Bravest generation

Brilliant David France documentary on first days of ActUp and TAG. The documentary is playing on PBS. It is so emotional to see the faces of so many who I knew those days who died. I will go back to the documentary to freeze frame to sort out more in depth. I was also happy to remember the passion and determination of people who were organizing to stop the genocide.

 I am in the background of the film at one of the innumerable ActUp meetings at the lgbt center. The meetings were amazing... hours, packed attendance, anyone could and did speak. Democracy in action. And out of the process people changed our world. It was a fight but it was to save lives. The center was in my neighborhood.. the NYC that no longer remains due to gentrification and Bloomberg.

Looking at the documentary I remember that we really are the bravest generation when I think of the overwhelming hostility, the deaths and fighting for our lives, being a survivor. Phoned and emailed friends, one of whom lived with David France in the East Village in the early 1980s, and another who worked with him at Newsweek. Such a small world but the advocacy world of NYC. Pointed out the documentary to neighbors none of who. m have much experience with the demonstrations of those times.. Bravo to David France for his dynamic history, and thank you for bringing back memories of a time, the love, the people, part of the zeitgeist of my youth.

My love and thoughts again to all of those I loved, the people who loved them, the heroic people who provided care. AIDS is also a story about compassion

http://surviveaplague.com/ on PBS tonight.

Methods 27/28

 One of the measurements given to students in my Methods course. I am blown away by the brilliance of students always.      

     Videos of any nature may be analyzed in the lens of the following measurements.

1/  Identify theories involved. They may not be expressed, so think about the ideas being presented. Journalism, making documentary, is not science as it does not have the organizing principles of paradigms, so identify appropriate theories of a paradigm. Remember, -“In the absence of a paradigm ….all of the facts that could possibly pertain to the development of a given science are likely to seem equally relevant. As a result, early fact-gathering is a far more nearly random activity than the one that subsequent scientific development makes familiar”. –Kuhn, p.15.

2/ Discuss the effectiveness of the work in meeting its purpose (think “variables:). Please refer to my wheel schema.  From Walter Benjamin “fragments of messianic time scattered in the profane” in thinking of the epistemological and methodological questions in doing research. Now that is creative critical thinking!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Wxn1L9Er0&feature=relmfu

You can use videos from my bibliography:
video on my Mom:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQppEXGoSOk

This was submitted November 2013. 

Qualitative research attempts to explain the reasons for certain behaviors, attitudes, and motivations, Qualitative research uses unsystematic data collection methods such as, observations or documents that give meaning to our understanding of things. This ethnographic study gave insight into the life of Rita Ann Bernadette Harding Wright. Through visual sociology the use of photos told a story without words. It fulfills needs of the participants to express to others their gratitude and profound affections for their mother.   Pictures from her early childhood until her demise delivered a good description to the eyes of a person who might not have known her. With the exception of one (the funeral photos) all other images portrayed happy times which included celebration of her participation as an advocacy on mental health issues. The texture of the black and white photos captured and symbolized her important roles and lifestyle. For the researcher visual information is a very natural and reliable source of evidence, because the event(s) are moments which are frozen. Furthermore these photographs can be repeatedly reviewed. The letter she wrote to her Aunt Agnes and Uncle Ed sparked me to look up typewriters in the era of 1932. I managed to find this Vintage 1932 Remington Portable Standard Manual Typewriter:  [Inline image 1]
Death of a loved one is never a happy occasion. However through the amazing art of film the Wright family will always be able to keep Mrs. Wright’s memory alive with images to recall forever.

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