Eastham Windmill

Howard Zinn on President Barack Obama Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize

The honorable author, historian, and social activist, Howard Zinn, taped at Lower Cape TV on Cape Cod 10/9/2009 commenting on President Obama receiving the Nobel Peace prize.

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SWING FOR THE HOMELESS WITH STAGE DOOR CANTEEN AND WOMR 92.1 FM

Stage Door Canteen Concert - Swinging Sweethearts Ball with Kami Lyle and Mike Connors
Opening will be the Nauset World Music Ensemble from NRHS.

Saturday, February 28, 2009; 7:30 p.m.
Nauset Regional Middle School Auditorium, Orleans.
A benefit for WOMR 92.1 FM and The Homeless Prevention Council
                                                                    (formerly The Interfaith Council for the Homeless)
WOMR - 92.1 FM and the Homeless Prevention Council invite you to the Swinging Sweethearts Ball on Saturday, February 28 at 7:30 pm, in the Nauset Regional Middle School auditorium in Orleans.  This joint benefit concert features the big band swing jazz of Stage Door Canteen, a 14-piece band with a complete horn section, guitarist, drummer, bassist, and vocalist, Stage Door Canteen brings the swing era back to life, playing the hits and sounds of the '40s that made the Big Band era what it was.

Opening the concert is one of the Cape's most unique musical groups, the Nauset World Music Ensemble, comprised of students from Nauset Regional High School and led by Wellfleet native Lisa Brown.

Saturday, February 28^th

Nauset Regional Middle School Auditorium
70 Route 28
Orleans, MA

TICKET INFORMATION
$17 in advance, $20 on the day of the show, $17 on the day of show with a contribution of
non-perishable food item for Lower Cape Outreach Council.
Purchase tickets online at www.womr.org, or by calling WOMR at 508-487-2619

 Tickets can also be purchased at the following participating businesses.

Stage Door Canteen is no ordinary swing band. For more than a decade, this 14-piece big band orchestra has brought high style, elegance, and unbridled energy to special events all over the Northeast - and beyond. Stage Door Canteen is led by alto saxophonist Roger Gamache, a graduate of Berklee College of Music.  Featured vocalists are Berklee grad and accomplished singer/trumpeter Kami Lyle, and Mike Connors - a versatile vocalist who sings Frank Sinatra as well as contemporary styles.  Stage Door Canteen plays music of all types, but specializes in swing jazz from the ‘40s & ‘50s.

WOMR 92.1 FM is nonprofit community radio broadcasting from Provincetown and serving the entire Cape.  More than 90% of WOMR's programming is produced locally, including live local news, spoken word programming on the arts and community affairs, and a wide variety of music including jazz, roots, oldies, opera and alternative rock.  Community participation is welcome and encouraged, and the station has a thriving program to train new DJ's of all ages - including dedicated slots for local students.  The station is also closely involved with the Barnstable County Emergency Planning Committee (BCREPC), and active in plans to serve the community in the event of a natural disaster or other major emergency.  

 The WOMR Orleans Expansion Project is the endeavor to improve WOMR's signal from Orleans to Hyannis and to introduce the viability of WOMR as an asset to the mid-Cape community. WOMR plans to install a second transmitter in Orleans by 2010 which will broadcast its signal at 91.3 FM.

 The Homeless Prevention Council is one of the most well-respected non-profits on the Lower Cape. Established in 1991 to combat homelessness in the eight towns of Chatham, Harwich, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown, the Homeless Prevention Council has provided continuous service toward that goal since beginning in 1991. The premise was that what individual towns and churches are not structured to do individually, they can achieve with a central agency providing a professional and experienced staff supported by qualified individuals. As a community-based organization, the Homeless Prevention Council is positioned to identify the unique problems and the available resources to prevent or intervene in homelessness.

The Swinging Sweethearts Ball is generously sponsored by the following local businesses: Seamen's Bank; Agway of Cape Cod; the Land Ho; Latanzi, Spaulding & Landreth, P.C.; American Heritage Realty; Cape Air; Cape Cod Five; and Orleans Wine & Spirits.

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Barack Obama: The Greatest Political Orator Ever

Barack Obama is tired of your blankety blank blank

February 5th, 2009 ·

 If you've ever read President Obama's Dreams From My Father, good for you. I couldn't get past the foreword.

I wish I had. Because today I discovered that there's a fairly juicy little subplot in the book, involving one of Obama's high school friends.

Ray, a fellow classmate of Obama's, was also bi-racial, and also trying to define himself. But what set him apart was his colorful manner of self-expression. Ray cursed like a... link

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Sexting: How We Have Failed the Children

The sexualization and objectification of females is everywhere-it is the new colonization of every available space. Years ago, adults would travel to the sundry part of town to seek out the seamy societal taboos that could only be found in what was called "the red light district". Today, "the red light district" is pumped through cables and the airwaves directly into the sanctity of our homes, putting families at risk with messages that are simply not healthy for children or adults for that matter.

