Defending ‘Needles in the Sewer’ and Photographing the Disadvantaged; PetaPixel, December 29, 2018

Simon King, PetaPixel; Defending ‘Needles in the Sewer’ and Photographing the Disadvantaged

[Kip Currier: Thought-provoking article identifying and discussing some of the sticky ethical issues of whether to-photograph or not-to-photograph, particularly regarding vulnerable populations and difficult topics. Kudos to the photographer Simon King for shedding light on his metacognition (i.e. thinking about thinking), with regard to how and when he takes pictures and what he does and does not do with them.

Beyond photography, the issues raised in the piece have broader implications as well for digital age technologies' impacts on disadvantaged communities related to the increasing collection and use of data generated by AI algorithms, mass surveillance, facial recognition, biometric information, etc. The last two paragraphs of a November 2018 New York Times article, Colleges Grapple With Teaching the Technology and Ethics of A.I., provide an example of some of the ways higher education is preparing students to better recognize and address these issues:

David Danks, a professor of philosophy and psychology at Carnegie Mellon, just started teaching a class, “A.I, Society and Humanity.” The class is an outgrowth of faculty coming together over the past three years to create shared research projects, he said, because students need to learn from both those who are trained in the technology and those who are trained in asking ethical questions.

“The key is to make sure they have the opportunities to really explore the ways technology can have an impact — to think how this will affect people in poorer communities or how it can be abused,” he said.]

"The main issues people brought up about this image were consent and exploitation...

My responsibility (and maybe yours?) as a photographer is to avoid self-censorship. I can always choose to publish an image or not, but only if that image exists in the first place. If I take an image then I should have the presence of mind to understand what I saw in that scene, and what purpose I want to apply to that image. If I had not taken an image at this time would that be a form of erasing and ignoring this issue? I would rather face discussion and debate about my work than to talk as if these issues are distant and abstract.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’d like to direct some of the attention from this topic and image to the website Addaction. It’s a UK-based organization providing aid and outreach to at-risk addicts. Please consider having a look at their website and possibly making a donation, or maybe going out of your way to produce an image that may also draw attention to this topic."

'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Celebrates Inclusion; NPR, December 22, 2018

Chris Klimek, NPR; 'Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse' Celebrates Inclusion

"The animated film argues that movies are better if you open them up to everyone. The movie says, "Anyone can wear the mask," and indeed, multiple characters do, including Miles Morales, the first Afro-Latino Spidey."

It’s About Ethics in Comic Book Journalism: The Politics of X-Men: Red; Comic Watch, December 19, 2018

Bethany W. Pope, Comic Watch; It’s About Ethics in Comic Book Journalism: The Politics of X-Men: Red

"The central thesis of these eleven issues is that the act of compassion is a more powerful tool than the most brutally cinematic superpower. Empathy is the thing which slaughters fear. Looking at your enemy and seeing a person, woven through with hopes and loves, fears, the usual mixture of frailties, transforms disparate (possibly violent) mobs into a functional community by revealing that there is no ‘us versus them’. There’s only ‘us’. The X-Men are the perfect superhero group to make this point, because their entire existence is predicated on the phrase ‘protecting a world which fears and hates them’. The X-Men have always represented the struggle that othered groups (racial minorities, religious minorities, women, members of the LGBTQIA community) have faced when trying to live in function in a world that is slanted, dramatically, in favor of straight, white (American) men. Such a group is a necessary force in the current, fractured, geo-political climate.

The world needs a message of hope and unity in a time when real children (mostly brown) are being locked in cages at the border of America. And Western audiences, who are either complacent in their ignorance or else furious at their own seeming impotence, need to understand the ways in which their outlook, their opinions are being manipulated so that their complacency is undisturbed and their hatreds are intentionally focused against highly specified targets. Allegory has always been a gentle way to deliver a clear shot of truth, and the technique has functioned perfectly in this series...

In this run, Taylor assembled a team which was primarily composed of characters who are valued for their empathy and capacity for forgiveness."

