Frankly, we need a revolution—big, BIG changes in our collective value system—like putting human beings—human life and the evolution of the species—above corporate profits . . . health and education are basic human rights especially in a wealthy nation. The “world powers” are a handful of primarily white, primarily men who control the world’s wealth and, just as importantly, our language. They own the airwaves, the discourse, the terminology, the definitions, the dialogue, the textbooks and the discussions.

With the U.S. presidential election a mere 48 hours away, I want to take the opportunity to reclaim a piece of language that I feel has been wrongly taken from the American vocabulary by neo-liberals and neo-conservatives alike and used for the purposes of dividing people and closing conversations.  This kind of double-speak is not uncommon in U.S. society, and one need only consider the new connotations of words such as “freedom,” “patriotism,” and “democracy” to get the gist of how words can be distorted and appropriated by power-wielders for unethical purposes.  Lately, the word “bitter,” the focus of today’s blog, has gotten a bad rap in American society.  I find its recent appropriation to be similar to the ways in which “freedom” and “patriotism” have been distorted into terms that discourage folks from questioning the U.S.

All: You are probably aware of the controversy surrounding Bill Ayers and Obama. Ayers is being crucified on right-wing and "traditional" media outlets. If you are so inclined, here is one opportunity to express your view of the situation:

http://www.supportbillayers.org/

Paul Thomas

Monday (June 23) morning, I learned that the Universe lost George Carlin, I believe Sunday or Sunday evening. Carlin's heart finally lost the battle. On my drive to teach my summer courses, a 30-45 minute adventure on the highways each morning, I listened to local talk radio trash and demonize Carlin. The talk-show host and callers reveled in noting that Carlin was in hell—that his life-long pursuit of satire wasn't so funny for him now, they claimed.

Hi, everybody! Thank you so much to the Project, to Joe and Shirley, and to the web geniuses (David and his team) who put this so terribly functional, helpful, and informative e-community together.

“We are bombarded, thousands of times a day, with the emotional simplicity and terrible beauty of lies,” writes Chris Hedges (I Don’t Believe in Atheists, p. 177). As we, Nita and Paul, welcome you to this blog about critical literacy, the humanizing and empowering gift of language when all of us have a critical lens; that is our best defense against “the emotional simplicity and terrible beauty of lies.” We are indebted to Joe Kincheloe more than we can express, but we are driven here by his compassion and by the gifts afforded us in the praxis and words of Paulo Freire.

Yes we can but what about the system?

The US electoral campaign is now in full swing, or, rather, has been hitting a fever-pitch for about the last 18 months. It will surely culminate at some point. And then it will re-start with those who lost trying to get a foot-hold on new investors in their campaign. It almost seems anti-climatic to select someone—a simple individual—after such a prolonged infomercial.