dagblog - Comments for "Social Learning in a National Tragedy. "

Funny. I didn't see this

erica20 — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:16:08 +0000

Funny. I didn't see this speech as being loaded up with platitudes. If anything, it was on the stark side, more Godot than Gump.

I've been critical of the Obama compromises and the focus on bipartisanship, which to me involved saying stuff that was less and less meaningful until there wasn't much left of the Democratic platform. (And in a time when a lot of Americans are going around saying that the USA was founded as a Christian Nation, that is a problem from a "why are we here?" standpoint.)

But in this speech, Obama managed to move all the way into the question of "How can we be Americans in the face of this kind of thing?" And the answer was, "We can serve." It seemed like a useful reminder that not everything is Meta, and that the non-Meta part of Obama's job is taking the significant risk of being shot and leaving his kids fatherless in the middle of making one of these goddamned speeches. (Sorry Ramona, Destor et al., you can change that to goldurn if you feel the need.) Or, even worse, exposing his wife and kids to harm just for having been bold enough to think that maybe the USA was worth the effort of being its president.... I mean seriously, that's the man's job right now.

The thing about good rhetoric is that it's meaningful rather than meaningless, and there's a clear message for everybody who hears it. I think the message for the Right Wing was "Tone It Down" and for just about Everybody Else it was "How about a Little more Help with the Basics Here so we can all make this thing worth doing?" I could be wrong, but that's what I heard.

There's a whole other question of what the founders actually did mean when they sat down to make a government, which didn't get said in the speech, but you know, a person can only do so much in one night.

Anyway, just wanted to weigh in with my 2 cents that I didn't see much froth in this one...

A day after posting, while

Dennie Briggs — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:53:15 +0000

In reply to Social Learning in a National Tragedy.

A day after posting, while taking a walk, a stranger approached me, introduced herself, pointed out where she lived and said that she had noticed me getting around with my walker. She wondered if here was anything she could do—house-cleaning, preparing a meal, tend to my plants.

I put my faith in that Tucson third grade!

Your desire to simply a

Elusive Trope — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:46:55 +0000

In reply to The "national tragedy" is

Your desire to simply a socio-political situation in order to make a dig on Obama is impressive. You're rant is just another example of the kind of rhetoric that makes passing both sane gun-control laws and mental health legislation difficult to pass.

I plan to enjoy this week of

Ramona — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:19:30 +0000

In reply to The "national tragedy" is

I plan to enjoy this week of civility. It's those other weeks that find me barfing.

Teachable moments are nice,

Michael Maiello — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 16:38:22 +0000

In reply to The "national tragedy" is

Teachable moments are nice, but... yeah, we could use some legislatable moments as well.

The "national tragedy" is

David Seaton — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 15:56:00 +0000

In reply to Social Learning in a National Tragedy.

The "national tragedy" is that mentally disturbed individuals can easily purchase semi-automatic weapons and sad as the Tucson shooting is, it hardly compares with the recent Virginian Tech shooting, where another nut, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people and wounded many others. The President didn't go there and speak then.

As has so often occurred, Obama strung together a series of platitudes, we all had a good cry and then as usually happens with Obama, nothing serious is going to be done about the real problem, which is the free sale of weapons which are only for killing people. Right after the President's wonderful speech they held a big gun show in Tucson.

Oh, yes, I forgot, this week we are all going to be nice and civil and randomly kind to each other... pardon me while I barf.

Random acts of kindness, I

Richard Day — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 20:19:59 +0000

In reply to Social Learning in a National Tragedy.

Random acts of kindness, I like this, I like this a lot!!

There was one phrase that

Elusive Trope — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 19:14:10 +0000

In reply to Social Learning in a National Tragedy.

There was one phrase that jumped out at me during his speech: to sharpen our instincts for empathy.

The significant notion that underlies this statement is that we are not just empathetic creatures doing our day-to-day routines and being emphatic when the need arises. There are for forces acting us that dull our instincts to those moments when the need arises. We need to consciously and actively work on opening ourselves to the humanity in each situation we encounter. We can only see how often on blog threads that the situation devolves into hatred, where those who are perceived on the "other side" are dehumanized and marginalized.