We protect our children from all types of harm. There are laws to ensure the use of seatbelts and cars seats , children cannot purchase alcohol or tobacco products, but what they not only consume, but are inundated with, is a commercial media system that exploits children on multiple levels for the sake of corporate profit.  And one of those ways is the vulgar sexualization and objectification of females. The message that is sent to girls at the youngest of ages is that their worth and their power is based solely upon their sexuality. Diane Levin and Jean Kilbourne's most recent book, So Sexy So Soon, brings these issues to the forefront.

If we are to understand our media system as the primary source of storytelling, or the instrument that instills the values of the society, then children should not be punished as felons for mimicking what society via commercial media, has deemed appropriate. For those whose first reaction is to blame parents, please understand that once a child walks outside of his or her home, there are no protections in place. In other words, we need laws and policies to do so. This is not about censorship, but protecting our children-- and we have been complacent and negligent in this matter.  We urge all who care about our youth and our future as a species to visit the website for The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.

Dianna Morton, Media Education Educator (Cape Cod Regional Technical High School)

and

James Paul Ludwig, Media Activist

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The Real No Child Left Behind: Marketing the No Ethics Zone and the National Crisis in Children's Health

You are invited to The Real No Child Left Behind:
Marketing the No Ethics Zone and the National Crisis in Children's Health

Where and When:
At the Cape Cod Community Media Center, 307 Whites Path, SouthYarmouth, Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 7 PM

The Real No Child Left Behind: Marketing the No Ethics Zone and the National Crisis in Children's Health is a presentation by Dianna Morton, a Media Literacy Educator and an activist for the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. This presentation encompasses Dianna's graduate studies in Media Literacy as well as her involvement with the Action Coalition for Media Literacy Education (ACME) and the Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, an affiliate of Harvard University, housed at The Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston. The presentation is a brief overview of what is going on in the culture of our children and its effects, and the very attainable solution, which primarily involves education of parents, media literacy education in all grades, a plethora of play in early childhood to foster imagination social and problem solving skills, and minor activism in harping upon our legislators to outlaw marketing to children under eight. The presentation is a promotion to educators and parents alike for a healthy childhood. Children that are ready, able, and excited to learn: Children who are physically and emotionally healthy. The Real No Child Left Behind: Marketing the No Ethics Zone and the National Crisis in Children's Health, Tuesday, August 19^th, 2008 at 7 PM At the Cape Cod Community Media Center, 307 Whites Path, South Yarmouth.

 The event is free and open to the public. The presentation is recommended for persons 16 years of age or older.

For more information call Dianna Morton: 774-207-0014

For any questions regarding this press release contact:

James Paul Ludwig james_ludwig@cable.comcast.com

Dianna Morton  dianna487@comcast.net

Dianna Morton is a teacher of English and Media Literacy at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School. In addition, she is certified in Special Needs Education. Dianna is an artist and has promoted childhood creativity through her work with Provincetown Library's State Wide Summer Reading Program for the past eleven years, as well as being the recipient of Massachusetts Cultural Council Grants to foster the Arts in children through puppetry and drama. She is also a faculty facilitator of CCRT's Human Rights Academy. Dianna has recently been invited to work on a Community Youth Media design team with Sasha Bruce Youthwork in Washington, D.C.

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Barack Obama or Kanye West: Who is Black Enough to be President?

Barack Obama showed up in my inbox in the form of a popular video forward that seems to be getting around and impressing a lot of people. I didn't watch the video all the way through. I saw it as typical propagandist drivel to establish Obama as being black enough to be president of the USA. Frankly I got a lot more satisfaction out of Obama Girl . Most certainly a metaphor for Obama's marketability in mainstream media to the extent that he was ordained early on as being able to attract those huge advertising revenues in the general election that the media openly salivates for all through the electoral process. 

I first thought of Kanye West as potential presidential material when he openly criticized George Bush on live network television for the administration's handling of the Katrina debacle. I watched breathlessly as comedian Mike Meyers, being unabashedly serious for a change, looking like a deer caught in the headlights, as Kanye went off teleprompter copy and improvised from the heart. It's must see  TV. 

Every few years I watch the Grammies just to get a feel for where pop culture is going. Usually once I see it's the same old media red light district hookers being trotted out to perform I change the channel for lack of interest. I almost did when some cowboy wannabe came out and sang a song called "I want to Check You for Ticks."  But Kanye West was to perform so I persevered. I was not to be disappointed. He came out swinging for home runs with the performance of his hit "Stronger" accompanied by technobots, Daft Punk.

