do no harm:


idit dobb-weinstein: "teaching is action and thinking at once. What I try to guard against most when I teach is not speaking as if my answer were conclusive, so as to avoid (to the extent possible) any kind of dogmatic appropriation. It is understandable why students might wish to imitate their teachers, but there are different modes of imitation. I try very hard to avoid the mimetic appropriation that is immediate, passive, and occludes thinking. One other reason is that if I made clear what my views were, and my views appeared as if they were final, it would preclude the possibility of first, students challenging me and second, learning from my students. The relation between the student and teacher is, to me, a dynamic relationship . . . Teaching and learning is a movement that occurs between. In other words, we are at once both agent and patient, both teacher and learner. If we are not very careful, we can do a great deal of harm. And that, too, I have learned from my teachers, Maimonides especially.

I believe my task is to provoke students to think and to engage them in genuine dialogue and questioning. To paraphrase a rabbinic saying, 'I have learned from my teachers, and I have learned from my peers, but I have learned most from my students.' And that is a continuous process of learning."

Friday 4 June 2010

ESLR: complete conformity and silence

educator dan diamond explains the expected student learning outcome (ESLR):


"This is great...I think the eslrs are we are commited to producing students who will conform and not speak out about issues that are inhuman Consume but not question."


a source will reveal a scoop on confrontational speech class involving a veteran.  he wants to wait for final grades.  he said it got physical and was very unprofessional.  he seemed dismayed.


another source has the story on a political science uprising and firing. eckford helped depose the reigning . . . well . . . more details later . . .
anthropology exam was super awesome!!!! and i was not kicked out! yo!
nice try LACC!!!!!  and i loved my essay part on globalization!!!  it was so fun!!!!!


getting calls from the spiritual capricorn life coach telling me my LSAT is more important than Family Law.  but actually . . . 
i told him "you're amazing" when what i really meant was buzz off!  no sweat!  making it to the room will be half the battle, and not falling asleep during the boring thing!  sharpening my pencils and figuring out what to eat will be my main worry!!!!!  plus it will be so fun to be in the room with a bunch of nervous nerds who want to go to law school!
law is far more interesting than some stupid syllogisms and logic tests.  the LSAT is a measure of LSAT test-taking ability.  the prep books look so boring . . . now if i can defeat the law of probability and get below 25% wrong, i would take that as a mark of pride.   but with probability on my side, and a nice cram, and a good attitude, and some protein in my brain, boring!!!!!!!!! i hate to say it but i always aced stupid tests.  and with so many brilliant dyslexic friends, or friends who call themselves deprecatingly ADD, etc, just sitting still will be a major accomplishment, and that i can read the boring thing, and guessing my way through the mental obstacles.  the princeton review prep style is really the best.  they show you how it is a lot about elimination of bad choices, looking for trick words, working probability, and not getting hung up on problem questions.


so anyway wish me luck on monday.


and if you have a funny story about anything at LACC, i may just keep this blog going forever.


my friend vikram singh was truly aghast at my tales of che guevera and stalinist censorship tactics (via a kind-hearted but misguided eckford).  but vikram really got the main point:  that at least this was worth a dialogue.


if the classes were so truly entirely abysmal, i wouldn't be writing.  it is because there is quality, that i feel inclined to engage, and ask for more.  and because i love los angelenos so much, and think they deserve a good free school.


a petition circulated in defense of  my teacher asserting his commitment to gender equality.  now we're talking.  proactive steps to ensure that this school does not go up in flames!!!!!  that history is tinted with the future.
and the future is very committed to equality.
and end to the linguistics of aggression which stratify and ghettoize women, homosexuals, latinos, etc.
its so nice we will all be one family!!!!  and we can be free of racism and sexism in the classroom.  and even the most progressive of us can look inside and ask 
am i being fair?
is it kind?
are we working for a better future?
am i contributing to endemic oppression?
how can we do more to repair inequity?
how can teachers better respect the needs of students?


i read that one in every six american woman has tried bulimia.  and if even eating disorders could be spoken with respectfully.  and persons from any walk of life.  transgendered  and christian . . . bisexual . . . or . . . veteran . . . islamic . .. latin . . . free to experience a
HATE-FREE ZONE
at LACC forever.

Thursday 3 June 2010

~a letter to contitutional law profesor tom duffy~


(juris doctor tom duffy spoke with me today about my previous writing which represented my feeling that the faculty and administration were collusive in protecting the ASO harassment of sheila dharod and the ASO drinking/minor harassment scandal cover-up.  wisely, he is concerned that the blogosphere may be permanent history, or damaging.  it was not my intent to implicate him per se in the cover-up, but rather to beg for his support, as he of all people could see the travesty of justice which played out in the vicious attacks against paralegal student sheila dharod.  when i suggested that the faculty are too scared to lose their salary in speaking out against LACC corruption, it was my guess.  i'm not sure what is stopping them.  in fact i suggest they all demand a better future for the school and more consderation given towards PR nightmares and reparations for the grievous assault on our dignity that has been waged by harassing professors or students in violation of state and federal equality in education code.  i am really honored that dr duffy is reading my blog, even if it conveys so much pain and sorrow and emotion.)

dear dr duffy,

thank you for taking the time to speak with me.  i am so honored.

i feel that watching the cruelty towards sheila has detracted from my studies.

if i did not want credit and my pell grants, i would drop out to protest the school's failure to ensure a learning atmosphere free from harassment.

i am worried about the minor who was allegedly harassed and fed alcohol on the school trip.

while surely it could have been worse, why does sheila get punished for existing and showing a light on this?

