Citizen Will

Tag: CivilLiberties

  • Here comes the judge: The Forum – Question #1

    Importance of community? Your role in the community?

  • Here comes the judge: The Forum – Openings

    Oct. 16th’s UNC Young Democrat Superior Court 15B forum. Candidate openings. In an effort to clean up the original post and make the page load faster, here’s a playlist version.

  • Redistricting Referendum: Is Education Enough?

    The League of Women Voters has asked me to speak at two forums in the coming weeks as “the opponent” to this referendum (because of my Sept. 2006 Chapel Hill News column “All Quiet on the Election Front”). Moses Carey will argue for the referendum and I’m supposed to do 5 minutes on my opposition. […]

  • UNC’s Board of Trustee Roger Perry: You’re Insulted?

    UNC trustee and local developer Roger Perry said his sense was that UW-Madison officials essentially tell the community that the university’s mission requires it to do a certain project, and then everyone goes to work on preventing negative impacts, without trying to stop the project in general. He said he’d like to get to that […]

  • Deeds, not words shall speak me….

    Prolific local blogger Bora Coturnix reveals the back story to the recent CitizenWill post North Carolina Diktat: Thou Shalt Pledge Allegiance. His son was the young student, armed with the courage of his convictions, who calmly asserted his Constitutional right to not be compelled to affirm that which he doesn’t believe. North Carolina’s motto, roughly […]

  • ZeFrank’s Simple, Nuanced Message

    I’m stuck in a video culture. The immediacy of the message, the ability to project nuance, is quite alluring. Today’s low-cost of creation and dissemination has helped unleash citizen’s voices which otherwise would never be heard. Yesterday, I featured Keith Olbermann’s Sept. 11th impassioned defense of dissent. It was a strong, direct, thoughtful yet emotional […]

  • The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street

    Keith Olbermann, Sept. 11th, 2006 – on fire: And anyone who claims that I and others like me are “soft”, or have “forgotten” the lessons of what happened here — is at best a grasping, opportunistic, dilettante — and at worst, an idiot — whether he is a commentator, or a Vice President, or a […]

  • North Carolina Diktat: Thou Shalt Pledge Allegiance

    It is a hollow affirmation that must be compelled. [UPDATE:] I find it incredibly encouraging for our country when a young person, within a deeply authoritarian framework like our school system, shows the fortitude and courage to calmly assert their Constitutional rights. Moreso in our current national anti-dissent climate – a climate fostered by officials […]

  • Municipal Wifi: St. Cloud on Cloud Nine

    So let the naysayers and talking heads let fly, but the little secret that is secret no more is that the results of a carefully planned and deployed municipally owned system delivered free to the citizens as a public service is actually the most successful, beneficial and effective model in existence. So says Jonathan Baltuch, […]

  • Five Long Years

    Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not YET sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favour; a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts […]

  • “Very Interesting”: the ESP Show on “Bruce-gate”

    Thursday morning, I boogied down to Carrboro’s low-powered radio co-op, WCOM, to join with Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton for a modified two-step with the boys of the ESP Show. With practiced professionalism, Geoff Gilson and the dangerous “Mad Dog” Aaron assembled a nice overview of the recent Weaver St. Mkt. Lawn public access issue. Having […]

  • Weaver St. Market Lawn: The Story So Far….

    Now that the initial uproar over Carr Mill Mall’s management’s rather strained decision to implement new restrictions on public access to Weaver Street Market Lawn [MAP] has quieted down a bit, I thought I’d put together a quick recap covering the last couple weeks of letters, posts and comments. The Wiki Roots wiki has a […]

  • Mission Accomplished, President Bush!

    President Bush rambles on incoherently as NBC anchor Brian Williams interviews him during a shameful Katrina anniversary photo-op. Bush’s defense of his failed presidency is scary not for the willful lies but for the uninspected belief in his own infallibility. He says (5:26 into this interview snippet) The key to me is to keep expectations […]

  • Web 2.0 Activism: Yahoo Maps + Flickr

    Web 2.0 is a disputed frame of reference bounding the next generation of web-based, collaborative applications. Once upon a time (a few short years ago), tech sales-droids touted ASPs (application service providers) as the natural replacement for individual applications. Net-based alternatives for accounting, human resources or even word-processing would be run and managed from centralized […]

  • Licensed for the Lawn: Dance, Dance Fever

    Here’s some great documentary snaps of the August 26th Weaver St. Market civil dance disobedience taken by my steady-handed, sharp-eyed 9 year-old son Elijah. There’s more pictures over on Flickr under the wsmdancein tag. Pictures below the fold