After watching that performance I realized that Kanye definitely looks strong and presidential.  Any American could be proud to vote for Kanye West, whether on the Right or Left. He is certainly black enough to be president and he has an extremely appropriate campaign song with a built in slogan: "uh, that that don't kill me, oh, makes me stronger." 

When he accepted his Grammy he was giving thanks to his recently deceased mother when they started to play him out with some crappy music , as they are want to do at the Grammies to rush people off stage. "It would be in good taste to stop the music," Kanye commanded. The music stopped - Commander and Chief or what!

Now don't get the wrong idea. I didn't write this piece to subtly get people to vote for Old Crusty, McCain, or even Billary. After all, Amy Winehouse put in a really good performance at the Grammies as well. West/Winehouse 2008! Let's show'em real dubyas.   

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The No Ethics Zone: Advertising as Culture and the National Children's Health Crisis

by Dianna Morton, Media Literacy Educator

Based on her knowledge of economics, sociology, psychology, and media, through the eyes and practice of a social scientist,Juliet Schor(2004), in Born to Buy,  examined our contemporary culture in which advertising has an immense effect on young people, in particular children ages eighteen months through thirteen years old. Having posed the question, "What is happening to kids today?" in terms of well-being trends,  Schor did not dismiss the discourse that crosses political spectrums including family structure, permissive parenting, the decline of morality, and ill performing schools, yet included what she named the " 800 pound gorilla" in the room, an alternative explanation: Media and Consumer Culture. The basis for this claim is that children are spending more time with media than generations of the past. Her quantitative research strategy was two fold. First, she obtained a managerial position with a Madison Avenue children's marketing group.

There, Schor was tutored in all facets of children's advertising; she met with those contacts for an additional forty meetings and interviewed people in the industry to find out what was going on and what the cutting edge of marketing to kids was. Schor's second mode of  research involved surveying three hundred children age ten through thirteen in five schools, both urban and suburban, and residing in varying socio-economic and racial/ethnic households, in the Boston area, to measure consumer involvement, media use, and a series of psychological variables including depression, self-esteem, headaches, etc. This research included twenty six parent interviews. The purpose was to ask the question what is the impact of media and commercialization on children's well being? Schor examined how the market targets children immersed in the consumer media culture to their detriment, in which they are offered false promises, yet are put into a metaphorical prison in which they are controlled, bereft of connection with caring adults, suffer severe stress and anxiety, become prone to obesity and diabetes, and are encouraged to develop addictive behaviors, all in order to meet the ever increasing demands of the market.

In a broad analysis, contemporary advertising is damaging to children, and therefore detrimental to the well being of the society if we are to view children as our future. In order to understand the theoretical foundation of this analysis, it is essential to look at the cultural role advertising plays in the society, and how through this role society's values are constructed. This is not to examine advertising in its effectiveness in selling product, but to examine advertising in terms of what stories are being told. These stories influence our behavior, our morality, and our ideas about what is important. (Jhally, 2000, p.30) One of the most prominent ways in which advertising works is by catering to deep human needs, as people's relationships with objects is what defines us as human beings. In Sut Jhally's debate with James Twitchell "On Advertising" (2006), Jhally exemplified this with the huge success of The DeBeers advertising campaign in which the power of advertising has structured our culture into responding to the belief that the diamond is directly correlated with meeting the needs of love and courtship. He stated that The DeBeers example points out how advertising works, "by reaching deep seated human needs." (Jhally, 2006, p. 119) Jhally also noted that this system has been established as an essential part of Capitalism. He quoted retail analyst of the 1940's Victor Liebow in his essay "Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse" (2000):

               Our enormously productive economy...demands that we
               make consumption our way of life, that we convert the
               buying and the selling of goods into rituals, that we
               seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction
               in commodities...We need things consumed, burned up,
               worn out, replaced, and discarded at an ever increasing
               rate. (in Jhally, 2000, p. 31)

It is this connection between goods and human happiness that the story of advertising tells us, and in telling this story, a culture is created. Based on this premise, humans become the product sold to advertisers, of value only as a potential customer.

