A Right to Care: An Evening with Sarah Jones

While attending the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting (Public Health Without Borders), a group of us from Brigham Young University attended "A Right to Care: An Evening with Sarah Jones." Tears filled my eyes consistently as her portrayal of NINE different Americans took my emotions back and forth from a state of laughter to one of empathy for people who serve selflessly and/or suffer severely. This pathos was undergirded consistently in her script with logos through accurate statistics and descriptions of public health and health care in America. She was performing this in front of a huge gathering of the nation's and world's public health leaders, professionals and students -- a tough crowd? They laughed and cried along with us, as far as I could tell, and the social/health issues brought up by these 9 characters were discussed extensively after the performance. Did it inspire me as a public health professional? YES!!!

Here is a taste (not the exact performance, but very similar):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmhuYYd9x6g (watch it in high quality)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RRpzRPVrYs (watch it in high quality)

Here is another collection of clips but this time it is of her actual performance.

I was glad to find an interview of her on NPR as well.

Enjoy, but also let me know if you've seen her, what inspired or troubled you about her performance, or how you wish you could talk as fast as Rosario Polanko =)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Jones_(stage)

She has a great web site too:
http://www.sarahjonesonline.com/

Be Openhearted, Listen, and Maybe Boycott Boycotts

Under God: McDonald's Yields to Anti-Gay Boycott - On Faith at washingtonpost.com

Do boycotts work? Does it matter? Do you boycott boycotts?

I did appreciate the citation of these examples and the author's perspective:

'Gandhi led boycotts of British products. King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott. "A boycott is not an end within itself," King wrote. "It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of superiority."

'Even if the boycotts I join don't work, I think there are times when my faith -- meaning my understanding of what is right and just -- compels me to try. I'm not looking to awaken shame. I am trying to avoid it.'

This reminds me of an earlier time when Levis and Boy Scouts parted ways and stirred up the call for a boycott. People close to me joined the boycott against Levis. By association, I have not owned a pair of Levis until recently. Do I feel ashamed that I now own them them?

I delay my answer as mind my loops back to experiences in D.C. I worked in the Dupont Circle area and had some wonderful experiences eating home-made ice cream, soup and pie at shops owned and run by gays and lesbians. I would probably be safe in assuming that those shops, had they been in California, would have put money and efforts towards a "no" vote on Proposition 8. Say that I lived in California too and had decided to vote "yes" on Proposition 8. Should an organization's financial support of such a political/moral/important issue influence my association with their business?

At least on this topic, I would say, "No," and continue giving them my patronage so long as their service suited my needs (mmm! that was some good pumpkin cake!). Perhaps this type of relationship could facilitate a conversation that , if done in a spirit of open-mindedness and open-heartedness, could also invoke a spirit of unity and mutual understanding even though parties may still disagree.

I agree with a friend's note on facebook (thanks, kvizzy), there has a been hate and stereotyping, and a lack of understanding and listening, on both sides of this important issue. Another friend said that the boycotting approach sounds like kids using the "I'm not your friend anymore, hmph!" approach. Disassociation, from my current perspective, does not foster communication.

Isn't that what we need so badly? So, for now, I vote, "BOYCOTT BOYCOTTS!"

(Though this question still exists in my heart and mind, "What would Ghandi or MLK, Jr. do in this situation?" What would you say?)

Open your heart. Love and truly listen to everyone -- especially those willing to speak from her/his heart of hearts.

Multiple Racial Identities

I appreciate the text- and video-based coverage CNN provided on the issue of Barack Obama's racial identity. While its affect on the presidential campaign and issues is still unclear to me, its affect on me personally feels significant. CNN's video included interviews with members of Swirl, Inc., "a national multi-ethnic organization that challenges society’s notions of race through community building, education, and action," and I felt an intriguing connection with these people I'd never met. Frankly, the number of friends I've had who also multi-racial is limited to a handful. Rarely have our discussions touched on this topic. But now that I look back on it, some disregard the importance of the topic, but overall we do seem to share some uncanny commonalities.

"What are you?" -- Being multiracial in America

My mind has not settled much since hearing and reading Senator Obama's reaction to Reverend Wright's remarks at the National Press Club. I connected so much with many of the reverend's words (which clearly is not the case for many others), why did Senator Obama need to denounce the words of the reverend on a personal level?

As I read a paragraph in a New York Times article, a light turned on. It may be linked to Senator Obama's multiracial background. According to the article...

Mr. Obama became a Christian after hearing a 1988 sermon of Mr. Wright’s called “The Audacity to Hope.” Joining Mr. Wright’s church helped Mr. Obama, with his disparate racial and geographic background, embrace not only the African-American community but also Africa, his friends and family say.

So previous to his conversion to Christianity and joining of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Barrack Obama apparently did not feel connected with the African-American community. I definitely connect with that feeling of disconnect.

For a good portion of my life, I have felt disconnected from certain (arguably superficial) societal groupings. When I am in America with first- or second-generation immigrants from Japan, I feel that I am on the perimeter of group membership. When I am with White Americans, I often feel the same. I am what you might call multiracial (or happa). Questions of racial/ethnic background on standardized exams or applications also include the phrase, "Choose only one." This prompts me to think, "Which one should I choose today?" People have been known to ask, "So what are you?" Lately, people are more likely to get a very uncomfortable look on their faces and ask something like, "So where are your parents from?" or "What's your ethnicity?" Is it a desire to categorize me that motivates these questions? My identity is influenced by so many factors, these questions seem trivial to me -- I do not completely identify with the White American community or Japanese American community. I do, however, think I identify with the nebulous multiracial/multiethnic American community.

Which brings me back to Barrack Obama. He seems similar in my multiracial mind to Tiger Woods, famed for identifying his race as Cablinasian (a portmanteau term he coined from Caucasian, Black, American-Indian, and Asian). It reminds me of what I heard a graduate student, whose father was an White American serviceman and mother was Korean, at USU say about his childhood. Before he was adopted in the US, kids would chase him and beat him up in Korea because he was too white. Then after his adoption, kids in the US would chase him and beat him up because he was too yellow. Prejudice takes on many forms and is all relative. Barrack Obama is in a unique position as a multiracial American. Does that make him a better candidate? I don't know yet, but I do know this. I connect with some of the frustration he probably feels as the media and American society try to categorize him.

Touched by doctrines of liberation, transformation, and reconciliation

Here is the three-part speech by Reverend Wright at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. (and the question and answer session following). Please take a look. I found myself very inspired by his words and his delivery. I would describe these three doctrines as visionary and scripturally sound. I laughed out loud multiple times as well.

After watching these and pondering them for half a day, I can't help think how much common ground I share with the reverend. If any was bombastic and/or divisive, it was the media, political bloggers, and youtubers. One of the many things I hope I've learned from Reverend Wright, it's the importance of not being reactionary. Rather we should turn the other cheek, forgive others, seek for reconciliation, but also to stand for what is what we believe to be right.

See my previous post for more of my thoughts on the topic.

The Squirrel Scouts -- Language Experience Approach with ESL students

This was an assignment for my Early Childhood Literacy class at USU in Spring of 2005.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grant S.

LEA Assignment

Section 1

I had the opportunity to take my first grade ESL class on an adventure. We got them excited about it the day before by hinting on a quest to explore a local park, which is conveniently adjacent to our elementary school. Typically, the students cannot cross a rock wall, which separates the school grounds from the park, so this simple idea brought significant excitement to these young students. I asked them what things we might see in the park and listed them on the board. The next day, the adventure began as I gathered them in the hallway between the first grade classrooms, donned an old-fashioned hat, and said, “We’re going to exploring today, so I have to wear my explorer’s hat and bring my binoculars.” The excitement began to build and I explained some of the guidelines for sticking together and being on the lookout for unique things in the park.

No sooner had we left the building than they caught sight of a big, black bird in a tree. I had them take turns looking in my binoculars and soon enough we identified it as a crow. I pointed and identified some crab-apple trees and we walked between them. They had a keen eye for detail and noticed small apparently bird-made holes in the branches and coin-shaped pieces of metal with a number on each tree. We walked by a volleyball court and some willow trees while identifying and discussing each. As we circled around, we came nearby some exceptionally tall trees. Our adventure climaxed as their superpower vision targeted a squirrel climbing and jumping in the highest branches of one of these trees. Some of them ran around underneath hoping to save, or catch, the squirrel if it perchance lost its grip and fell down. On the final leg of our trip, we identified some pine trees and noticed the differences in pine cones of the individual types of pine cones – some prickly and some smooth. Then, right when I thought we were done, Ariel, one of our lowest level readers, found a flat piece of ice at the bottom of a slide by the school. They picked it up and we talked about its shape, feel, and sharp edge. They decided to bust it into several pieces before we finally went into the school.

All of the students were very involved orally and socially in the activity, except possibly for Jaire. He just moved here a few months ago and even though he has made significant progress with his English language skills, I should have made a more of a special effort to ask him what he saw or thought, although he was involved at a minimally sufficient level (i.e. had a turn with the binoculars, etc…). Other than that, I was amazed how excited they were about seeing squirrels and holes in trees and how much we could see during a twenty minute walk through a park. Much can be learned from the perspective of a First Grader.

We immediately went to our ESL classroom and took our seats. As I stood at the whiteboard, I told them that we would write a story about our experience. Danielle raised her hand and asked if we would draw pictures and I replied that we would the next day. I then asked what a good title would be. Some ideas involved exploring and squirrels, but Brandon suggested “Squirrel Scouts” and I could not resist using it. I wrote it on the chart paper while saying it word by word. Then we said it together as a class. As I asked for the first sentence in our story, Brandon suggested, “The crows were sitting in the tree.” Again I wrote it, saying it word by word, and we read it as a class. As we continued, Ariel’s contribution stands out because the sentence he provided was not “proper” English, but was truly made up of his words. In addition, Oscar said, “We saw something moving on the tree.” But he and the rest of the class agreed that we should change it to “in the tree.” This continued until we ran out of time. Due to the lack of time and number of students, we did not read it individually (see Section 2).

The Squirrel Scouts

The crows were sitting in the tree. (Brandon)

There were numbers on the tree. (Devin)

We saw something moving on ⁱⁿ the tree. It was a squirrel. (Oscar)

We see ice in the slide. (Ariel)

We got to use some binoculars. (Lesley)

We were walking behind the apple trees. (Martha)

Section 2

On day 2 of the Language Experience Activity, the students came in and I read the story. Then we read each line as a class. In order to give them practice reading it by themselves, I had each student volunteer to hold a strip of paper with a sentence from the story written on it. In order to help them recognize their text, each copy was the same size and shape as the original. Many chose their own sentences and those who wanted to hold someone else’s asked permission, surprisingly without rejection. They stood at the front of the class and I told them to stand in the same order as our story. They did this with surprising ease, after which I asked each one to read his or her sentence. Many of them read their sentence upside-down while holding it, partially due to having the sentence or key words memorized, without trouble. Edith was one who could not read it upside-down, so she read it as I held it in front of her. She still struggled with some of the harder sight words (i.e. there, were), but recognized contextual words (i.e. numbers, tree) once she realized which sentence she was holding. I prompted her on the harder words, but most likely due to the writing not being her own, she still struggled. I paired up Brandon with Jaire and they read it together, which helped Jaire feel successful and have greater success as well. After reading they all read their sentences, they taped it to the white board next to the original in the right order.

That day I also introduced the books we would be making. Each would have a page for the title and each sentence with room for an illustration (which fulfilled Danielle’s previously stated desire). Time ran out for the day.

Section 3

When we got back together we began the process of publishing our books. The sentence strip activity had taken much longer than I anticipated, but I still figured we could finish the books in one 40-minute time slot. I read a sentence from the story on the board, and they read it as a class. Then I helped each one staple their books and showed them an example of my version of the book with a title page and illustrations. I also asked that they write the sentences first and then draw the pictures. A couple followed this bit of instruction, but most were quickly enthralled by illustrating their books. Right when they were making some great progress, Danielle was saddened by a reminder from Edith and Martha that she had not been invited to a party held the night before. She shut down for about 10 minutes, even though Lesley tried to console her.

There were a few problems of which I quickly became aware. First, it takes longer than I thought for an ESL group to publish an 8-page book. We could have just published their individual sentences, rather than the class’s collective sentences. Also, I should have given them more lines per page in the blank books. They write bigger than I anticipated, but this wasn’t a huge concern. Other than that, they were on their way to publication of some wonderful books and seemed very confidant writing some of the harder words that they had included in their story (i.e. binoculars).

Section 4

(See stapled copies)

Section 5

The most important thing I learned through this activity is the need for reading the text by the student. The follow-up activities took much longer than anticipated and the first thing to get cut from the schedule, unfortunately, was the reading by the student. I had a harder time assessing individual comprehension and was not as “in tune” with individual needs of the lower-level students due to this weakness. I found myself lifting the higher-level students even higher, rather than supporting the whole class’s success. Next time, I would allot more time for each activity and have the reading by the student(s) be the crux and climax of the activity.

On a more positive note, I was amazed by how effectively the stimulus activity immersed the students in a learning mode and excited them about writing and reading about their experience. They were able to learn hard words, such as binoculars and squirrel (that was their favorite).

Promoting a "multifaith soceity" vs. The debate surrounding Muslim women at Harvard

Thanks to Brigham Young University's campus newspaper, the Daily Universe, I became aware of the experimental policy that establishes women-only hours, especially for female Muslim students, at a small gymnasium on Harvard University's campus. Norris-Turin of BYU's NewsNet states that, "This is wrong." She supports her statement by saying that America is a melting pot and people should become a part of the "bigger stew in the pot." She attempts to bring a global perspective to the issue:

But, when traveling to other places in the world, let alone living there, people are expected to follow the rules of that country. For instance, when women travel to Saudi Arabia, they are expected to cover their whole bodies from head to toe. Women would be thrown in jail if they didn't abide by the strict laws.

Her opinion that the Harvard policy is "wrong" surprises me for at least two reasons.

First, Harvard is a private institution. So is Brigham Young University. BYU is often considered peculiar because of its honor code. For example, men cannot be inside of a women's dorm (and vice versa) after midnight until 9:00 am (except Friday when it is extended till 1:30 am). Opponents to this policy could say that it is "wrong," but given that BYU is a private institution, I vote that BYU make their own decisions and not become a part of the bigger secular stew.

Second, about Saudi Arabia, I lived there between 1987 and 1989. Most of the time, my family was expected to follow Islamic dress standards. But we were housed on "compounds" with other Westerners. While there, these strict limitations were lifted. This gave us some reprieve from the high expectation to adhere to others' cultural norms all the time.

In addition, Latter-day Saints were even given permission to congregate in our homes on the Sabbath (Friday) in small groups (<30~) href="http://thecurrent.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/03/ross-on-harvardmuslims.php">Ross Douthat of Atlantic.Com, am surprised at the "religious right"'s denouncement of Harvard's attempt at respect for various religious beliefs. Does this policy not "let [Muslims] worship how, where, or what they may"? My understanding of my religion's Eleventh Article of Faith shouts, "YES!"

Perhaps, President Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, can shed some light on Latter-day Saint's doctrinal perspective of the overarching issue of interfaith relations, as quoted in his formal introduction of Dr. Alwi Shihab, former president of Indonesia, titled Building Bridges of Understanding: The Church and the World of Islam.

... Alwi, a devout Muslim of Arabic ancestry, and I, a Christian and devout Mormon, have agreed to symbolically walk arm in arm into the future. Together we hope to build a bridge. Except what that symbolizes is accomplished, all of us face a very dark and very dangerous future.

Dr. Shihab adds ...

We must go, I believe, beyond tolerance if we are to achieve harmony in our world. We must move the adherents of different faiths from a position of strife and tension to one of harmony and understanding by promoting a multifaith and pluralistic society. We must strive for acceptance of the other based on understanding and respect. Nor should we stop even at mere acceptance of the other; rather, we must accept the other as one of us in humanity and, above all, in dignity.

I hope that we may follow this wise counsel and speak and act likewise.