the danger with the blogosphere is that anyone can say anything.

i was threatened with suspension regarding the grotesque language i reported in anthropology.  

i think someone needs to boldly defend sheila and restore her good name.

but after her name was attacked in the election week, her address exposed on the public documents . . . who can rewind time?

in the future, i think courageous leadership will involve faculty members unafraid to stand up for unfairly targeted students.  that is what i meant to say.

vargas was dismissive with me as well caling it "inappropriate" that i attempted to get an opinion from the legal association regarding this lack of ethics which seems to permeate the school.

i was very strengthened by your presence at the so-called impeachment trial.  i wished vargas, you, peters, bradford, and moore all put your fist down and said:
this is unacceptable, this will not go on on a tax-funded property under the edu code, this is a publicity nightmare for the school.

regarding the alcohol abuse and harassment: the school should have issued a definitive stmt against any harassment of minors or attempts to intoxicate them.  anyone involved in the coverup should be reprimanded.  it seems everyone is involved in the cover-up.

to me the blogosphere is about taking power.  if LACC neglects scandals or has sloppiness anywhere in the game, it may result in such fiascos as the Lopez case or my blog.

as for you personally, i am very overwhelmed by the academic excellence you offer.
my cultural distaste for any and all epithets or unequal treatment of women extends to all my classes.  

if only i could tell my teacher sister mary david  what i have heard in the classroom at LACC.  she would roll over in her grave.

because i do not like any references to women's weight (eating bon-bons and gaining 100lbs), or any old cliches of marriage power dynamics, or such words as "cheesecake" used in reference to women, i made a report.

while these were by far the least extreme offenses, the systemic pattern of abuse pervaded almost every class.

can you believe that the social sciences chair eckford cornered me in a meeting to tell me that the words bitch and tits and ass and shitty and asshole are words protected by his notion of academic freedom?

but that my online writing had to stop bc it is inappropriate.  and that he would suspend me if i continued to report what was said in the classroom and how it made me feel?

he then told keith fink, a lawyer and teacher acting on my behalf, to go jump in a pool and that he would "hang up on your dumb ass."

this kind of lack of professionalism i find quite disturbing.

a teacher  (bartelt)


wrote me this:

"Finally, before you make a mountain out of a mole-hill, perhaps you need to revisit the entomology of the word "tit."  It derives from teat, meaning nipple, and can be pronounced as tit or teet.  Both men and women have them, as do the cows on the farm on which I grew up."

this is so disgusting!!!  who would write this to anyone for any reason?

i hope lewis is doing better, but taking his media law class was so bizarre.  

some of my old profs asked us to call them by their first name and i am sorry for the excessive familiarity.

similarly, i think we as women should not be jibed about for our weights or bodies even if it is meant affectionately.  the term "cheesecake" is prior to our era of slang, but it is my interpretation that it is an objectifying materialistic word.  my point that it would be safer and more respectful not to speak such way of women, i hope can be taken calmly to heart.

school has felt like a battle ground since experiencing lewis's excessive preoccupation with prostitution and "hookers."  i informed him that in the international community this is known as sex work, so as not to criminalize the people who may be victimized themselves by human trafficking, theft, rape, other violence.  he treated the class like a joke.

lanzer made a really cruel joke about calling a student a "slut" and snickered as he disguised it as an explanation of the concept of defamation.  other women were uncomfortable.

i prize everything i have learned at school, but hope so much more for the students of the future.

you dedicate so much time to class and giving such good lecture, i can see how the wranglings of admin or student problems might be beyond the scope.

i am very sorry for saying "duffy."  if there is a way i could clear up the meaning of my blog, or euphemize my meaning, i will, though i am so tired and have more exams to study for.

at portland state university i will take business ethics, environmental ethics, environmental policy, environmental restoration, and american courts this summer.  i am moving on tuesday the 8th.

i have time thursday afternoon to talk or friday or saturday.

i could bring my computer to discuss what has been written and what could be done.  i could try to search for the relevant passages.

what is so interesting about the ratemyprofessors.com world is the anonymizing feature, and the monetizing through ad revenue.  they literally commodify the educational experience.  of course anyone could say anything, except they do censor words out like "sexist."

in terms of the permanence of the blogosphere, all businesses and schools must operate as though everything said or done may be blogged and they have to be prepared to deal with instant PR, good or bad.

i think LACC is a little slow on the draw on this account.

if they cared about minimizing bad press, they would stop the scandal before it gets huge.

sadly, i feel like i am the bringer of bad news.  but it is actually great news for students.  if we could become empowered, we could stand up for the civil rights movements of the future which will upend male dominated business structures, government, etc.

the meaning of total transparency for the future of the internet means nothing is off the record.

in a way, i almost think of this as an installation piece of performance of an idea.  that blogging will happen, and it will spawn revolutions just as much as luther's theses or the declaration of independence.

if young people use their education to become self-empowered, i think the learning process will be more interactive.

i am sorry whatever my statements were were a poor representation of the situation as you see it and i am so glad you draw this to my attention.  i think the concept of the natural leader is apropos here.

that in a sense it takes courage and risk to step out of the realm of the "appropriate" into a place where one might risk reprimand or censure to speak out for truth.  the fact is that we students, jerome, sheila, and i are pouring our hearts into making this school a better safer place with less corruption.  and we receive next to nothing.

the pell grant doesn't go far towards the outrageous rents in LA and to come to school and be cursed at by some angry foul-mouthed professor, is so disillusioning.  or to see a woman savaged by some student government power grabbers.

