Distance from the Epicenter

Questions about distance and radius are not unfamiliar to anyone who living in NY during and after the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks. The Red Cross and FEMA had their red zone maps. Trauma, a topic also discussed in my July 4th Fireworks Politiku, is very real to those who suffer in its aftermath. What 9/11 victims experienced, suffered from and in some cases are still suffering from, deserves all the support and respect one would expect from a socially conscious and sensitized civilization.

What I just don’t get about all this

Will having a Mosque and cultural center near ground Zero, truly deepen the suffering of a 9/11 survivor simply because it is there to serve a community of moderate Islamic practitioners?

Given the complex nature of trauma and how it manifests, I honestly don’t see how a 9/11 survivor’s response to Park 51 would be any easier to predict than other potential emotional triggers in that part of town.

As someone who was downtown the morning of the attacks, I go to that part of the city when I have to and co-exist with the discomfort as best I can. It’s constantly changing as are the different things that get to me about being there. Would an Islamic cultural center resonate with me as anything besides an Islamic cultural center? Probably not.

The Perceived Threat

I grew up in an educated, politically involved, middle-class Jewish family in Washington, D.C. and have chosen to reside in multicultural cities for most of my adult life because it is where I feel most at ease. I am not afraid of a moderate Islamic cultural center with an interfaith focus because, for me, ignorance, intolerance and extremism is the greater threat.

I do not agree with all of Imam Feisal Abdul Raufmight’s politics –but then– I disagree with a lot of my friend’s politics, as well.

Isn’t this what living and thriving in a multicultural urban metropolis is all about?

The Actual Threat

The actual threat, as I see it, is a potential anti-semitic backlash that the ADL’s intolerance could unintentionally end up causing.

Hopefully those following the issue will understand that the ADL’s extremist position does not represent all Jews. Hopefully…

Politiku Submission Call

Please email Politiku submissions on this topic along with your first and last name and url (if you’d like us to link to it)  to Guest Assistant Editor, Rachel Levy by 9:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, August 2nd.

Rachel’s email address is levy166 (at) gmail.com We hope the Politiku will represent a wide range of Jewish voices on this issue and will post the Politiku we select on Huffpo.

Need the run down or a refresher on what, exactly, Politiku is?  Visit the FAQ section of our Facebook Fan page and follow our tweets as well!

Despite –and perhaps because of this– I pushed for anonymity. Nothing to mess up a job prospect than a Google search connecting an applicant’s name to a widely misunderstood medical condition like PTSD, right?

All anonymous politiku contributors were verified as combat vets with PTSD, by the way. What really made the difference was the fact that Lily had been working with many of these vets through her site Healing Combat Trauma and they trusted her. One of these vets, Angela Peacock, is a former U.S. Army sergeant and Iraq war vet with PTSD, was even comfortable having her name attached.

Although I had no direct contact with Angela during the writing process, Lily informed me that she is a remarkable spokesperson on the topic of female military vets dealing with PTSD. In honor of her willingness to shed some light on this dark and murky issue, Angela is the featured author of the post.

I am posting in hopes that Angela as well as the anonymous vets who have contributed Politiku and every vet in the country now dealing with PTSD, will get access to the resources needed to support their efforts towards recovery.

Angela Woytus-Peacock Politiku
fire lights up the sky/ like old memories burning/ frazz-le-ing my nerves

red white and boom pow/ I can smell watermelon/ old smoke wafting by

staring in silence/ fires are burning inside me/ time to run and hide.

Angela Woytus-Peacock is a former U.S. Army sergeant and Iraq war vet with PTSD.

Anonymous Fireworks & Combat Trauma Politiku
No Fi – Er – Works, No !/ Got P – T – S – D, Need Help !/ Stop War, Fix V – A !

Anonymous Fireworks & Combat Trauma Politiku
some one call the cops/ poor neighborhood kids don’t know / they will find out soon

Craig Newmark’s recent blogpost about National PTSD Awareness Day inspired me to draft a proposal for a series of Politiku workshops for U.S. Military Veterans dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder due to combat trauma. Craig referred me to Lily Casura, author of the website HealingCombatTrauma.com for additional info on the topic.

4th of July Fireworks can be stressful, isolating, alienating and outright exhausting for vets suffering from PTSD. Moreover, they may not necessarily be in the mood to the political issues behind their most recent tours of duty with their civilian families who only know what the media tells them and, in all fairness, why should they? Why should one individual be singlehandedly responsible for setting the record straight, given how polarized the issue has become? Given the diversity of perspectives on this issue, how accurate would one individual’s perspective be, anyway?

Most of us –myself included– grew up associating Fourth of July fireworks with excitement. In Washington, DC, Dad, Mom my brother and me would all go to the Ellipse early to place a picnic blanket by the Reflecting Pool and twirl sparklers as the sun set while waiting till 9:30 when it was dark enough for rose shaped streaks to rip open the sky as we cheered. We would then ooo and ah as the twinklies descended on parachutes and then head home in a blissful fume of post grand finale haze. Though each and every family has their variation upon the theme, it seems to me most Americans still honor the 4th in some way involving family and fireworks. It’s an altogether awesome holiday — one of the few in this country that truly everyone can be a part of!

From Susannaspeier.com

For soldiers dealing with combat trauma, however, the explosive blasts can trigger a more visceral fight/flight response because of their similarities to the blasts and explosions experienced in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. Being surrounded by explicit and implicit displays of patriotism and anti-patriotism can further augment a shell shocked combat vet’s sense of displacement.

I want to be clear that Politiku is not therapy. A Politiku writing workshop for vets dealing with combat trauma might be of value to some because it is a journalistic and literary based technique would enable these individuals to condense their complicated, timely and multifaceted experiences into simple and accessible piece of poetry for them to choose to share with others or not.

This Politiku proposal is 21 slides; mostly images. Assuming you’re on vaca don’t wanna be bothered with anything too long and complicated, I assure you that the proposal (embedded below) is a fast, readable and generally un-confusing read and so check it out, okay? Speier July Politiku Pitch

A project like this would benefit the readers as much –if not more– than it would benefit the writers. Politiku written by combat Vets suffering from PTSD has the potential of helping those who might not otherwise be comfortable with this issue due to its complexity and seeming inpenetrability.

The samples in the Power Point proposal — provided by Yours Truly — are my attempt to give a reader a better sense of what a Politiku written by a vet might look like. Here is where the next request comes in:

Submission Call

If you would like to Politiku about vets with PTSD on July 4th and fireworks please post your Politiku in the comment section.

If you are a vet with PTSD and would still like to Politiku but prefer to remain anonymous, you can email your Politiku to to susanna (at) susannaspeier (dot) com and I will feature it anonymously. I will assume that any politiku received in my inbox is mean for anonymous posting.

Need more specifics on how to write Politiku or want to follow for updates and info on future posts? My Facebook fanpage has an FAQ. You can also go to my Huffpo column to read other Politiku posts if you want to get a better sense.

While it’s my ordinary inclination to suppress and to deny any tendency towards the star struck swooner response; the exhilaration of meeting and interacting with luminaries Painter, Chuck Close and Playwright, David Henry Hwang and Astronaut, Leland Melvin in a forum established to bring science and art together would have been impossible –not to mention, petty– to try and suppress.  And all things considered, I didn’t mind.  In fact, I realized that when the celebrity is in the context of meritocracy, I’m kinda into it.

From World Science Festival

David Henry Hwang told me the science stories that had the greatest influence on him were the sci-fi stories he read as a kid.  Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy and books by Robert Heimlin.

From World Science Festival

Chuck Close talked to me about how he and Rob Rauchenberg’s creative processes were based in the techniques they developed due to their learning disabilities.

Leyland Melvin talked about how difficult it was to get accustomed to gravity again after being in space. Walking on the beach and looking at the horizon line helped, he explained.

From World Science Festival

And…I got to play the Therumond.

From Susannaspeier.com

Thanks to the media’s megafication of Apple’s already megafied iPad buzz, Dad’s experience was not a unique one.

From Susannaspeier.com

Dad is all about reading newspapers and is thrilled to have the process streamlined.  Given the volume of newspaper articles he goes through every day, the iPad makes sense for him.  Were the crowds camping in front of the Apple Stores all night also trying to get their newspaper reading process streamlined?

From Susannaspeier.com

When I bought my iBook G4, I was given choice of two screen sizes.  After some deliberation and phone calls to friends, I decided to pay the few extra hundred bucks for the larger screen.  Although I did not regret it, its not like I’d have know any differently had I gotten the small screen instead since I would have adapted to it.

Now, imagine if Apple had released the large screen iBook G4 two years after releasing the small screen iBook G4.  Sprinkle in some adjustments to make the system run more smoothly and there would be no question but to get the larger version.  People would, in fact, camp in front of an Applestore all night in order replace their smaller screen versions with the larger screen iBook G4s.

Back in the 90s, when I was living and studying in Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam Professor Richard Rogers introduced me to the Technological Sublime.

From Susannaspeier.com

Whereas the natural sublime was the awestruck state brought about through a direct encounter with an extraordinary encounter with a natural landscape –Niagra Falls, Big Sur, Bryce Canyon, Devil’s Tower, Old Faithful, you get the jist– the Technological Sublime described heightened state brought about through an encounter with technology.  In the mid 19th century, the technological sublime characterized the first encounters with railroads, steam engines and telegraphs.

From Susannaspeier.com

Regardless of whether or not you actually need the iPad, I’m guessing your pulse will report an increase when you hold it in your hand and tap its smooth monolithic surface.

From Susannaspeier.com

Unlike the Natural Sublime, the Technological Sublime has an expiration date. Soon as the next version is out, the previous version is defunct. In some cases vintage value can add value again, years after. My original 1984 Macintosh is an example of this. Ordinarily, however, that’s not the case. Nobody asks to look at my iBookG4 now, however because Apple minions are passionate transients who know how to make the most of a product launch.

From Susannaspeier.com

Twitter Fail

Earth Hour may have hit the #1 spot on Twitter but from what I could tell, the social media hype was disproportionate with the event’s reality.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love what the World Wildlife Foundation is all about.  In fact, last year and this year I embraced their Earth Hour wholeheartedly — shut off the lights, unplugged the power strips,  Poured the wine, lit the candles and swapped my technologically-obsessed social media addict hat for my luddite-for an-hour one, determined to embrace this globally observed energy conservation ritual’s radiosilence.

Brooklyn Fail

I looked out my window to the windows across the way.  The shadowy brown and black silhouettes of the surrounding turn of the last century highrises girding Grand Army Plaza’s marble arch’s white and violet glow had not changed at all.  Something was off, yes.  It was not the electricity, though.

It didn’t matter what the likes, hashtags and Twitterstream surges had been and were continuing to indicate.  Brooklyn was oblivious to Earth Hour.

Not a single one went out.  True to my intentions, I spent unplugged the hour scribbling observations on a yellow notepad by tea candlelight.

Ritual Fail

Rituals with sticking power are infectious as a hit summer blockbuster.  They are not the created by well intended non-profits. They are a cultural invasion and an accident.  Rituals with sticking power surge up from a deeply visceral collective impulse that is rarely understood at the time of the surge.  Whether they want to be or not, people get sucked in by their centers of gravity.  Rituals, like languages, evolve through practice as their context is defined and re-defined.

Empire State Building During Earth Hour: Note that with the exception of those three major buildings, none of the other lights got shut off

From Susannaspeier.com

Esperanto Epilogue

Think about this this way: Earth Hour is as synthetic –not to mention well intended– as Esperanto. The 20th century language was developed by a utopian global village advocate. The political and sociological driven language, however soon proved itself to be devoid of sticking power.

Though designed to be easy to learn, Esperanto’s inherent lack of spontaneity was its downfall. Although small clusters of Esperanto devotees can still be found all over the world, there are far more Ancient Greek speakers in the world than there are Esperantists.

Not knowing, for certain, that the outcome will be -ie- whether or not American health insurance consumers will continue to get gang raped by Health Insurance Companies, is obviously unsettling.

Here’s how I’m managing:  by updating Wikipedia entries on Health Insurance Comanies!

From Susannaspeier.com

For those of you who don’t already know about my Health Care Reform hero, Wendell Potter (the guy I featured in my Health Care Reform Politiku on Huffpo), I just updated Wikipedia’s relatively benign Aetna entry to include what Wendell had to say about Aetna.  This is because what Wendell has to say provides a considerably more accurate picture of why the bill is so critical at this point in time.

There are plenty more health insurance companies out there on Wikipedia.  Many of them, like Aetna, are not accurately represented, most likely, because their multimillion PR teams are the ones submitting the data.  Anyone can update, though.  Just give the info their PR teams decided to withhold.  There’s plenty out there…

From Susannaspeier.com

Between now and when the Health Care Reform Bill is finalized, continue to update major health insurance companies’ Wikipedia entries.

“Waiting for Tsunami”

The message was posted on my Siberian-Angelino friend Sasha’s Facebook wall. My Exurbian-Malibu cousin, Jennifer’s, posted Tsunami watch updates on her Facebook wall, as well.

My anti-social-media dad left me a concerned voicemail warning yesterday. Uncertain, due to my transient existence, which coast I would actually be on when the anticipated Tsunami hits, he also warned of the foot of snow on the ground, waiting to greet me in NYC.

From Susannaspeier.com

How are residents of California –the state hit hardest, first by the recession and now the upcoming 40% health insurance hike– bracing up for the supposed seismic sea wave headed their way?

Is it concern for our own shorelines or is it a sense of connectedness to the recent Chilean tragedy that has us hovering in anticipation or is it anxiety or the upcoming Health Care Reform legislation?

Trulyfool Politiku
‘X’ sport sand and sea:
Hanging ten, tsunami speed
(Ambulate yourself)

s000z Politiku
Glad it didn’t break…
…there’s not much to write now, tho
no news is good news

Went to see Mr. & Mrs. Fitch with my friend, J. Hotham the other night. While, it was impossible not to love the tender yet jaded but still lovingly crafted characters, I was constantly distracted by playwright, Douglas Carter Beane’s limited understanding of social media.

From Susannaspeier.com

Its not like everyone has to follow every subtle nuance of the perpetually fluctuating world of social media. Given the fact it was the literal as well as metaphoric world of the play, however, couldn’t Beane have solicited the assistance of a slightly more tech savvy dramaturg? If that wasn’t in the budget, all he’d have needed to do was offer up free lattes and he’d have had a swarm of geeks at his beckon call in no time flat.

Lithgow as Fitch on Twitter

John Lithgow portrayal of Mr. Fitch was sublime. No surprise there. Had the guy been a Brit, he’d have been knighted years ago. But once again, I couldn’t help but be hopelessly distracted by his character’s Twitter dismissives:
I inhaled/
I exhaled/
which do you like more — inhaling or exhaling?
Twitter characterization.

From Susannaspeier.com

How could Lithgow’s character –a journalist whose success had bought him a luxury loft in a great neighborhood–  not have known better.

The First Thing Mr. & Mrs. Fitch Would Have Known About

The epic paradigm shattering, “arrested” Tweet that photojournalism student James Buck sent his followers in April 2009 from the backseat of a police car headed towards the Nile Delta city of Mahalla, Egypt! Not only did this epic tweet succeed in alerting the US State Department –who  arranged diplomatic intervention that would lead to a subsequent tweet of “Free” in less than 24 hours–  it defined the vital role Twitter would play on future hotspot stages.

The Second Thing Mr. & Mrs. Fitch Would Have Known About

The New York Times hosted Social Media Week Crowdsourcing Panel and the upcoming Shorty Awards, (also scheduled to take place in the Times building). If this isn’t proof enough that the new era of journalism is now being championed and embraced by print journalism then Jennifer Preston’s @NYT_JenPreston recent appointment as New York Times Social Media Editor ought to be.

How To Fix All This

Had the playwright asked lead actor, John Lithgow @john_lithgow for a guided tour of the Twittersphere, the story that probes the delicious topic what happens when a credible journalist fabricates would likely have taken too ambiguous a route for its traditional narrative arc to sustain. Mr. & Mrs. Fitch, like the fictitious article the leading characters create are there to entertain, rather than draw their audience into a metaphysical Charlie Kaufmanesque quandary. An up to date depiction of how social media is changing print journalism might have therefore caused the genre’s hard drive to crash. Set the play sometime in late 2007 or even early 2008, however and the portrayal would have been relatively accurate.

Lithgow as Lithgow on Twitter

From Susannaspeier.com