Just Posts, September 2010

Here are the Just Posts for September 2010.

The Just Posts for a Just World are a joint effort between Alejna and me — together, and with your nominations, we try to find posts on personal blogs about relevant social issues. Regular people thinking about important stuff. Ways we can inspire each other to think, do, and be all that we want to see in the world. Click for more information about the JPs here.

Thank you thank you thank you and thank you for your support of the Just Posts.


2010 10 12

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Just Posts for a Just World, August 2010

Here are the Just Posts for a Just World, August 2010:

  • wreke of Wrekehavoc.com with homeless
  • subWOW of Absence of Alternatives with Lost in Translation
  • Stacie of If you want kin… with Using and Abusing
  • Rebekka of rebekkaguðleifsdóttir with Excess
  • prof susurro of Like a Whisper with On this Historic Day and Dr. Laura: Free Speech Hero
  • Paul of Give a Damn about Poverty? with Responsibility and Pakistan Flood Emergency – Why??
  • Painted Maypole with Hatred and Fear as American Values?
  • Oh, the Joys with The Worst are Full of Passionate Intensity
  • Mary of The Eleventh with Let Freedom Ring
  • Magpie of Magpie Musing with Cranky About Chase Again
  • Leslie of Love Street with Health Care as Human Right
  • L.A. to N.O.LA with If God is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise
  • laloca of baggage carousel 4 with a letter from the department of defense
  • Kismet of Nuñez Daughter with The Internet of Things Ate My Activism
  • Kat of This could get ugly with Just Being Honest
  • julochka of moments of perfect clarity with in which she ponders the waning years of the american empire
  • Erika of Be gay about it. with No cause to celebrate. and Talking back to talking smack.
  • Emily of Emily Rosenbaum with Really?
  • Em of Social Justice Soapbox with The OnEarth Weekend Away, The future is in safe hands and Election Rant 2010
  • alejna of collecting tokens with stemming the flood of apathy

    • The posts of this month’s roundtable were nominated by:

      Alejna and I administer the Just Posts each month, collecting posts by regular folks on issues related to social welfare, human rights, and other globally-focused, people-oriented topics.  Anyone can participate by writing and nominating relevant pieces.  Thank you for your support and contributions to the Just Posts!

        2010 09 10

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        Just Posts: June 2010

        The Just Posts for a Just World are a joint effort between Alejna and me — together, and with your nominations, we try to find posts on personal blogs about relevant social issues.  Regular people thinking about important stuff.  Ways we can inspire each other to think, do, and be all that we want to see in the world.

        Here are the Just Posts of June 2010.

        The posts of this months roundtable were nominated by:

        2010 07 10

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        Just Posts for a Just World: May 2010

        The Worst Environmental Disaster in U.S. history.

        Last month, I said we’d dedicate part of our Just Posts to what regular folks were saying about the spill.  In general, we tried to find different reflections and different stories — not news updates or posts with heavily quoted material — just talk.  As one living in New Orleans, I am curious about how the rest of the world is thinking about this disaster.  I’m guessing there will be a lot more posts about this in June and onward, but these are limited to May.  It’s what folks were saying in the “early” days of the disaster… you know, only 25 or so days into it.   The list is not an endorsement of how to think about this, it’s a list put out there in hope that these posts give others a little variety in how we can think about what is happening and what is to come — and maybe expand our thoughts and conversations about in the coming weeks.


        Just Posts for a Just World: BP Oil Spill, May 2010

        Here is another take on the spill… and it’s a good one.   Just in case you haven’t seen it.


        Of course, a lot of other wonderful writing happened in May… here are the rest of the Just Posts for a Just World, May 2010:


        The Just Posts are a joint effort between Alejna and me… please stop by to see what she’s saying this month!  Submissions of blog posts on social justice issues are encouraged from all; see more information about the JPs here.

        Thank you thank you thank you and thank you for your support of the Just Posts.




        2010 06 11

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        Just Posts: March 2010


        The March Just Posts:


        The posts of this month’s roundtable were nominated by:

        2010 04 15

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        The Best of the Best Just Posts 2009

        Lassiez les bons temps rouler, y’all!  Alejna and I are READY!

        Our imperfect process took 3 months, involving the time, efforts, and thoughts of many.  More than the reading, the logistics, and the posts… we’re thankful for your comments and enthusiasm.  Thankyouthankyouandthankyou.

        [cue drumroll]

        Here are your voting results!

        SOCIAL JUSTICE as political/legal :

        SOCIAL JUSTICE as health/wellness:

        SOCIAL JUSTICE as socio-economic inequalities :

        SOCIAL JUSTICE as advocacy/service :

        SOCIAL JUSTICE…

        We have a prize for each of the post authors above in the form of pottery by a New Orleans artist (from Holly) and a bit of fair trade Theo chocolate (from Alejna). To collect your prizes, lease send us your snail mail addressess (Holly: coldspaghetti at gmail dot com and Alejna: alejna99 at gmail dot com).

        And, for the post that received the largest number of votes in any category: When is zero not really zero? When it describes your food. by Kimberly at The Gav Menagerie

        Congratulations, Kimberly!  (No trans-fats in your extra-special prize, promise.)

        All this selection got to our heads and we decided to add in individual “Editor’s Choice” awards for posts we felt really capture the spirit of the Just Posts.  (They also got loads of votes, though not quite the most votes in their categories.)  Editor’s Choice folks also get goodies.

        Editors’ Picks:

        I chose Frozen by Meagan at A Certain Lack of Focus.  What impressed me about this post were the many layers within it.  In addition to the compelling writing on a tragic current event, Meagan creates a piece of art symbolizing the event she is discussing.  The full piece is shown in the start of the post, but as she tells some of the details — how one member of a loving couple and their children is isolated from her family, who are refused to be with her while she dies because they are both women — pieces of the artwork are pulled into focus.  It works on many intricate levels: the full piece showing the confusion of hospital and all the many people involved, and then, as the story becomes more intimate, the faces of the children locked away, invisible.  To me, Meagan manages to both tell a story and SHOW a story — sending a message much more compelling than either one alone.  For those reasons, Frozen is my Editor’s Choice.

        Alejna also has an Editor’s Choice.  Hop on over to see what it is and why she chose it.

        If you have a post in the lists above, we invite you to display a button:

        On the left is a png (transparent background) and on the right is a jpg (white background). 


        THANK YOU AGAIN to everyone who participated in the 2009 Just Posts for a Just World!

        Anyone can be a part of the Just Posts – just send in your nominations – go here for more information!


        2010 04 04

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        VOTE HERE! Just Posts for a Just World : Best of 2009

        It’s here!

        Alejna and I are proud to share with you, the FINAL SELECTIONS for the JUST POSTS : BEST OF 2009!

        Writing that was so very exciting that I had to supress the urge to animate the text with flashing rainbows and dancing bears… let’s break out the iced coffee and Jameson, y’all!  WHOO-HOO!

        Please vote! And spread the word to others to vote, contribute, nominate, write, and read!  And most importantly — Thank you thank you thank you for your interest, support, and involvement in the Just Posts!


        VOTING AND PRIZES!

        Right here, in THIS POST, you can vote for your favorite finalist by category.  You can also write in a favorite overall post.  Fancy!

        • Vote within as many categories as you like, but please vote only once in each category.
        • There’s no need to vote in all categories at once–come back as often as you like before voting ends.
        • We’ll have the polls up and open for one week.

        At the end of Monday night, March 22nd, we will close the poll and start to tally the results. The top votes in each category will receive a hand-made tile from a New Orleans artisan with a few trinkets thrown in for good measure. Using your votes and any additional written input, we will recognize a post (or two, we’re not ruling out ties) as the Best of the Best Just Posts. We’ll do something extra special for this.

        Just scroll on down and start voting if you’re ready!

        For those that are interested, here is a run down of our imperfect process:

        Using your comments and ratings we narrowed down the long list of finalists. From there, we created categories that reflected all of those 130+ posts. Then we went back to the comments and ratings and narrowed down the categories (our goal was 3 in each category; note some have 4). We made great efforts to represent a variety of voices, writers and experiences.  In no way is this list or these categories representative of the broad theme of “Social Justice.” It represents what we’ve been able to gather, write and have nominated.

        Based on those finalists, we narrowed down to 4 broad categories, with topics under each:

        • POLITICAL/LEGAL: Gender Equity, Sexuality, Race
        • HEALTH/WELLNESS: Food and Nutrition, Disease and Illness, Child Welfare
        • SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITIES: Vulnerable populations, Education, Social/Societal Values
        • ADVOCACY/SERVICE: Service and Action, Information and Advocacy

        (Plus a HUMOR category as the lagniappe!)

        Now all that is left is the VOTING!  Did I mention that we hope you’ll vote?  And spread the word?

        Thank you again for your support of the Just Posts!


        JUST POSTS FOR A JUST WORLD : BEST POSTS OF 2009

        2010 03 14

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        Just Posts for a Just World: February 2010


        I don’t know what it was like for y’all, but February?  Did it really happen?  I’m having a hard time remembering.

        We had the playoffs and then everything sort of goes blurry. I remember that I voted. And there was that event that drew in more viewers than any other event in U.S. television history.

        I do have memories of Lombardi Gras née Mardi Gras.  I remember parades and parties and costumes and friends and all that comes with the season, but it doesn’t seem possible that so many things happened in short, stunted little February with it’s 28 days.  I guess February showed us who was boss?

        In the meantime, we did read and collect Just Post goodness.  The Best of 2009 is SO CLOSE, we promise.  Just a few more wrinkles in the polling methods to iron out. (Note: Vote in post below!  It’s clear now that it works, but the ice cream flavors are cracking me up, so please chime in if you hadn’t and I’ll present the results.)

        I’m hoping for more wonderful in March and have all fingers crossed that you’ll pass on the marvels you read.  Light-up toys and shiny beads could hang in the balance?

        —-

        Just Posts for a Just World, February 2010:

        Nominators:

        Be sure to send some love to Alejna, too!

        2010 03 10

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        Exercise your Voting Power! (And help us test!)

        2010 03 10

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        The Best of the Just Posts for 2009: Semi-finalists!

        Did you notice Alejna‘s post about how we’re announcing that the finalists for the Best Just Posts of 2009 will be up and ready for your voting by the end of January?  I know, exciting!  Let me tell you on no uncertain terms: Alejna?  She gets stuff DONE.

        Oh, wait, except that *I* am involved.  Seeing as how I’ve been writing that dissertation for… can we just say a long time and leave it at that?… getting stuff done is not really my best strength.  I think having lots of unfinished projects makes me feel secure or something.

        Back to the JPs.  Okay, so it’s a few days past the end of January.  But we’re on it.  We got a little behind because we had to read 300 posts.  But then we wanted more than our collective four cents weighing in.  And because we’re academics who have done way too many conference paper reviews, we decided it was important that all 300 were read by at least 2 different people that weren’t us.  Which meant… 600 separate reviews.

        600.  Whoa.

        There were a lot of emails.  There were a lot of numbers.  And now, there are a lot of thank-yous.

        Thank you thank you and thank you, friends and Just Post supporters, who read and evaluated batches of posts.  You rock stars made our days.  Each evaluation was like a big internet hug, followed by a Saints first down.

        For their time and care, we send out sincere thanks and grateful hugs to the following beautiful people: Amanda, Anne-Marie, antropologa, Barbara, blc, bon, bshep, Catherine, Charlotte, Chrissie, Christine, Christine, De, dee, defiantmuse, denguy, Donna, Elizabeth B, Eli, Emily, Erica, Erika , Heather, Janet, Jean, jen, Julie, KC, Kitty, laloca, Leslie, Lin, Mad, Magpie, Mary G., Meagan, Mme. Meow, Painted, Robin, Sarah, Shokufeh, Stacie, submom, