Wednesday.

Things that went through my mind, besides the wind, while listening to NPR and PRI today:

  • Talk of the Nation:
    • They spent the first hour talking about the re-election of President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. The elections have been the object of international scrutiny due to “violence, mass arrests, and accusations of ‘voting irregularities.'”¹ Even though I know very little that I know about Mr. Mugabe’s tenure as President, the few things that I have gleaned in the past week paint him in a rather unfavorable light. On today’s show, they had Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to the United States, Simbi Mubako, as a guest, along with Lovemore Mahduku, Chair of the National Constitutional Assembly and Duke Lefhoko, Member of Parliament in Botswana and the Head of the Southern African Development Countries (SADC) Parliamentary Forum Delegation to Zimbabwe. Mr. Mubako said something that struck me as interesting: He noted that while we had a rather tumultuous presidential election in 2000, but that other countries did not feel that it was their right or duty to intervene. This is true, and I can agree with that statement up to that point. However, we did not have a case where people were detained and/or arrested while attempting to vote. I can understand other nations’ concerns about the well-being and safety of their voting neighbors, if they feel that their rights to be treated as human beings are being impinged.
    • The next segment dealt, ironically, with journaling. When I heard them talking about this on Tuesday, I will admit that I was not expecting it to be interesting at all. I was pleasantly surprised. The guests for this segment were Elizabeth Stone (Professor of English, Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University), Alexandra Johnson (author), and Marcus Rosenbaum (author and NPR staff member) . Ms. Stone has authored a book which is comprised of the journals of a former student of hers; he left them to her in his will. His reason: He felt that teachers, too often, are not aware of the affect that they have on their students’ lives and he wanted to make sure that she knew just how important she had been to him. They also talked about the differences in men’s and women’s journal-writing styles – men often write in an electronic medium (sic), while women often use a paper medium. Mrs. Johnson also noted that she found the diaries of a 19th Century woman who had lived in the home that she . She said that she enjoyed reading the diaries that followed a woman who was “somebody beginning to try to connect the dots in life… to see and understand the plot of a life… to play detective to her own days.”²

      I remember when I was in 10th Grade, one of my English classes required that we keep a journal. There are probably few things more onerous to a 14-year-old boy than to be told that you have to write something every day. I didn’t. My journal was extremely sparse. Fast forward fifteen years… I started keeping this journal almost a year ago and have made entries almost religiously. My reasons for keeping a journal include, but are not limited to:

      • It is a repository for my thoughts, random as they may be;
      • It is a place to keep ideas for future writings;
      • It is where I can rant, rave, kick and scream about things… without harm to myself or anyone else.

      I don’t know whether or not the fact that I keep an online journal speaks to me giving voice to my inner exhibitionist, but I do know that what I write is for me. If someone takes offense at something that I have to say, they should realize that this is not an objective journal; all entries are quite subjective, in fact. I will apologize for anyone’s getting hurt because of something that I have written, I will not apologize for that I have to say. If someone finds what I have to say interesting enough to read, or even comment on, so much the better… in fact, I welcome any comments and/or criticisms that readers care to offer.

    • There was some talk about the aftermath of the Andrea Yates trial. It seems as though her sentencing will be contingent upon further determination of her mental state.
  • On PRI’s The World, one of the segments covered Canada’s PrideVision television, “the world’s first Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) television network to broadcast 24/7.”³ MTV and Showtime have announced that they intend to create a similar channel here in the U.S. There seems to be a lot of concern about the content, where and when it will be available. In an interview with John Levy, PrideVision Chairman and CEO, he addressed that issue by explaining that

    “…this is a lifestyle network which has tremendous programming from all facets of the GLBT community and one particular facet of it is erotica. And, we also tried to do it in a way that, of course, is in a timeslot which is appropriate which is after midnight… There’s no inadvertent viewing of this. People who are coming to the network know exactly what the programming is, hopefully will come to love it. Even within the viewership, there’s going to be certain segments of the programming they like and certain things they don’t like. But in the context of people falling onto this programming, whether it’s erotica or other types of programming, it won’t happen unless they specifically come to us.”4

    For some reason, this reminds me of the advent of Black Entertainment Television (BET). People asked why such a channel was necessary. It was necessary to address the needs of a part of the community that desired voices and faces that reflected their own. The same situation exists here. I hope that MTV and Showtime actually have the fortitude to carry through with their plans.

With that, I think that I will stop.

Peace.

¹, ² From NPR’s Talk of the Nation website.
³ From the PrideVision TV website.
4 From an interview on PRI’s The World.