i think the fact that we are working so hard for nothing speaks to the calling for any administrator or teacher--under a doctrine of respondeat superior, to realize that any cover up of misconduct or harassment or discrimination will ultimately damage the school.

if you would like to interview for some real expose journalism---or the long book version---i bet you know so much.  i have found some old stories of teachers using security to arrest students for their political beliefs in the nineties.

i think in the era of modern day school massacres, it is paramount for every member of the faculty to de-escalate conflict, verbal abuse, bullying, name-calling, and harassment.

teachers may not realize the severity of the angst they provoke by employing sexism etc or by protecting abuse.   i would hope it would never come to this, but the admin owes the school a sense of safety. safety is imperiled by inflaming passions and allowing bully language to be hurled at women or in personal attacks against anyone.

please feel free to call me, or write, and i wish that we had a coalition of voices in support of sheila, and that it did not rest on the backs of we few starving students.

the anxiety i have felt attending LACC and hearing epithets towards women, or sheila, has caused me such grief and distraction, i was pushed to a dark depression and many tears and i almost dropped this term.

in 2009 when i reported what i considered to be an egregious pattern of abuse, i expected that lanzer and lewis were trying to be fired.  i was in my mind expecting a kind of utopia, where everyone was treated fairly, and any sexism was immediately rooted out.  passman really has impressed me with her do-nothing attitude.

i am so sorry for all of us.

if there is anything you could do in sheila's defense, or in defense against the coercive politics of the social sciences department, or to inspire professional accountability, that might be nice to help LACC stay out of trouble in the future.

thanks for taking the time to speak to me.
if you would like me to work on more social media PR for the the school that would be an interesting position especially if it were paid.
it would be nice if the school recognized the importance of equality (and PR) as a proactive concept, not a damage control post facto problem.

it would be nice if the school had a proactive ministry of equality to reach out give seminars and educate students and professors about avoiding litigation, character damage, bad publicity etc.

also here is the link to my blogged notes.


mary eng

i think i will publish this long letter.

here is something i reprinted from another student, nick ?:

Wednesday 2 June 2010

dan diamond suggests this method:


Complaint Process

  1. Within ten days of the receipt of a complaint it will be acknowledged in writing and initially reviewed by the staff of the Commission.
    It is the complainant's responsibility to do the following:
    • State the complaint in the clearest possible terms.
    • Provide, in writing, a clear description of the evidence upon which the allegation is based.
    • Demonstrate that all remedies available at the institution (grievance procedures, appeals, hearings, etc.) have been exhausted. The complainant should describe what has been done in this regard.
    • Acknowledge awareness that Commission staff may send a copy of the complaint to the president of the institution.
    • Include name and address.
    • Sign the complaint.
  2. If the President or designee finds the complaint to be not within the scope of Commission policies and jurisdiction, the complainant will be so notified. Individual complaints, whether acted upon or not by the Commission, will be retained in Commission files.
  3. If the complaint appears to be within the scope of Commission policies and jurisdiction, and is substantially documented, a copy of the complaint will be forwarded to the institution's chief executive, who will be asked to respond to the President within thirty days. The President will send a copy of the complaint and correspondence to the chairperson of the Accredit¬ing Commission.
  4. The Commission staff will review the complaint, the response, and evidence submitted by the institution's president, and will determine one of the following:
    • That the complaint will not be processed further. The complainant will be so notified within ten days.
    • That the complaint has sufficient substance to warrant further investigation (which may include referral to the Commission). The Commission may request information of the institution and may visit that institution for purposes of fact-finding. If Commission investigation reveals credible evidence that the institution is not meeting Commission standards and policies, the Commission may invoke the sanctions provided for in policy. In the event of further investigation, the complainant will be so notified within ten days.
    • Although every effort will be made to expedite a final decision, it is not possible to guarantee a specific time frame in which the process will be completed. If further investigation is warranted, the time required to conduct the investigation may vary considerably depending on the circumstances and the nature of the complaint.
  5. The complainant and the institution will be notified of the outcome of the review of the complaint.
    • If the complaint is investigated further, as in 4.b above, the complainant and the institution will be notified of the outcome of the investigation within ten days.

      Prior to the Commission's disposition of the complaint, the institution will have an opportunity to respond in writing within thirty days to the findings of the investigation. The complainant and the institution involved will be notified of the decision. The decision as communicated by the President is final.
    • If the complaint was referred to ACCJC by another agency, that agency will receive copies of correspondence that state the outcome of the complaint within ten days.
  6. The Commission will keep a record of student and public complaints against member institutions. Commission staff will report to the Commission annually regarding the status and resolution of student and public complaints against member institutions. At the time of an institution's comprehensive evaluation, a summary of any complaints will be provided to the team chair for consideration by the evaluation team.

letters from the underground: women brutalized by student government monkey court

(the following was written by nick, a classmate of mine in family law.  the terms "witch-hunt," "kangaroo court" are so apropos . . . it was like a communist red scare witch hunt, or a lynch mob . . . and the cruel words of butler-zetino's words still ring in my ear "we extracted her like the cancer she is"  all to protect his harassment of a minor scandal cover up and 500$ stipend . . . )

May 24, 2010

Dear Dr. Jamillah Moore, LACCD District Administration, and Board of Trustees:
This letter is in regards to the Impeachment of the Associated Students Organization, (ASO) Senator-At-Large, Sheila Dharod. Based on the agenda of the meeting, and the meeting itself, I feel that, not only was Ms. Dharod treated unjustly, but the ASO board itself acted in a manner that was extremely biased against her. Having read the agenda that I received at the meeting, held on May 5, 2010, and having witnessed the ensuing meeting, I have yet to see any credible evidence against Ms. Dharod as to her “gross misconduct” or “manner which contradicts the spirit of the ASO Constitution and Bylaws.”
From the agenda that was presented to me, I was convinced that this was a “witch-hunt”: a way of removing Ms. Dharod from her position in the ASO, based on false allegations, opinions, and personal attacks.

