TCS: Notes from the Field

Posted on February 26, 2018 by

Good Morning!

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Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum, so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.

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It is not our differences that divide us.
It is our inability to recognize, accept,
and celebrate those differences.

— Audre Lorde

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I’ve been a big fan of Anna Deavere Smith for a long time, so I had very high expectations for Notes from the Field: Doing Time in Education. She exceeded them by an order of magnitude.

Part-documentary, part one-woman show, it tackles American education’s shortcomings, racial discrimination, violence in the U.S., and police misconduct. If you have HBO or Amazon Video, track it down and watch.  It’s tough, moving, funny, and heart-breaking, presenting multiple points of view on the problems.

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Anna Deavere Smith talks about putting together Notes from the Field:

 

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About wordcloud9

Nona Blyth Cloud has lived and worked in the Los Angeles area for the past 45 years, spending much of that time commuting on the 405 Freeway. After Hollywood failed to appreciate her genius for acting and directing, she began a second career managing non-profits, from which she has retired. Nona has now resumed writing whatever comes into her head, instead of reports and pleas for funding. She lives in a small house overrun by books with her wonderful husband and a bewildered Border Collie.
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10 Responses to TCS: Notes from the Field

  1. Malisha says:
    February 26, 2018 at 7:29 am

    I saw Smith in “Twilight 1992” performed at the Public Theater in NY. Astounding performance. For a long time afterwards I was kind of in a daze of remembering parts of it and hearing it as if a tape recorder was playing it back to me. Fabulous piece of work.

    • wordcloud9 says:
      February 26, 2018 at 10:41 am

      She is a truly exceptional performer, writer and producer. The depth of her work really stands out in an entertainment industry obsessed with the “blow it all up” fantasies of 10 to 13 year old boys.

  2. Terry Welshans says:
    February 26, 2018 at 10:19 am

    There is a bit of good news in the air this morning. Washington Post just broadcast a news alert with this headline:

    Supreme Court declines to enter controversy over ‘dreamers,’ rejects Trump administration’s request to review lower court rulings

    One paragraph from the alert:

    Federal district court judges in California and New York have issued nationwide injunctions against ending the program, siding with states and organizations challenging the administration’s rescission. The court orders effectively block the Trump administration from ending the program on March 5, as planned.

  3. Chuck Stanley says:
    February 26, 2018 at 11:56 am

    More on the administration’s latest moves regarding aviation. He wants to make his personal pilot head of the FAA. Think about that for a moment.

    He also wants to privatize the Air Traffic Control system, apparently in order to turn it over to the airlines. If that happens, it will be in their economic interest to throttle general aviation. Keep those pesky private planes from cluttering up “their” skies and airports. Besides, more people would have to fly commercial if there were fewer private airplanes.

    There is one segment of private planes that would no doubt be exempt from more restrictive rules. Those who fly their own B-737, MD-10, 747, and Gulfstream airplanes would *always* get priority clearances.

    Got this advisory from the Aircraft Owners & Pilot’s Association (AOPA). I am a member, so I get their messages. This is an excerpt from a longer message urging us to contact our Representatives and asking them to vote “NO” on H.R. 2997.

    H.R. 2997 is a bill that would hand over our ATC system to the airlines and special interests.

    Today, we have the largest, most complex, and safest system in the world – we don’t need to turn it over to the airlines to control. There are hundreds of general aviation organizations, airports, unions, state aviation officials, consumer groups, CEOs, and mayors across the country that are opposed to H.R. 2997.

    • wordcloud9 says:
      February 26, 2018 at 1:18 pm

      This would be worse than Reagan firing thousands of Air Traffic Controllers for daring to strike. Will send emails to my Senators and Representative, but pretty sure none of them would ever vote for this.

    • Terry Welshans says:
      February 26, 2018 at 2:04 pm

      If this happens, and I truly hope that it does not, his pilot may be his best appointment yet, as at least as a pilot, he knows the NAVAID and Comms systems. That would be like appointing me as SECDEF because I have three years military experience.

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