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Write On!

I don't know if anyone except J. Marcus Ross is reading me yet, but I'd like to try to get a discussion topic started. What do you think should be the code of jourrnalistic ethics for alternative media?

"Mainstream" media hold, attempt to hold, or claim to hold -- depending on your view of the mainstream media -- to a code of ethics that include being "balanced" and "objective." Many writers in "alternative" media argue that the mainstream media is neither balanced nor objective, and the alternative media shouldn't even aim to be. It is the alternative media's role to critically analyze the mainstream news, cover unreported stories, and advocate for minority viewpoints.

In Seattle, we have a local news topic that illustrates the complexities of this issue. In evaluating my discussion of this topic, remember that I am a member of SHARE and its sister organization WHEEL. I am, in fact, the President of the Board of Directors of SHARE and a member of the Executive Committee of WHEEL -- although that isn't what it sounds like, because all memebrs of both organizations have an equal voice and equal vote. I am also on the editorial committee of Real Change homeless newspaper.

SHARE, Seattle Housing and Resource Effort, is a group of homeless and formerly homeless men and women who organize self-managed shelters and other survival resources and also advocates for social changes to end homelessness. SHARE's funding comes, in order of proportion, from the City of Seattle, King County, the federal government, and private donations. SHARE is in a financial crisis and has asked the City for extra funds. The City responded by doing an assessment of the program which came up with a number of criticisms and suggested, or in some cases required, drastic changes. The City also said that it could not provide any extra funds this year, although it would help SHARE approach nonprofit funders like United Way.

The City of Seattle took three months to make its Assessment, and released its report to the media at the same time as it sent it to SHARE. The daily news (paper, radio and tv) reported the City's criticisms, with some quotes of response from SHARE. It took SHARE a week to make a detailed response, which it also faxed to the media. Besides factual errors in the assessment, we pointed out that the cost of living for everything in Seattle has been going up, and both SHARE and other agencies have gone to the City for increased funding in previous years, and the City has provided it. The only difference this year is that SHARE is sponsoring Tent City, which city officials oppose.

The daily news did not cover SHARE's response. Alternative talk radio -- KEBX, NPR -- did.

There are four members of SHARE on the Real Change editorial committee. We all abstained from any editorial involvement in Real Change's coverage of the controversy. Regarding the resulting story, one of us felt it was a balanced coverage of both the City's and SHARE's views. Two of us felt that the story was not critical enough of the City's claims, and could have found the same factual errors we did if it had dug further. One of us felt that the role of Real Change should have been to give more room to SHARE's point of view, since the City's was given emphasis in the mainstream media. The director, Tim Harris, felt that to keep Real Change's credibility, the paper must continue to provide equal coverage of both points of view.

This is a summary, just to raise the issues for discussion. I'll post a link to the news stories later.

Write On!
Anitra

Today's poem: trying to describe what bipolar disorder was like in childhood.

Wild Horses

I had a strawberry mare with birthmarks,
a pitch-black horse with a temper,
wise white stallions, bright-eyed palominos
blue winged unicorns with silver hooves.
 
Sometimes they ran in daylight.
All my friends could see them.
We pranced and played.
 
But whenever the fog rolled in they ran away.
Friends and horses both left me alone
in the cave where I stayed lost
two steps from the door.
 
It was always the palomino who came back first,
sun leading me out to run the green meadows again.
Palomino with the white mane, coat glowing gold
over her night-dark skin.

Midshipmen of the Heart

There was no childhood then.
Sixteen years old, or younger, once on deck
you ate what you got and drank
what you could get;
you worked, you sweat or froze,
took the cursing, took the lash
like any man.

There is no childhood now. Once on the street
you're not just equal game; the guns
prefer the younger targets.
The lash of tongue and eye no colder,
concrete walls
as barren one side as the other.

Hair flying self-chosen colors,
medals riveted
to lip and nose, tongue and ear,
some scars and tattoos showing,
many not,
choosing their own crew;

where do they sail?
What office
will they fill?

Charles Anthony "Jello" Kueck died at 27. He was homeless since 15, the last five years mostly in Seattle, where he helped many younger kids out on the street. This was written after Jello's memorial service at Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets

Note to self: Do not include paragraph and break html in Xanga logs.

Written yesterday:

Why Hope?

Jello died at twenty-seven,
homeless, Independence Day in the City of Angels,
died of the damage of escaping one more time.
Too Short died on Greyhound,
coming back from her man in the City of Angels,
died of the damage from reconciling one more time.
Chrissy died in hospital,
here in Seattle,
of the cancer, one too many years out on the street.

Why do I hope?

Because Barbie's attempted suicide failed,
and she called me.
Because Melissa comes in to write about her anger,
instead of hiding in it.
Because Sean is working,
and Kevin has a place to stay.

I came to the wrong planet to find perfection.

I came to the right planet to find work.

The first feedback I got was from Melissa, who loved it. The next feedback was from two people who feel that the last two lines sound like delusions of grandeur. I guess the joke, "If we wanted perfection we sure came to the wrong planet, huh?" doesn't work "on paper" -- at least not among people who don't know me personally.

My sweetie Dr. Wes Browning turned 52 July 9th. I turned 52 July 17th. I wrote him this poem for his birthday:

On Wes's Birthday, July 9, 2001

You are sunlit pasture
where the hay is always sweet
and nettles never sting,
a creek in green woodshade
with water always clean
and gravel that never cuts my feet,
a hug that has never constricted me,
an anchor that has never held me back.

You laugh without mockery,
argue without wounding.

Within your world's heart
crystals hold a light
that never came from sun or star
yet the dark warm beating walls
don't cramp my breath.
You fly me into stars that never burn me.

I love you.
I treasure you.
Forever.

See the poem page on my meta-site for more. Recently printed elsewhere:

• an article in Real Change, local homeless newspaper, on my experiences with Seattle's mental health outreach program (not yet posted to the web)
• a review of Fragx Anthologica. (Go to http://www.fragx.com/ and click on "Anthologica".)

Thoughts for today on the controversy over whether freedom of religion includes the right to discriminate against gays (referring to news article on the faith-based initiative):

Does freedom of religion mean freedom to discriminate?

At one time, American churches made religious arguments supporting the practice of slavery. The government of America nevertheless outlawed slavery.

Christian churches, both Catholic and Protestant, have at various times condoned or even advocated anti-Semitism. These practices, however, are now forbidden by civil rights laws.

At one time, Mormon dogma held Blacks ineligible for the priesthood -- which meant, ineligible for membership. This discrimination was overturned on the ground of civil rights.

At one time, Mormon dogma authorized a man to have multiple wives. This religious practice was over-ridden by law.

All of our freedoms are limited at the point where they begin to encroach on the freedom of others. When discrimination on the basis of sexual identity or orientation is illegal, it is just as illegal for religious groups as it is for anyone else.

Freedom of religion means freedom from discrimination, not freedom for discrimination.

Write On!