In the agenda, Article V, Section 1, “Allegation #1:Article VII, Section C) Gross misconduct while carrying out ASO related activities”.

The only evidence that was included in the packet of allegations distributed at the meeting, was her alleged abuse of the ASO copy machine and the allegations were unclear as to whether there even was an abuse of the copy machine. Instead of focusing on the allegations she was accused of in the Bill of Impeachment, Senator Gene Fernandez mentioned that Ms. Dharod had not been participating in ASO events. Other Senators joined in, stating that she was not an active senator because she was not seen at these past events; one senator even alleged that, because Ms. Dharod had not completed a flyer for an event, the event was nearly ruined. At no time was there any evidence presented that illustrated how any action, or inaction, taken by Ms. Dharod, hindered the organization from conducting business, or “halting the wheels of government.”

The Senators that spoke on this section of the impeachment meeting seemed to be more concerned with sharing their opinions about Ms. Dharod’s participation in ASO functions and events, than the execution of her duties as a Senator-At-Large. Once the “Pro-Impeachment” side was done presenting what they seemed to consider evidence, Ms. Dharod had an opportunity to present a response. The 2-minute time limit was not nearly enough time for her to address these allegations. Although she was to have 5 minutes to present her defense, after all of the articles of impeachment were presented, this too was not enough time.

Continuing with my evaluation of the agenda, I would like to address Section 2, “Allegation #2,” and its subsections. It appeared that this section was copied from the original Articles of Impeachment, but edited to create an illusion of having more evidence than was really presented.

• Subsections i. and ii. refer to one letter written by Senator Scott Clapson. In the original Articles of Impeachment, the writer was mentioned by name, and his letter was cited on 4 subsections of this document. Because the author’s name was removed from the agenda, it did not make much sense as to who witnessed these incidents. It read like gibberish, rather than a coherent document put together by intelligent people
• These items state that “A letter” was presented for two of these incidents of Ms. Dharod’s misconduct, suggesting that there was more than one. In fact, there was only one letter, written by the same person, who was allegedly a witness, or a victim, to this “vexatious behavior.”
• Subsection v. was most distressing to me. The date sited was December 5-6, 2010. I do not know what resources the ASO has available to them, but I doubt these resources include a time machine, a psychic, or any means to see the future, much less know what will happen 7 months from now. This is troubling to me because, in creating the agenda, they used the agenda from the previous meeting, as well as the Articles of Impeachment document, and made no attempt to correct this obvious error.
The meeting itself was more of a “kangaroo court” than a hearing. The senators were asked, “Who is for the impeachment?”, then, “Who is against the impeachment?” This instance set the stage for the whole thing. The decision to impeach Ms. Sheila Dharod was already made, and it seemed that every effort was made to fast-track her removal from the ASO. Because of the way the meeting was conducted, she was unable to present any kind of defense against the allegations that she was being charged with. The absurdity of this “hearing” was evident in how the ASO President had to “recognize” a speaker before they could speak; He CHOSE WHO WAS GOING TO SPEAK FOR THE DEFENSE! How can anyone defend themselves if they have no control over the presentation of their case?
As a quiet observer to these proceedings, I was disgusted by the conduct of this governing body. It was not so much a trial, as it was a “witch-hunt”, disguised as a formal, orderly meeting to remove someone whom the governing “clique” had deemed “undesirable.” Every Senator at that meeting already knew what was going to happen; some of them did not even feel the need to stay for the meeting, and were later called in. Another Senator (Virginia Hazarian) showed up 30-35 minutes late. How can she make an informed decision to impeach Sheila Dharod if she was not even present for much of the meeting.
Where Ms. Sheila Dharod had prepared a defense for herself, the ASO board demonstrated no such compulsion, deciding instead to prosecute her based on the personal issues that had arisen between Ms. Dharod and a few of the “stronger personalities” on the board. Those personalities being the loudest, and most often heard voices at this meeting. They presented no valid reason for her removal, other than a personal dislike of how she conducted herself, and her seeming refusal to “fall in line” with the rest of the group. I did not understand how a Senator, let alone the Vice President of Finance (Joseph Tolle), can stand up and state that “Nobody’s perfect…,” on two separate occasions at this meeting, and yet still feel the need to remove Ms. Dharod from office for speaking her mind and standing up for what is right. (His comments concerning no one being perfect had to do with Ms. Dharod’s complaints about improperly conducted ASO meetings, missing minutes, and a host of other things that could be classified as misconduct on the part of the ASO board). Maybe Ms. Dharod made them actually READ the rules, regulations, and ByLaws that the ASO should adhere to. She demonstrated this on several occasions, when she forced the Senators to review some of those rules during her valiant attempt at defending herself, further exposing the shear ignorance of those after her “head.”
In all, I was deeply disappointed by what I witnessed at this meeting: The ridiculous charge of making copies that she may not have recorded as grounds for impeachment; the publicizing of “dirty laundry”: what the public heard concerning the gross misconduct that many of the other Senators (not Sheila Dharod) on the ASO board with regards to the November student government trip to San Francisco; the notion that, “though nobody’s perfect, Sheila’s the worst and needs to be removed from office, immediately.”…no one said this last part, but I got a sense that it was the whole point of this meeting.