Stan Lee Unleashed the Heroic Power of the Outcast; Wired, December 13, 2018

Adam Rogers, Wired; Stan Lee Unleashed the Heroic Power of the Outcast

"From the fantasy-pulp midden, Lee had excavated a gem of a truth: These tales about men and women in garish tights hitting each other were also about more. Super­heroes had incredible abilities, yes, but they were also often the victims of prejudice themselves, or trapped in moral webs stronger than anything Spider-­Man ever thwipped. So the comics appealed to people who felt the same, even before Lee and the other Marvel creators published the first African American heroes, the first popular Asian American heroes, and strong, leading-character women in numbers large enough to populate a dozen summer crossovers...

His death encouraged people to tell stories of Lee’s kindness and enthusiasm. But for every story that circulated after Lee’s death about how wonderful and caring he was, comics professionals tell other tales in which Lee is … not.

Every bit as complicated as the characters he helped bring into the world, Lee taught generations of nerds the concepts of responsibility, morality, and love. He waged a sometimes ham-fisted battle against prejudice, misunderstanding, and evil. This is what makes some of nerd-dom’s recent tack toward intolerance so painful; other­ishness is engineered into comics’ radioactive, mutated DNA. Even if Lee wasn’t a super human, he was super­human, empowering colleagues to leap creative obstacles and to give readers a sense of their own secret strengths."

Five Diversity And Inclusion Trends We Can Expect In 2019; Forbes, December 19, 2018

Janice Gassam, Forbes; Five Diversity And Inclusion Trends We Can Expect In 2019

"2018 was an eventful year for diversity and inclusion, with many companies creating winning diversity strategies and others struggling to create a culture of inclusion. What diversity and inclusion trends can be expected for 2019? What developments are predicted for the upcoming year?"

The Postal Worker’s Christmas; The New York Times, December 18, 2018

Sarah Anderson,The New York Times; The Postal Worker’s Christmas

[Kip Currier: At this busy time for sending and receiving holiday cards and gifts, it's important to underscore the vital connection that U.S. Post Offices have in promoting democratic principles and access to information. Indeed, just last week while stopping in a rural Western Pennsylvania post office, I saw and heard first-hand from residents the important roles that U.S. postal offices play in the everyday lives of citizens, many of whom do not live near for-profit delivery companies.

An August 2018 piece, "The miracle of the United States Postal Service", written by a man who grew up in a Utah town with 171 inhabitants, explains:

Postal service has been absolutely central to the history and development of the United States, and the USPS continues to provide fast and efficient service despite being beset by enormous problems. If everything worked as well as the Post Office — and there's certainly room for improvement — this country would be a much better place...

Under the arguments of Washington and his ally Benjamin Rush, Congress conceived of a Post Office conforming to democratic values. Unlike European postal services, which were generally expensive provinces of the elite (plus state surveillance and espionage), the U.S. Post Office would ideally be available to just about anybody who needed it. Tampering of any kind, state or private, was outlawed.

Yes, much communication today does transpire through digital means, chief among them, smart phones. But many still use and depend upon analog services to send and receive a wide array of products and services (see the Op-Ed piece in today's New York Times), as well as for communication and information access. We still talk about Digital Divides--one of the most significant being lack of access to Broadband Internet service for many Americans; especially, in disproportionate numbers, Native Americans, as this disturbing February 2018 Politico exposé ("The least connected people in America") reported. Yet it's also crucial that we be cognizant of an Analog Divide that could occur if postal services are eliminated or drastically curtailed in rural communities. Amidst calls by some for privatizing the U.S. Postal Service, policymakers and legislators must fully consider this information-democratizing service as one of the innumerable interconnected building blocks upon which democracy stands and flourishes.

And if you should need more convincing, the next time you're in Washington D.C., do visit the National Postal Museum. Not as well-known as its more famous, "sexier" relatives (--I'm looking at you National Air and Space Museum!) in the famed Smithsonian Museums system (all of which are free!), I was thoroughly impressed by a visit to this gem of a cultural heritage institution a few years ago. Through a variety of exhibits and artifacts, visitors like me come to better understand the visible and less visible ways that the postal service promotes core democratic principles and supports the infrastructure of democracy. 

Despite the fact that it's not an official motto, the U.S. Postal Service is often associated with this quotation from an ancient work by Greek historian Herodotus: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." 

  

Though certainly inspiring and memorable, a different quotation more aptly encapsulates some of the fundamental roles that the U.S. Postal Service performs in a democracy like ours. As the U.S. Postal Service shares:

Another, less well known inscription can be found on the building that formerly was the Washington, D.C., Post Office and now is the home of the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum. It is located on Massachusetts Avenue and North Capitol Street, N.E.

  

Messenger of Sympathy and Love 
Servant of Parted Friends 
Consoler of the Lonely
Bond of the Scattered Family
Enlarger of the Common Life 
Carrier of News and Knowledge 
Instrument of Trade and Industry 
Promoter of Mutual Acquaintance
Of Peace and of Goodwill Among Men and Nations]

"As in my grandfather’s day, today’s postal workers have a mandate to provide universal service, delivering mail and packages to every American household at uniform rates, no matter where they live. That mandate has helped bind our vast nation.

This principle of affordable universal service is under threat. This year, the White House Office of Management and Budget recommended selling the public Postal Service to a private, for-profit corporation.

On Dec. 4, a Trump task force on the postal system followed up with recommendations for partial privatization and other changes that would reduce services and raise delivery prices, particularly for rural communities."

Digital Ethics: Data is the new forklift; Internet of Business, December 17, 2018

Joanna Goodman, Internet of Business; Digital Ethics: Data is the new forklift

"Joanna Goodman reports from last week’s Digital ethics summit.

Governments, national and international institutions and businesses must join forces to make sure that AI and emerging technology are deployed successfully and responsibly. This was the central message from TechUK’s second Digital Ethics Summit in London.

Antony Walker, TechUK’s deputy CEO set out the purpose of the summit: “How to deliver on the promise of tech that can provide benefits for people and society in a way that minimises harm”.

This sentiment was echoed throughout the day. Kate Rosenshine, data architect at Microsoft reminded us that data is not unbiased and inclusivity and fairness are critical to data-driven decision-making. She quoted Cathy Bessant, CTO of Bank of America:

Technologists cannot lose sight of how algorithms affect real people."

Get into the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA);

Get into the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

"In 10 December, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will turn 70. This is a major opportunity both to celebrate this key document and raise awareness of its messages.

In particular, the Declaration sets out clearly a number of the key principles supporting the work of libraries. From freedom of access to information, expression and opinion, to privacy, education, and the right to participate in cultural life, it is a key reference for our institutions.

As part of the global celebrations for the anniversary, IFLA has produced a briefing - Get into the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This explains the importance of the Declaration, offers ways of finding out more, and makes suggestions for how libraries can get involved." 

Sometimes I Wish the Obamas Wouldn’t ‘Go High’ They were gracious to the Trumps. They had to be.; The Atlantic, December 7, 2018

Jemele Hill, The Atlantic; Sometimes I Wish the Obamas Wouldn’t ‘Go High’

They were gracious to the Trumps. They had to be.

"I felt Mudbound-level anger—and for the same reason—when I watched the awkward exchange between the Trumps and the Obamas at the state funeral for former President George H. W. Bush. The couples were seated next to each other. Former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, both politely nodded at the first couple and graciously shook their hands. In that moment, I wished it wasn’t Michelle Obama who had coined the phrase When they go low, we go high.

I sometimes wonder if the people who often cite that quote have a full understanding of the emotional toll it takes on people of color to have to constantly absolve the racism directed at them...

That’s one of the many burdens of racism for people of color: It is ridiculously one-sided. Only one side is expected to show compassion. Only one side must practice restraint. Only one side is pressured into forgiveness. It’s bad enough having to stomach being wronged. It’s downright shameful being stuck with the responsibility of also making it right."

Reflections from "An Afternoon with Supreme Court of the U.S. Justice Sonia Sotomayor" at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh; Ethics in a Tangled Web, December 8, 2018

Kip Currier; Reflections from "An Afternoon with Supreme Court of the U.S. Justice Sonia Sotomayor" at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh

 

"Life is about differences and how we manage them." -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor

That was just one of the many practical insights from a refreshingly grounded conversation that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor--one of the storied nine from the highest court in the land--had Friday afternoon with an audience of several thousand at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Indeed, after taking roughly three questions each from Duquesne President Ken Gormley and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Marjorie Rendell while seated with them on the stage of the A.J. Palumbo Center, the sciatica-battling (by her candid admission!) Justice Sotomayor literally descended from the stage--flanked by hypervigilant security--to wander amongst the audience, randomly shaking hands while responding to questions from eight Duquesne students. Toward the end of the impromptu walk-about, the Justice spotted one young girl dressed in judge's robes as Justice Sotomayor herself, observing with audible delight that her mini-me "even has the curly hair!"

I'll post the video of the event that Duquesne said they will be making available, as soon as it's released.

Some of the most powerful, relatable moments came when Justice Sotomayor shared the doubts that she faced about whether to continue with the nomination process, following her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court by former President Barack Obama, in the face of attacks by opponents. She spoke of fear as being "the greatest obstacle to success", that "most of the time we fail to take chances", and the importance of taking a chance at something new and different that comes our way, even when we are afraid. And the pride that comes with trying to do that which we fear. Even if we fail. "Failure is a teaching tool", she noted, adding that we often grow the most from the introspection we do after a failed relationship. After we've critiqued the other person, she interjected, eliciting a swell of knowing laughter from the audience.

Other advice from the Justice, along this line of discussion:

It takes courage to admit your own limitations.

Get over your fear and ask the questions you need to ask; go to someone safe and ask the questions you need to ask.

Being too comfortable "may be the worst thing in life."

Sometimes opportunities come your way and you have to be open enough that you throw out the playbook and try something. Create a new playbook on the spot; what really stellar attorneys do, for example, she opined.

On the importance of college, Justice Sotomayor shared that "college gave me the foundation of a liberal arts education." "I wanted to be a citizen of the world." And she spoke of "the foundation" that courses in art, philosophy, and religion gave her for life, encouraging students to "take courses that will teach you something new". And how she wished that she had taken anthropology, and would someday, when she retired. The Justice stated that "the beauty of college is becoming a well-rounded human being" and that "the Founding Fathers were well-educated world citizens".

The line that started this post--"life is about differences and how we handle them"--was a response to President Gormley's question "How do we take the lead in restoring civil discourse?", invoking the recent trauma that Pittsburgh had experienced from the Tree of Life synagogue massacre. The Justice spoke of encouraging open conversation, understanding why the other side feels the way they do. And, turning to President Gormley, she said that if you (meaning higher education institutions like Duquesne) can teach that to students like those at the event, "you can teach it to the world." 

One of the very last observations that Justice Sotomayor shared will particularly warm the heart of any teacher, librarian, bibliophile and writer:  

"Reading was the key to my success."

Native Americans On Tribal Land Are 'The Least Connected' To High-Speed Internet; NPR, December 6, 2018

Hansi Lo Wang, NPR; Native Americans On Tribal Land Are 'The Least Connected' To High-Speed Internet

""The least connected"

The findings are no surprise to Traci Morris. She leads the American Indian Policy Institute at Arizona State University, which is preparing to release a report on a new study of broadband internet service on tribal lands.

"We're the least connected. We're under-connected. We're under-served," says Morris, a member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma.

Mobile phones often are the main tools to help residents on American Indian land to get online, but many communities do not have reliable cell coverage nearby. On some reservations, Morris adds, residents rely on internet service at the local library, tribal office or school.

"Folks find a way to access it. Folks are resilient," she says. "But it shouldn't be this way in the U.S. We should have the same access as other folks, and if we don't, it's going to put us down a path of further have's and have not's."

A major obstacle to high-speed internet access on tribal land is the lack of infrastructure."

"Fighting for the Better Good"..."Don't Give Up"..."Don't Surrender", December 2018

Kip Currier: Good touchstone for anyone "fighting for the better good"--in bad times and good times.