but, about self-awareness.
To make the world more safe, we need to see deeper and to be seen better. We need to see into the self. For that we need to look into the eyes of one another. When we recognize the self in another, as we have done so in ourselves,we are acknowledging our connection to a higher self within each of us, one which transcends race,ethnicity,religious conviction,sexuality,culture. The irony is that becoming more self aware we can lose our self in love. Now, that is the real transcendence, the kind which can save the world, not destroy it. Only by loving each other can we save ourselves.
1. Developed by Gordon Gallup, Jr.in 1970.
2. Kids (and Animals) Who Fail Classic Mirror Tests May Still Have Sense of Self, Scientific American, Nov 29, 2010 By Maggie Koerth-Baker.
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