Having never attended an ASO meeting before, I was saddened to see what kind of individuals are in charge there: A sorry collection of “small” people who, once they get an iota of tenuous power, believe that they can do whatever they want. This is what happens when “no one is minding the store.”

---nick (LACC paralegal studies)

Expected Student Learning Results

dan diamond is my educator friend with whom i discuss educational theory.  he knows about all the educator trends like Expected Student Learning Results=ESLR.  i think that is similar to Student Learning Outcome=SLO.  all these cute educational theories got so popular as the shift away from authoritarian teaching styles was popularized in the seventies.

he explained the trouble with LACC's flagging reputation.  how it is so ironic that this is where students are coming to escape the ravages of the decaying blue-collar economies.  we are here to become upwardly socially mobile.  and how that it then makes it doubly ironic if the teachers try to speak ghetto at us because they assume that is how we think.  it is really condescending. maybe a little racist. when eckford defends wholeheartedly the use of bitch shitty asshole etc. in the classroom, i feel he might be subconsciously reifying the class system that keeps us shut out of better schools and a visionary future.

i feel like i need to have an ESLR for my teachers.  let them know we want more, we will take it, that the blogosphere exists quod erat demonstrandum.

i told dan diamond how ironic it was to be sitting in front of the 4X4 che guevera red flag in eckford's office as i was told that because i don't have a PHD ($$$) i am inappropriate.  i wonder how they would treat the renegade man.

the great thing is i don't have a salary to lose, i don't have a future to mess up.  we are literally writing the rules of the future.  google doesn't mind if i blog here.  they give me free therapy.  so i don't think anyone is suspending me from anthropology for blogging about the vulgar words in the clasroom.  i think they rethought it.  and eckford never told me to go jump in a stream.  he told that to keith fink.  it was so funny!!!!!  it was like the jane goodall movie with the wild primates trying to play dominance games. or it was like straight out of some bad mafia movie in the eighties.

it was very godfathery.  "you can't scare me tough guy!"
and then fink said, i'm not trying to scare you, i'm just trying to communicate with your department on behalf of mary eng.  (that's me.)  so when eckford said, "i have a relationship with mary, with the teacher, but not with you" and that he didn't know if he should be talking to the lawyer . . . well . . .
i just wish fink would make me pay him!!!!!

i brought a check just in case.  he doesn't seem to care about money though.  i think he just cares about free speech generally speaking.  so when eckford told him "i'm going to hang up on your dumb ass," while it was classically unprofessional and undiplomatic, i could see eckford's point, in an anarchism kind of way.
like f-you, f-the law, f-my reputation, f-LACC, f-equality, f-free speech.  it was so punk rock!!!!

if what eckford meant was, buzz off, don't threaten my power, i can try to talk down to mary and coerce her etc, i guess he's right.  i went to the fake-mandatory meeting like a lamb led to slaughter in quite a quandry about what is the right thing to do.

this is where i need the "i'm sorry about the internet" hallmark card too.
because i am sorry, and sorry i have compulsive blogging tendencies.  it's the way i hold on to the world, and to precious moments.

i wonder if che guevera would tell me if i was "inappropriate."  i asked eckford if it was true che was violent?  he said he was a soldier for hire.

i think the only solution is for everybody to start being nice to each other at LACC.  power trips are super deluxe funny.  blogs are power trips too!!!!!  i think when teacher accused me of cyberstalking whatever that means, he could think of it more like anthropologizing the anthropologist, or like dan diamond says, like jane austen sense and sensibility.  or anyway i am pushing thirty-five blogs now, some more or less dead wastes of digital space, and i have so many pointless things to write about now, i should just mention it.
here are some subjects i like to write about: the environment, war, islam, rape, nick maybury, music in hollywood, smog, graphic arts, the holocaust, digital space, copyright, labor law, fake organics, nihilism, gareth pugh, fassbinder, bergman, viktor and rolf, all the gazillion friends i ever had, galleries, travel, fashion, poverty, homelessness, the past, androgyny, homophobia, linguistics, economics, veganism, megalomania.  so really trying to get all the credit for monopolizing my brain waves is a little true, but not that much, because my new obsessions are regenerating out of the ash.  the saddest thing about wanting an education is the cost factor.
now that i have fully embraced the whole student loan lifestyle and rocked out the bankruptcy law wisdom of lanzer, i feel more confident about ruining my good credit for the sake of an education.
i never thought money was real anyway.  it is more like a conspiracy, or a value consensus.

the reason any of us came to class was indeed relational to thinking class was worthwhile or tolerable to an extent.