     The defense of advertising is the second underpinning concept to clarify when examining the detrimental effects of advertising on children. This defense is based on the belief that adults are rational and can detect truth and falsity in advertising. Yet, this argument cannot be applied to children because rationality is not something that exists, but develops. Based on the defense of advertising theory, it would be unethical to direct advertising to children, especially children under the age of twelve, as the younger the child, the more vulnerable to the message. Prior to the 1960's, children were only exposed to ads that were made for adults. The reason is that a medium for the market did not exist until television entered as a commodity in the mainstream culture. This commercial media technology connected children directly to the market. Juliet Schor (2004) explained that up through the 1980's, the messages of advertising were less directly sent to children, as the parent served as a gatekeeper to some extent. She noted how this historic shift in the triangle of children, parents, and marketers began to break down in the eighties, and that advertising firms pushed and disseminated this old regime in the 1990's, where a direct market to kids, via advertising, created an alliance between the marketer and children. She stated that the corporate position made a claim to children in which the marketer is "going to take you to a free hedonistic place where everything is going to be fun." (Schor, 2004, p. 202) The taste of a generation is being formed through a process of marketing and advertising. The lives, the development of meaning, and experiences are being constructed by a set of corporations who are turning children into commercialized children. The market's claim is that it is empowering these children. Yet, Schor, based on a structural equation model of media exposure and physical and psychological health, argues that the negative trends in childhood well being are directly correlated to media exposure.

     Statistics that Schor was exposed to during her "work" on Madison Avenue was that the present generation of children is the most "brand" oriented. Her Madison Avenue "constituents" bragged that by eighteen months old, children were identifying logos, and by age two, they were asking for products by brand name. By age three, children were using brands to communicate aspects of their personalities. The growth of research on how to market to kids included marketers moving into homes to "study" kids and their activities. The scientific side of the research included "neuro-marketing"- actual MRI scanning on "consumers", including children.  In her direct research with children, Schor recognized that children were shopping 50 % more than the preceding generation, both with their parents and on their own. The supermarket was the predominant consumer arena. Schor also noted that commodities have become increasingly influential especially in social dynamics within schools. Among youngsters who previously answered questions about future aspirations with career goals, the number one answer (75%) is now "rich." (Hymowitz, 2007, ¶ 5  ) As I thumbed through a local high school newspaper this week, two out of three senior students interviewed stated "rich" as the future goal they wished to attain.  A term used by Madison Avenue when discussing their target child audience is "Tweens". The markets' hype is the benefits of appealing to the children's "aspiration age". (Hymowitz, 2007, ¶ 5)  Tweens are between six and twelve years old, and the term refers to a person who is between childhood and adolescence. According to the marketers, a six year old is no longer a child. If we are to return to the ethics of advertising, this concept takes the heat off the advertisers in a moral debate.

     Through advertising and corporate media, there are several stories that are being told to children about the culture of childhood. The first is that children now have clout in the market place. Prior to this shift in the eighties, kids' consumer culture was "cheap". There was penny candy to be sold along with cheap plastic toys. When the paradigm began shifting, and children were spending more time with media, an advertising culture was set into place to reel the children into the consumer culture. In her article Childhood for Sale, Kay Hymowitz stated that, "marketers use the expertise of anthropologists, sociologists, brain-imaging specialists, child psychologists, and pollsters to plumb children's desires, analyze family dynamics, and develop techniques that seem consciously designed to make parents' lives miserable." (Hymowitz, 2007, ¶ 5) Part of this alliance between marketers and children is the "nag-factor" or "pester power", which results, according to Schor (2004), in seven hundred billion dollars of adult purchasing power being driven by children annually. As the Nickelodeon motto has it, "Kids Rule!"

      In this defunct paradigm, food is a major product that is being pushed.  A recent study done by the Kaiser Foundations Food for Thought:  Television Food Advertising to Children in the United States concluded the following:

               The study combined content analysis of TV ads with detailed
               data about children's viewing habits, to provide an estimate
               of the number and type of TV ads seen by children of various
              ages. The study found that tweens ages 8-12 see the most food
              ads on TV, an average of 21 ads a day, or more than 7,600
              a year. Teenagers see slightly fewer ads, at 17 a day, for
              a total of more than 6,000 a year. For a variety of reasons --
              because they watch less TV overall, and more of their viewing
              is on networks that have limited or no advertising, such as PBS
              and Disney -- children ages 2-7 see the least number of food ads,
              at 12 food ads a day, or 4,400 a year.

              For each age group studied,food was the top product seen advertised.
             Thirty-two percent of all ads seen by 2-7 year olds were for food,
             while 25% of ads seen by 8-12 year olds and 22% of ads seen by 13-17
             year olds were for food. Of all genres on TV, shows specifically designed for children under 12 have the highest proportion of food advetising (50% of all ad time).

            "Children of all ages see thousands of food ads a year,
             but tweens see more than any other age group,"
             said Vicky Rideout, vice president and director
             of the Program for the Study of Entertainment Media
             and Health at the Kaiser Family Foundation. "Since
             tweens are at an age where they're just becoming
             independent consumers, understanding what type of
             advertising they are exposed to is especially
             important." (The Kaiser Foundation, 2007, ¶ 2)

            

     The study revealed that out of the types of food advertised, 34% are for candy and snacks, 28% are for cereal, and 10% are for fast foods. Of the 8,854 ads reviewed in the study, there were none for fruits or vegetables targeting children or teens. The appeals used in advertising food to kids include a push to view websites and a premium toy gift. One in ten of these toys are connected to a TV or movie character. Only fifteen percent of this advertising included depicting healthy habits such as physical activity. (The Kaiser Foundation, 2007, ¶5)

     Out of all the battles between parent and child: food, drugs, sex, and violence, food is the one that lost, and may do the most harm to children over time. The extreme changes in the levels and rates in obesity in American children show that one quarter of all children are obese today. One third of these children will develop diabetes as a direct result. (Schor, 2004, p.128) There is a never ending increase of branding of junk food through toys. Junk food is even being produced to look like toys. Hymowitz (2007) highlighted the point that, " They (the marketers) appeal to children's impulsiveness by introducing ever more exciting and more noxious products like "Blue Funky Fries" or "Mystery Color Ketchup." (Hymowitz, 2007, ¶5) While this advertising is going on, continuously pervasive is drug, alcohol, and tobacco advertising to kids. (Schor, 2004, p. 35-36)

      Another story that is being told about the culture of childhood is that adults are the enemy. Schor claims that Nickelodeon is the prime pusher of this concept. Shows on Nickelodeon are disrespecting of adults, and sell children on the "cool" factor. To be connected to "cool", you need to be disconnected from adults. Anti-adultism is rampant in this consumer kids' culture. Schor's research indicated that the more children watch Nickelodeon, the more they dislike their parents. (Schor, 2004, p. 51) A few months ago, an eleven year old child was a guest in my home for a week. She watched television (which is severely monitored in her own home), and often chose the Nickelodeon station as a novelty. I sat with her to view a show on a Saturday morning and was abhorred by the behavior of the animated characters. Teachers were portrayed as sadistic and evil; children were physically torturing their teachers in retaliation.   My viewing experience leads me accept Schor's observation.

      A third story being told is the need to be "cool" in order to be respected in the society. A shift in how products are marketed to children has changed. In the past, the nature of the product was advertised as in "It tastes good." or "It is fun to play with." Yet in this new world of marketing to kids, the adult approach of the symbolic and social significance of the product is what is being sold as in "You need this cereal to be cool."
The move has been from the intrinsic qualities of the product to the branding of the product, and cool has become the central theme of all youth marketing. Although this idea has been present in adolescent culture for many years, making sense in terms of childhood development in which the adolescent needs to seek an identity separate from a family identity, (Merchants of Cool, a PBS documentary, examines the marketing to teens industry in depth) the idea that a six year old should care about being "cool" is radical. Another shift in marketing to children is that marketers are now taking products and themes ("cool") usually marketed to adults and teens and are marketing these products to children. (Schor, 2004, p. 202) These include items such as make-up and iPods. Children are now weighing in on what type of automobile the family will purchase. As major automobile marketers attend the marketing for children conferences, companies like Toyota sponsors family safety pamphlets to schools. There has been an age compression in media marketing.

      According to cultural critic Steven Kline (2004), marketers have always paid more attention to children's imaginations than educationists. They recognized these attributes as the deeply planted roots of children's culture, and that they could use them to communicate effectively with children. (Schor, 2004, p.203).  In one sense, this marketing move does empower children. Consumer theory views the consumer as agent rather than consumer as manipulated, and children are now viewed as economic agents and consumer agents according to marketers- their defense is that they are empowering children. Yet this empowerment is taking place in a toxic media consumer environment.
As boundaries between adult and child break down- what will be the role of children in the future?  The problem of what is happening today is that the world children have been let loose into is the corporate construction of the market place, which includes tobacco, junk food, and alcohol. A very small number of powerful corporations, and through a discourse of empowerment, are making kids sick. Schor (2004) noted that the notion of sacred childhood, in which the field of childhood development sprouted from, fails to recognize its own social construction-the field of childhood development grew up simultaneously with marketing to kids. (Schor, 2004, p. 200-201)  Kline lamented that, "Television kills children's imaginations with limited colonizing narratives; violates their innocence in relation to sex, violence, and commerce; and like a narcotic, numbs their innate curiosity about the world." (Kinder, 1999, p. 121)

      Schor's research supports Kline's observations between the amount of commercial media consumed by children and the direct correlation on children's physical and emotional health. According to Schor (2004), 21 % of the population ages 9 through 17 suffer from emotional behavior /psychological disorders including depression and anxiety. (Schor, 2004, p. 152-172) Schor  (2004) concluded that kids spend more time in consumer culture than anywhere else. Their average daily media use is six hours and twenty one minutes, and that reading magazines and books has also become a commercial medium to sell products, especially media characters. Schor (2004) also noted that the amount of exposure time with media could be considered  a plus of two hours due to double exposure - daily TV use is 3hours and 4 minutes plus movies and videos 3:51, video games 49 minutes, recreational computer use one hour. Although it was anticipated that computer use would push out the television, this is not the case. Computer use is rising, but television use is not declining. (Schor, 2004, p. 154-162). The media has become an advertising delivery system for children. And based on Schor's research, children are ingesting advertising and marketing for most of the child's day.

      The average American young person has the anxiety level equivalent to what was measured in 1957 in in-patients psychological hospital. (Schor, 2004, p. 35) A study published in the Pediatrics Journal  found that "the rates of emotional and behavioral problems among children aged four through fifteen soared between 1979 and 1996." (Schor, 2004, p. 35)  Among the high rates of anxiety and depression among today's youth, suicide is now the fourth leading cause of death among ten to fourteen year olds. (Schor, 2004, p. 35) The worsening of these well being trends has occurred in a period of time when rates of child poverty were declining; a period of time in which should have been presumed a more healthy and hopeful childhood. Juliet Schor's research concluded that the whole picture that is playing out in terms of kids well being in this immersion in media consumer culture is the underlying cause of emotional and psychosomatic illnesses in children and adolescents. The higher the level of consumer involvement the higher the level of depression, anxiety, etc-The higher media use leads to higher consumer involvement that then leads to psychological outcomes. The model does not go both ways. In order to resolve this situation, a developmental approach is only a starting point, as it fails to address and understand the cultural context, and the public health approach is too narrow.  The social and cultural context in which kids are being raised needs to be considered. (Schor, 2004, p. 200)

     In the twelve years from 1992 through 2004, the annual budget of direct child marketing moved from one billion to fifteen billion dollars in the United States. The consumer media market now saturates the landscape of childhood, from television to video games, to schools and museums. Congress "Tied the hands of the Federal Trade Commission in 1981" (Schor, 2004, p. 194) in regulating children's media. The Children's Television Act passed in 1990, yet it is a far cry from an alternative, basically requiring stations to include three hours per week of educational programming, yet with little oversight. In Advertising, Culture, Criticism, and Pedagogy: An Interview with Sut Jhally conducted by William O'Barr, Jhally (2006) goes so far as to metaphorically compare advertising to child molestation. He also claims the same of the media based on how commercial television is organized. Jhally (2006) stated, "What networks are trying to do is gather you together in the way a factory owner would gather laborers together. They are drawing value out of your watching, out of your labor." (Jhally, 2006, p. 14) Jhally further explained that when this is done to children as early young as two years old, it becomes a type of child labor. (Jhally, 2006, p. 14) The networks need their captive audience to sell their product. 

     A de-commercialization of cultural would seem the way to correct these problems in children's health. According to Schor (2004), this would include the de-commercialization of food, media space, and the outdoors. Schor advocates for a national comprehensive curriculum in gardening, menu planning, eco-literacy, and science and nutrition. She suggests a model of a government funded "National Kids Public Media Corporation", (Schor, 2004, p. 203), and a national incentive to make outdoor spaces much safer for children, so that children will not be confined to indoors, only to become a captive audience for commercial media and sedentary media involved activities. Recently, after a year of co-teaching media literacy to high school students, a colleague of mine removed her television from her home. She noted that at first, her children, ages seven and ten, moaned and groaned about the house, nagging for its return. Within a week, she observed a shift in their behavior. Instead of coming home from school and fighting over program viewing, they ran outside to play, and soon made no mention over the missing television; yet these children are fortunate to reside in a relatively safe rural environment. Such a movement to de-commercialize the culture would take tremendous effort not just from legislators, but from parents and educators. There are currently numerous organizations, including The Action Coalition for Media Literacy, The Media Education Foundation, Stop the Commercial Exploitation of Children, The Center for Media Education, Commercial Free Childhood, and The Center for the New American Dream, that are working towards this very goal. Although their funding is small and limited, individuals and communities are moving towards involvement and support in these cultural movements as imperative in the future of our children, and ultimately humanity, rather than contribute to a media driven consumer machine that pillages the earth, the cultures of the peoples, the brains and mindsets of individuals: a culture that can only result in war over limited resources and the destruction of life on earth. 

References

(March, 2007). Food for thought: television food advertising to
children in the united states. Retrieved November 17, 2007, from Kaiser Family Foundation Web site: 

Hymowitz, K. (2005, Wntr). Childhood for Sale?. Public Interest 125+.
Retrieved November 17, 2007, from Questia database: 

Jhally, S. (2000).Advertising and the edge of the acocalypse. Critical
Studies in Media Commercialism. 27-39.

Jhally, S. (Ed.). (2006). The spectacle of accumulation: essays in culture,
media, and politics. New York, New York: Peter Lang.

