Community Matters

(Community Matters) Paul Freeman, an award-winning Australian photographer who grew up in Tasmania and moved to Sydney.

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Hat Tip: Advocate

(Community Matters)  love this women’s project, New York artist Sophia Wallace wants you — and everyone you know — to be cliterate. It’s about time.

Admittedly, I have zero practical reasons to know any of this anymore – except that I do talk with my nieces, nephews and godchildren about sex. Not sure they’re gonna appreciate my new quizzes.

hat tip: Huff Post

(Community Matters) <<Department of American Studies at UT posted the attached photo on Twitter today with the following caption: “Dang: 38th and Guadalupe, looking south, in 1933.”

There are gas pumps behind the columns! The working theory is that is now Flamingo Automotive. Jimmyville’s Ice Cream shop is the Tazza Fresca site. The cross street in the foreground is 37th. The high spot in the road in the background is indeed 34th St.

The Moontower in the background is another curiousity. Could its footing be that big chunk of concrete on the corner of 29th in front of Milto’s?

There are electric streetcar tracks in the mud to the left, and overhead wires. It is hard to imagine urban rail had been running on Guadalupe for 41 years at the time the photo was taken!>>

(Community Matters) Saddened that opponents have adopted the misleading language about it infringing on their rights. The ordinance does nothing to prevent one from thinking or expressing their opposition to gays & lesbians. Admittedly, it does prevent one from taking discriminatory actions. As a conservative Jewish friend reminds me, he supports the Nazi’s right to march and to express their opinions based on First Amendment rights. They are not guaranteed the right to ACT on these opinions, however. 

Opponents of this ordinance are explicitly advocating for the right to discriminate against men and women because of their sexual orientation – scarcity v abundance.  It was a long night at San Antonio city hall. Council heard from citizens about the proposed LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance. The Council plans to vote next Thursday. 

(Community Matters) WSJ: Small-business optimism surged in July and August to some of the highest levels since the recession started, according to a handful of recent surveys.

(Community Matters)  50 years later the speakers expanded the Dream to include women, immigrants, people with disabilities, gays & lesbians, and all Americans struggling to achieve middle class status & to stay in the middle class. The speeches weren’t exclusionary; they didn’t demonize. No one wanted anything less for anyone; they want more for all of us. And, President Obama reminded us that even progress suffers setbacks, whether Supreme Court decisions or legislative initiatives suppressing voters’ rights. These setbacks will not stop our march forward.

I am prompted by Linda Wertheimer’s memory that she remembers the speeches less than the hope shared by the tens of thousands assembled in 1963. Similarly, I was moved by hope and by our progress, by the mix of Americans and friends – black, white, brown and Asian . . . old, young and middle aged.  There were people from all walks of life, from all corners of our country, from around the world. I didn’t count, but there were as many white people as black people, as many old Americans as young Americans. We’re at our most powerful when we stand for something rather than against. I’m reminded that we’re a country of abundance, not one of scarcity – and, when we view rights, property and opportunities as limited, we’re less American than our forebearers. 

Sure we were there to hear our President, or because we couldn’t attend the first March. We were there to be a people . . . to reaffirm Dr. Martin Luther King’s Dream, to remember we’re the country which elected a Black president, twice . . . who believe in government to serve its people, that intervenes in commerce, banking, education and state & local government to ensure we have a fair chance. Dr. King’s Dream was for citizens of color to share in the great American Dream. The dream I witnessed was its reaffirmation and expansion – we’ll no longer discriminate on any basis; we’ll promote freedom, jobs & justice for every American. We continue on that path to a more perfect union, to the realization that all men (& women, gay & straight) are created equal and are due those unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

(Community Matters) An interesting way to teach. 

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(Community Matters) I loved the Harry Potter books. Was great being at the station with my nieces. We gave them their first Harry Potter books.

(Community Matters) Always wished I’d been there; can’t miss it this time – President Obama to speak from the Lincoln Memorial. official site

(Community Matters) A super duper 48 hours with the nieces. Hilary & Hannah Tomlinson are sophomores and seniors at OU. They’re both very involved in their sororities, churches and teach at summer camps . . .  so their time as least as hard to schedule as our own. So, all we could find this summer is one long weekend, decided to spend it on planes and in London. Long plane rides, like car trips, provide the perfect settings for just being together.

Lots of theater: The Cripple of Inishmaan, The Book of Mormon, Punchdrunk’s The Drowning Man; shopping; touring (mostly areas rather than traditional tourist sites), food and general just hanging out.

this pic isn’t really fair since we’d left the hotel early am, had been rained on and been running up and down the streets of the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill.  Invited our 11-yo niece, Paulina Sepulveda, to join us but she wasn’t ready – hopefully next time. 

(Community Matters) In Politico’s Playbook

Love hearing that 20- & 30- somethings might be organizing around the rest of us

THE MONEY, HONEY — “20-somethings jump into super PACs,” by Andrea Drusch: “In the past month, … four super PACs were formed by people younger than 35 … Often, the idea is to push back against political parties they say are drifting off course. … It’s a sentiment young super PACs from both parties share: National candidates either don’t align with their views, or they don’t prioritize the issues that matter to them. … For Brandon Anderson’s group in Rock Island County, Ill., those issues are achieving comprehensive immigration reform and reducing government intrusion in people’s lives; two things he says are important to the 20- and 30-somethings … He hopes maybe his super PAC, Millennials for America, will help drum up some younger candidates to advocate for those issues, or at least lend a voice to the issues of an age group he thinks has been shut out of the political system.

“Ragheb Baio, 29, says he started Republican Youth for a Conservative Tomorrow PAC because he was tired of seeing the GOP put up presidential candidates that come off as closed-minded and unrelatable … He and his two partners, also under the age of 30, plan to begin an advertising campaign in the coming months that will encourage Republicans to choose a 2016 presidential candidate with more progressive views on social issues … like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. For other groups, like College Democrats of Ohio, forming a super PAC is about being in control of their money. [Sarah] Ponn says that Pass the Torch PAC, formed by three young founders of a fitness company, will employ the same methods they used to start their now $1.8 million business to promote their super PAC.” http://politi.co/1dHMIz2

REACHING MILLENINIALS (born 1982 to 2003 (roughly ages 10 to 30) — RON FOURNIER, back from book leave, on TheAtlantic.com, “The Outsiders: How Can Millennials Change Washington If They Hate It?”: “The largest and most diverse generation in U.S. history is goal-orientated, respects authority and follows rules. Millennials are less ideological than their Baby Boom parents … and far more tolerant. In addition to famously supporting gay rights, polls show they are less prone to cast negative moral judgments on interracial marriages, single women raising children, unmarried couples living together and mothers of young children working outside the home. While their parents and grandparents preferred to work alone, young Americans are team-oriented and seek collaboration. Wired to the world, they are more likely than past generations to see the globe’s problems as their own.

“Millennials are eager to serve the greater community through technologies, paradoxically, that empower the individual. Millennials witnessed, embraced, and in some cases instigated massive disruptions of the music, television, movie, media, and retail industries. The most supervised and entitled generation in human history, they have no patience for inefficiency, stodgy institutions or the status quo.” http://bit.ly/1dio6za

(Community Matters) I’m bummed to see Gary Knell leave NPR. He’s always generously offered solicited advice and has built a deep and talented bench of chief lieutenants who I’ve gotten to know: Kinsey Wilson (EVP & Chief Content Officer), Margaret Low Smith (SVP News), Joyce Macdonald (Chief of Staff/VP Station Relations), Chris Howie (Major Donors Officer). He’s made real inroads and improvements at NPR; we’ll be fine. Thank you, Gary.