all great teachers have students, followers, and reactionaries.  we take from our great teachers, parasitically, and then attempt to overthrow them with our value system and cultural and generational differences.  when the social sciences people act like the internet is satan, i feel like they are like nancy reagan playing me tapes in reverse to show me how its satanic.  and i am like no, actually communication is a good thing, because now we're communicating.  and if i am like, hey there is this little equality law that says i get a sexism-free school, it is thanks to the internet that i even know about that law.  so when yu try to tell me that internet is satan, and PHD is god, i'm like no man.  this is too weird.
now this is getting alittle imaginative.  they didn't call the internet satan, but rather, "inappropriate."  i think rock and roll was inappropriate, even waltzing, ankles, women going to university.  it was all inappropriate once.
if blogging and letter writing were so inappropriate . . .so too was letters from the underground, or 1984, or grunge, or prison writings.
why does it happen????  why do we want to write and make documents????  isn't it hope for a better future????  hope for a human experience?????  hope for a little respect????/
 it is the logic of "bite the hand that feeds you." and why feed they that bite?
the peaceful dialogue of the future will find radical rupture in all systems.  system disruption will perform integrity checks.
if the leadership system at social sciences protects an unequal atmosphere, just as the law protected jim crow and segregation, we, the militant civil rights activists must throw a wrench into the mechanism.  i don't think the old ways are inherently evil.  true they shut women out of the monasteries and universities.  like my friend and hebrew teacher eva watler said the classics got translated into aramaic and arabic and preserved in the east as the roman empire fell, all literacy would have faced extinction.  the preservation of knowledge took other forms, and upon retranslation, disavowed a lineage which disrupted power myths.
everything will be fine at LACC.  maybe even a few less curse words will get hurled (like vomit on our underprivileged economically disenfranchised community college selves).
maybe those of us who are poor or struggling will find strength somewhere in the school system.  maybe we will become entrepreneuers and visionaries.  maybe we will help bridge the digital divides, the literacy crises, globally.  maybe a new kind of learning will emerge, with students taking a more active and less passive role.  maybe we can learn together.
when progressives rely on old power structures to maintain their illusions of dominance, they fail us.  they carry us only so far with their chomsky and anthropology.  if we are left in a wasteland of power catechisms, the brainwashing tatics might fail.
i sprayed my brain with a no-stick hydrolyzed grease.  it just falls away.  catholic schools do that.  they make fierce rebels, atheists, satanists, anarchists.
so much propaganda and force-feeding actually leads to a reverse reaction.  i just vomit up everything i am force-fed.  if you force-feed me power, i vomit it back onto my plate.
i think it runs in the family.
the only way to get anything into my hard head is through diplomacy, eloquence, graciousness, and a mystique.
the ubiquitous words, the crass tits and ass and shitty and asshole, turn my brain off.  i can forgive and forgive and forgive only so much.
there is a reason i am coming to school.  to get away from banal moronic words.  so what is really cool about LACC is that we, as students may not be as rich as the kids at USC, but we deserve the best. we might even be rich in something money can't buy: class, dignity, integrity, honesty. we will demand the best.  i don't care that much if you call me crazy or anything else if that makes you feel better.  and if you tell your best mates to "stop their bitching" and "i'm bitching at you" etc. well whatever.
whatever whatever is no excuse for hurting human beings.
i think we all need to work on our compassion, and look into ways we could be more fair, more enlightened, more inspiring, more transcendent.
more open to utopia.
i was thinking of that old cheesy film "dead poet's society."  the guy who wrote it went to school at the boys school montgomery bell academy in nashville.  i used to hang out there to do theater.
when i was about thirteen i was idealistic about things like this.  now i feel a little more practical.
like, yeah it is totally unpoetic to talk harshly to us, but moreover it hurts the school.  it hurts the students.  it hurts our self-respect.  it makes it seem more ghetto than it is.  it reinforces some power systems.
curse words are like crack cocaine inflicted on the student body to keep us enslaved.
the french revolution will happen over and over again.  power elites will topple.  aristocracy will not hold, if so high and mighty it must crush the poor, or women, or the diverse student body here.
i think LACC deserves the very best our teachers can give.  and that we deserve to be heard and not suppressed.  if we feel discomfort, might we not just say it????
i have three more exams to go.  good luck everybody.
power to the people all the time.
we should make education a right not a privilege, and fight for respect, no matter where we come from.  we shouldn't accept the watered down version just because this is community college, or a poor smoggy neighborhood.  we should ask for more not less.  good luck.
and hey teachers, i'm only giving you tough time here because i owe so much to you for the gift of your education.  thanks for everything.  really LACC is amazing, and could be even more amazing with a little self-reflection.
respect is a process, equality a transcendent consciousness, compassion a manifold unflowering in the human spirit.  and hey, you know what? you can apologize.
a little "i'm sorry" goes a long way.
you can tell me you are sorry for threatening to suspend me for blogging my feelings about sexist words in the clasroom.
you can say sorry what you said made me cry.
you can say sorry for cursing at keith fink.  he is tough.  he could handle it, but even lawyers shouldn't have to be verbally abused.
you could say sorry for calling me inappropriate when actually my words are important.
if a woman says the words "bitch" or "tits and ass" make her uncomfortable, especially in a professional setting, you could at least acknowledge her right to speak.
silencing women has gone on too long.
in the future women will find self-authorship.
they will not necessarily need these old words, or men telling them they are inappropriate for having feelings, or desiring respect.
in the future we will all respect each other so we can conquer huge problems together like war, environmental catastrophe, starvation, dessertification, carcinogenesis . . .
i respect you enough to pose this challenge:  treat the future LACC students with dignity, respect, and kindness.  the rewards will give you so much more profound happiness, than the false freedom of the idiocratic "academic" freedom to slur in the classroom.  when you show us respect, so too will you be respected . . .
philo sophos
the love of wisdom . . .
and when the wisdom of women is accounted for and the PHD learns from the child with an open heart and an open mind . . . then who will be the teacher and who the student????  it is the wisdom of the young that will free us from war and poverty . . . so when we whisper or blog . . . please listen.  and thank you for listening and thank you for everything . . .