Kinder, M. (Ed.). (1999). Kids' media culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Retrieved November 24, 2007, from Questia database. 

Schor, J. (2004). Born to buy. New York, New York: Scribner.

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Lower Cape Television Offers Free TV Production Workshop

Learn more about the illusion of TV and how to do it yourself. More and more people are using the internet to post video. Now you can learn the basic skills you need to produce your own videos to share with the community and the world. Lower Cape TV, Cable Channel 17, offers a free 6-week Television Production Workshop to residents of the Outer Cape towns of Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown.

For more information call James Paul Ludwig: 349-6687 0r 255-5735.

Take this opportunity to learn how to participate in, and produce Community Access Television.  With one 3-hour session a week for 6 weeks at the Orleans facility, the workshop covers all aspects of television production.  The next workshop begins Saturday, April 12th. Space is limited so call now to enroll, or visit http://www.lowercapetv.com/ and click on "Workshops."

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Civility vs. Municipality

Having attended a recent meeting of the Eastham Board of Selectmen I couldn't help but notice an unusual amount of hostility by the attendees towards the board and to various participants in the process.  Shouting and interruptions plagued the discussion at times. Out of order statements seemed rampant and inflamatory on agenda items from tax assessment to the elementary school update.

Among the agenda items was the discussion of a recently distributed petition regarding the Eastham Youth Hostel being closed down due to a change in their granfathered zoning status brought about by a property line being redrawn in 2000. This zoning violation was discovered by town counsel and brought before the ZBA and the letter of the law requires that the hostel conform to current zoning restrictions and therefore has to shut down on September 15th of this year. The Youth Hostel has been operating in the Town of Eastham for over forty years.  All of this is very unfortunate as the Youth Hostel has been an integral part of the community for so long. In the interests of full disclosure I must point out that I was a signer of that petition, as were over four-hundred other residents.

This situation arose out of concerns by direct abutters over what were called "massive renovations" being planned by  Youth Hostel International when plans were shared with their abutters over the last year. It seemed to me from what was being said that the abutters, in particular, the Freemans, were not out to shut down the Youth Hostel. Recent newspaper articles seemed to suggest that it was a classic case of NIMBY;  juicy conflict sells newspapers.  I think it important to point out that this is not your typical case of NIMBY, even though the Youth Hostel is literally in the Freeman's back yard. This situation could have been avioded if Youth Hostel architects would have researched town hall records before presenting their plans to the community. My understanding is that if they had waited three years their granfathered zoning status would have been intact.

I went away from the meeting feeling that the abutters, the Youth Hostel, and the town may be able to work something out so that the hostel can remain open when they file an appeal to the ZBA.  It will probably be tricky and take some legal wrangling and manuvering, but I think the community support is there to make it happen somehow. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

The point is that the open discussion of problems is the way to find solutions. Democracy is hard, but it gets extremely difficult if not downright impossible when people try to shout down the opposition. Thinking that base ridicule and bullet point logic are the way to win one's position on an issue doesn't even begin to disect a complicated problem for a workable solution that serves the greater good of all. In fact it is obviously devisive and invites issues to remain insurmountable to languish in the limbo of the status quo.

Perhaps we can thank the pop culture of angry men shouting at each other on cable and other distributors of mean spirited discourse for the general public's apathy for solving the many challenging issues that concern Americans as a whole: health care, the war, decaying infrastructure, job outsourcing, immigration reform, the domestic spying program, global warming and the poisoning of the environment, etc. But we as citizens have got to rise above the devisive,  polarizing, and paralyzing cacophony of shout downs if we are ever to save ourselves from its natural conclusion, chaos and failure in America.

At the local level let's treat our fellow concerned citizens with respect. Maybe the trickle down theory is the wrong way to go; it never has seemed to work as far as I could tell. Perhaps we should challenge the gravity of the political situation in America by charity, honor, respect and civility trickling up from the local level where democracy has a tendency to be more honest, open, and genuine.

James Paul Ludwig

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The Phantom Limb Trust for Matt Dilts-Williams

 A local young man needs our help

Donations may be sent to:
The Phantom Limb Trust
Attn: Colleen O'Duffy-Johnston, Branch Mgr.
Seaman's Bank, P.O. Box 1927, N. Eastham, MA 02651-1927Matt Dilts-Williams is a twenty-one year old lifelong Wellfleet resident who was in a horrific car accident off Cape last fall. The following was written by Martha Dilts, Matt's mother.  - JPL

The accident happened early evening of November 13, 2006 while Matt was enroute to the Cape to spend Thanksgiving holiday with me.  He had been attending a coin show with his father the day before in Baltimore.  He spent Sunday night with a fellow Tech graduate and left Monday morning to drive to the Cape.  Mercifully he has no memory of the accident or the moments prior.  He ran off the road into the center median on I-95 at the Connecticut/Rhode Island line and impacted a tree directly at the driver's door. 

The universe saw fit to send Kevin Travers, a carpenter on his way home from work, an amazing young man, who saw Matt through the moments that could have made the difference between his life or his death.  Kevin staunched the massive blood flow, and physically stabilized Matt while he was pinned in his vehicle.  Emergency crews needed over a half hour to cut the car apart to get Matt out.  He was taken to William Backus Memorial Hospital in Norwich, CT where it was deemed necessary to remove Matt's left arm four inches below his shoulder.  We have seen the x-rays.  There was nothing to mend.  He remained in CCU completely sedated for four days, because additional surgeries were needed to clean the wound and try and form the remainder of the arm with the hope that a prosthetic would be able to be fitted eventually.  He also crushed the bone in his left eye socket, which was replaced with a metal plate.

Matt impressed everyone he met at the hospital starting with the emergency room staff, his surgeon, and everyone on the ward he was discharged from.  The nurses in the emergency room came to meet me and check on him when he was in CCU.  They said they had never met anyone under such a horrendous circumstance that was so polite and thoughtful.  Apparently he was conversant when he was brought in by ambulance, and apologized for "bothering them", and would they please call me and let me know what happened.  I spoke with him when he was being taken into surgery and he apologized to me.  He knew then his arm was "messed up pretty bad".  His mental state was, and is, unbelievable.

When his surgeon changed the bandage after Matt was taken off sedatives and was in a ward, he said to Matt, "Okay tough guy, when are you going to get mad?  When are you going to say why me?  Why did this have to happen to me?"  Matt looked at him and said, "Why not me?  Who the hell am I that something like this couldn't happen to me?"  The surgeon had no reply.

He spent six more days at the hospital, being released on Thanksgiving Day.  And what a reason for giving thanks!  He began outpatient rehab at RHCI in Orleans.  While at the hospital we applied for MassHealth, because Matthew had no health insurance at the time of the accident.  Because he wasn't a student, he became ineligible at the age of 18 to continue on my health insurance.  Which of course, the state has now rescinded that stipulation and student status is no longer a reason to disallow insurance coverage on a parent's insurance plan.  MassHealth was not able to back-date their coverage, so the time Matthew spent in the hospital was not covered by any medical insurance.  He did receive some coverage from his car insurance, of which we are appreciative, and that has brought his current medical expense related to the accident to approximately $85,000.00.  At one point he was receiving statements from the various practices, i.e. anesthesiologists, facial/cosmetic surgeon, orthopedic surgeon group-all being in the $5,000 to $10,000 range, at the rate of one a week.

Because auto insurance policy states that in a one car accident the driver is considered 51% at fault, he has had points added to his license, even though we do not know what really took place.  For all we know, he could have been run off the road, swerved to miss something in his lane of traffic, whatever.  Due to the expense of purchasing, maintaining and insuring a vehicle, Matt has chosen to stay on foot for the time being.  He recently moved to the Hyannis area to make access to mass transit easier and found a job within a half hour walk from his apartment.

Learning self-reliance under the best of circumstances can be daunting, and Matt sometimes has his patience taxed.  But all in all he is working out systems to tackle basic needs.  He refuses help generally, at least until he's tried to accomplish something for the 15^th try.  I would have run screaming into the street long before then.

He is currently waiting for his prosthetic to arrive.  He had his final fitting two weeks ago.  He will then need training to learn the body movements that will guide and control it.  He is currently enrolled on my COBRA plan, which will expire in September, but hopefully he will have been through the outpatient rehab and the prosthetic will fit correctly and respond properly.

His most recent setback was being denied by SSDI, Social Security Disability Insurance.  From their evaluation, he isn't disabled, enough.  It seems because he chose to "manage the pain" without prescription medication, because he can lift 10 pounds with his remaining arm, and because he reported to the Social Security Administration that he has a job, paying minimum wage, he is not eligible.  I am furious; he said he didn't want to be beholding to anyone or anything and "would work it out".  I am going to appeal on his behalf.

The good new is he's going to enroll at 4Cs this summer and continue his education.  Watch out world.

He is solid, no self-pity--even though he has every right to it under the circumstance, no denial, no recriminations.  His sense of humor is still off-the-wall, wickedly dry and to the point.  The accident has not dampened his compassion and consideration for others, or lessened his appreciation for anyone else in dire straits.  One thing he has learned, of which I am surprised he hadn't known, is that he is highly regarded.  The love and support that has been sent to both of us is a constant source of energy on which we both are sustained.  Through all of this, he's still Matt, for this I am truly blessed.

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