I.
Our featured singer this weekend is Corey Harris. I first met Corey in connection with anti-death penalty work and academia, before he had recorded his first album. Should he do a Ph.D. in Linguistics or History of Consciousness, he was wondering – or should he play music? “I think I’ll play music.”
II.
Today I would like to discuss the incident at Oglala, which as Joe Allen and Paul D’Amato point out, is newly relevant in the context of the Patriot Act and the still newer anti-terror legislation. I would like to discuss a battering incident which took place some time ago, and which I did not recognize as such until much later.
I would like to tell the story of how and why I went to college, very different from Moksha‘s, but still interesting as a story of women. I would like to discuss my dislike of academic feminists. I would like to describe my visit to Nicaragua last December, which I did not enjoy, but where I met some of the very most admirable people I have ever seen. In short, I would like to surround myself in an imaginary bubble of white light and write an interesting memoir.
III.
I am, however, assembling documents for an upcoming Pardon Board hearing, where I will speak in favor of the release of a Vietnam veteran who has done over thirty years of hard time for non-violent drug crimes, and I am preparing class.
IV.
I certainly know enough, and have strong enough presentation skills, to wing my classes. Given that, the whitemen have often told me that time spent preparing classes is time better spent doing other things.
The opportunity to teach was not what attracted me to academia: it was what I was willing to do so as to retain access to university libraries, and have time to continue reading books and writing papers. I tend to mistrust those who say they like to teach. What they often mean by this is that they do not like to learn, but do like to hold power over other people.
But I like to prepare class. I discover things, and gain insights I would be unlikely to have otherwise. I put these together as one would put together an interactive exhibit. I come up with interesting questions to hone the mind. It is renewing, like an art project, literally re-creational.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
So are you telling us there are some juicy stories to come? Or is this a list to get you started, to lay it out for you to ponder upon?
OT:
I have been working with my wordpress. I imported everything from blogger. Some problems, pictures that I uploaded from bloggers will not transfer over, only pictures that I had in a blogger post but had uploaded from a photobucket account. My archives only show October, even though it says I have post back to May 2005. I cannot edit posts, or I don’t know how. What is a blogroll? If you could help me, I appreciate it. Take your time, it is an on going project.
Corey Harris is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. His “Daily Bread” CD never leaves the changer in my car. That title song is my personal theme song at the moment. While I am sure the world will miss his scholarly pursuits, the world is a better, happier place with his music in it.
Nice post!
I would like to be preparing class, but instead I am grading midterms.
Prof Z, please check your email, I ‘m sending you something hilarious!
JoannaO – yes, aargh, grading is what I have moved into now, too. I am reminding myself of how happy I will be when it is done, and how slogging through it now will buy me a feeling of achievement by nightfall.
David – that means I need that album, too! I saw Corey play in person recently, but my claim to fame from the past is, he played my house! I had a fundraiser for post-conviction relief and he provided the music. It was amazing.
Hahba – On the juicy stories, the answer is both: they’ll be forthcoming as I can get to them, but for now, I’m just laying them out for meditation. Maybe I should import some posts from my old site here. I had decided not to: leave that site as that site, and simply continue here. But maybe I will also import. [Update: I’m not right now: I’m afraid the operation will mess up both sites.]
Editing posts: go to the dashboard. From there, click on ‘manage’. From there, click on ‘posts’. You will get a list of your posts, with a button for each that says ‘edit’.
Blogroll is essentially your list of links. I hate the word, and do not use it. But to edit your links, from dashboard, click on ‘blogroll’. From there, click on ‘add link’. You will get a box at the right of your screen, saying ‘categories’. You can then create different categories. I’ve put my ‘blogroll’ and other links all into one category, ‘links’, for now.
The reason I have done this is that some of the category names I would along the sidebar are the same as I do for the posts. This creates a problem. I need to come up with some different categories: one set for my posts, and a different set for the sidebar, and have them both work. Otherwise, for instance, posts of mine which I’ve categorized as “news”, come up as links in the sidebar which I’ve also categorized as “news”.
I “discovered” Corey Harris on my 2006 calendar (a blues artist featured every month with Harris in February). I quickly created a Napster playlist to listen to. And now I’m scouting cd’s. I’ll certainly check out the ones mentioned here.
In 2003-2004, I had the joy of helping with the process to see the release of someone who did 25 years flat in the federal system as a political prisoner. The officials were determined not to see him released, but he has been out for two years now–successfully. I wish you great wisdom and I wish the prisoner the same success as I have watched occur in the life of my friend.
As for teaching…I totally agree. I love to learn and have found over the two decades since I came to academe that there is nothing that stretches my mind like preparing for and standing in front of a class. I swear I think I would have been happy to stay in grad school forever. Looking back at it, it seems like such a rich and carefree time, comparatively speaking. By which I mean that in spite of the struggles I was going through personally, my focus was on learning, learning, learning–and I loved it.
I just realized that my entire Corey Harris playlist on Napster is from his album Downhome Sophisticate. Gotta get it!