Tuesday 1 June 2010

the future of equality: is respect "inappropriate" . . .?

in studying for family law i came across the exciting fact that until the1950's married women in California surrendered their income to their husbands.  it is so amazing that in my mother's lifetime, marriage meant complete civic inequality and economic tyranny.  the huge pay gap in the united states is a relic of this old way of thinking, that all women must marry, that men were the primary earners, and that men control the family finances.

i take family law with professor vargas.  he is universally loved across the paralegal department for his organization and consistency.  his lectures always include a powerpoint and pdf  summaries of the key points.  i took criminal law and introduction to paralegal studies with him. torts and family law have been great.
so as i prepare for school, school, and more school, i am trying to get a perspective on what has happened here at LACC.  what was good, and what could be better.  i was initially allured by the governor's fee waiver and hope for grants to ease the financial struggle of studying.  i felt inclined toward law, but not enough to take the plunge without some foreknowledge.  i really like how much my knowledge has expanded. 
but some things make me sad about the school.
when vargas told me i was "inappropriate" for tagging the legal association board with my query about the legal association's larger sense of ethics and honor, i felt a bit of disgust at what goes on.  nobody seems to notice or care that the club is a dominatesd by largely inarticulate men, who are rude to people like sheila and i.  after having the ham-fisted slap on my back and orders given, i calmly informed one of their dignitaries, that as a natural-leader, i give orders not receive.

and then darwin asked me to leave his little potluck.  i normally avoid these people anyway, but was having such a blast with the intellectual property law club people, that i lingered on . . .

somehow some people's retro style of bossing people around and booming their big voices gives them some kind of primitive power rush.  vargas never wrote me back about the academic crises or the treatment of paralegal student dharod in the ASO scandal cover-up.  he never really coherently explained why i heard so many sexist things in the paralegal department.  lawyers don't scare easily.  but i could perceptibly see lewis and lanzer cringe in my presence, after realizing their loose-lipped antics might get them called up for questioning.  i don't think they felt any particular remorse, but i did see a marked improvement, at least with lanzer.  by asking a lot of a situation, you actually do honor to those teachers you critique.  of course they are smart and educated.  why not ask them to show it with a little dignity and eloquence?????  it's purely flattering we might hope they are capable of giving a non-sexist lecture.  i spoke with vargas about the linguistic anomolies in the frilly anthropology course, which i confess, i took for fun.  i didn't expect it would be so torturous or degenerate so fast. vargas has a careful way of never saying anything too extreme in any direction.  it's commendable.  if i told him of the silly situation the social sciences people made for themselves, he might look askance.
a little law education goes a long way!!!! 

so as a reminder of the many educations available out there, i love to keep the itunes university podcasts going.  new york law hosted the most amzing conference on the google books settlement, which has huge applications for the future of alternative learning methods for dyslexia and vision impairment.  braille readers and text to speech facilitate a huge increase for the sake of universal human knowledge.  9 million book s that would be unavailable to the blind, will now be able to be converted to braille thanks to google.  or coverted to robot-voiced text to speech.
i use text-to-speech all the time now.  i first used it in 1998 when i was an assistant to estelle condra, a teacher and author who suffered a gradual decline in vision.  she would write, and then have the computer read back to her.
i use it now for everything from emails, to blogging, to wikipedia, and legal research.  i love the feeling of kicking back my feet and letting my weak eyes rest whilst experiencing rapid information uptake.  for the super hard parts of biological anthropology, i tried to absorb as much as possible as quickly as possible by use of my robot voice settings in the system preferences.
i listen to long legal pdf legal documents this way.  sometimeas as i fall asleep i set the computer to read to me a long passage.

but there is something so wonderful about the "human" experience.  and that is part of why we go to school.  to hear a human voice, or have a conversation.  so when the humans at school act like misogynistic robots without a heart or compassion, that is when, the human experience feels a little bizarre.

i read an interesting article last night about transexual academics at MIT and Harvard who experienced a huge shift in their peer-reception, upon completion of the gender change.  the woman who became a man, found an increase in success, earning power, and respect.  the male to female found her income and the academic respect she was used to as a man decline after her gender change.
http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/the-situation-of-sexism/


it really helped me to get a handle on what i experience as the condescending tone i have felt from some of the professors.  is it subtle?
is it a hazing process?
or punishment for  . . .
for kicks, and to keep my mind happy, i love lectures at harvard's berkman center.  the berkman center host's guest speakers from many field's whose work involves the intersection of law and what was lovingly referred to once as "cyberspace."  whether its copyright, social media, statistics, crowdsourcing . . . the lectures are always so fun and always completely cogent and dense.
i love london school of economics, which hosts lectures on international politics, market development, law, and more . . .
lacc, thanks for everything . . . but i want to keep my horizons wide . . .
dan diamond says keep the blog installed.  its important.  as demonstration.  as educational theory.  as a challenge to old ways of thinking.  and as a reminder to any student, that we don't don't have to wait twenty years to discuss sexual harassment on campus like naomi wolf did.  we can start talking right now.  about everything.  and make it a better world.  we are a very bloggy generation. it's hopeful.

Monday 31 May 2010

equality is not negative



erasures and inappropriate advocacy for victims rights

contra Administration protected abuse . . .

why was ASO drinking?

what happened to the victim of the alleged harassment?

does LACC care about women?

why do professors call me "inappropriate" for standing up for respect for women?

is LACC a safe place for women students?

why are two adult professors threatening to sue me for this blog?

why do they insist that curse words are epithets are central and essential to their teaching?

why would they corner me to regurgitate the very words i find bizarrely crude and uninteresting?

what is next for LACC?

Sunday 30 May 2010

LACC teachers threaten to sue student (for pell grant?) for blogging

don't despair!

times are tough!

being threatened to be sued by two teachers at LACC is wow!

i highly recommend it!  bloggers, mobilize!

if the blogosphere is so powerful, take it!!!  take the power!!!!  demand respect!!!!!  if you are shy, anonymize yourself!!!!

women: in the future you will be respected!!!!  men: in the future we will work together for mutual respect!

equality is not a crime, it is not a crime to request it!!!!

homophobia, sexism, racism, etc. are on the way out!  our generation will liberate humanity, free humanity, for total human liberation!!!!

if i ask for respect for women, or vegans, or dyslexics, or whoever, in the future, we will not be ignored, marginalized or coerced!!!!

we will not accept cold war silencing tactics.  we are too intelligent!!!!!  we will not be called "inappropriate" for asking for justice and respect for all people!  our karma and truthfulness will protect us!!!

we will prevail!!!  eckford will not sue me, but rather join me saying," yeah mary, great idea, so sorry you faced harassment, beating, discrimination, rape, etc.  this school is going to be 100% respectful, a hate-free zone where you can study and attain your intellectual dreams!  we will strive to protect you from an unfair hostile atmosphere!!!!!  women in the classroom will be respected on par with men!!!!  we will not reinforce the status quo of 17% representation 70% of the male dollar underpay etc by further marginalizing and objectifying you linguistically!!!!!!  if you have something to say, we want to listen!  we will abide by the state and federal laws guaranteeing  you equality in the classroom!!!!!"

i was so inspired by the lawyers guild meeting i attended with sheila in april.  at the meeting they discussed radical politics.  if agroup has a great agenda for instance: anti-racism, is it okay to accept sexism within the anti-racist movement?
the answer, on the very progressive side of the room is: absolutely not!

so within any progressive movement, a questioning process must occur in regards to equity and integrity.
i think it is super fabulous that eckfor teaches african american studies.  and i think it is super fabulous that bartelt teaches about the effects of globalization and colonialism.
but since we have so much in common, it hurts extra much for them to knock women.

so the irony too is that eckford while being all che-gueveraed-out, is using stalinist gulag style tactics to disrupt my attempts to offer an alternate perspective.

i wholeheartedly encourage the students of the future LACC to approach their classrooms with a grain of salt and a self-empowered attitude.  if a teacher is sub-par, or teaching with no self-critique, empower yourself to speak up, blog, write letters etc.

now i don't really recommend the administrative remedies.
they are more there to make you think they are ensuring a fair atmosphere.
cristy passman said "if the boys are getting off" it's okay.

so prepare yourself for what is OK at LACC:
pussy--lewis
bitching--bartelt
hooker--lewis
slut--lanzer
cheesecake--duffy
tits--bartelt
tits and ass--bartelt
shitty--bartelt
whore, the n-word---film in vargas criminal law
tits and ass and bitch and asshole--eckford as he apologized for, repeated all of these.

hey and guess what!!!!??????
i like the concept of free speech!  but when the atmosphere is so non-academic and hostile and degraded, and women are the targets, i am pretty confident that this is not fair, and not okay by the state and federal law guaranteeing me a schoolplace free of harassment and epithet and slur and a hostile atmosphere.

and furthermore, it's just not nice, recommended, flattering to oneself to speak this way.

it makes you look archaically sexist, and misinformed.

and silencing the blogger who writes about it, just makes the whole atmosphere look even more repressive.

say if your vocab-deprived mind thinks all those words are awesome ways to keep women in their place in the classroom, you might object to silencing the woman journalist who wants to blog it.

LACC started as an all-male sexist school.  now in 2010, women get to go, if they don't mind linguistic stratifications protected by the administration . . . .

that's repressive.

if the boys can say it, i can blog it.

and if you are considering taking classes at LACC, it may concern you to know.

if you have a child going to our school, it may concern you to know.

i for one, wish someone had warned me.

so i hope this helps.

now school scandals get big.  like murder, rape, etc.  in fact LACC has a severe scandal of its own.  peters, moore, passman, and bradford are protecting james butler-zetino who harassed a minor after deliberately feeding her an excess of alcohol on a school trip to the student government conference in sacramento.  the girl ran to her room in tears, told other women, spoke to the school newspaper, and may be pressing charges.  but Bradford is excusing the perpetrator who got 500/a semester to be ASO president, and to harass a minor, and then harass sheila dharod when she attempted to shine a light on the corruption.

these creeps won't touch me.  they have LACC associate district counsel eric kim to send me a letter telling me to take down my blog.
so LACCD is cover-up oriented.  i wonder how the trustees feel.  how bad would it have to get for LA times to get involved???

school president jamillah moore was so disturbed when i told her about tits and ass screamed at me in anthropology, that she gave me a meeting time to discuss the future of equality at LACC.

i told her that i lost my appetite, got very depressed, dropped classes, and that it was hurting my ability to study.

this is important.  a hostile atmosphere inhibits a student's ability to learn.  i really like modern progressive anthropology and thank bartelt for introducing me to it!  but i don't think i should have to hear the words shitty bitching asshole tits and ass just to learn some anthropology.  nor should i have teachers and department chair eckford threatening to sue me because i complain.

that in itself is hurting me now.  why should i have to be threatened?  when i recommend a best practices approach to the teachers, i want to offer them the good advice of how not to damage their careers and how not to get sued, generally speaking.

i thought this kind of junk would be screened out.
are taxpayers okay with paying for this????

i think i could get this lingo on TV after 10 pm if i wanted to hear slut, pussy, tits, tits and ass, bitching, shitty etc.

eckford's assertion:  "i would sue you" and soandso "would have every right to sue you" is so funny.  anybody can sue anybody.

why don't they sue me for my student loans?
wouldn't that be funny????

why do they have to get so personal!  why do they think i am worth suing?  do they think i scare so easily?

all i ask for is a non-harassing, non-profanity-laced lecture.

and therapy . . . for the unequal atmosphere . . .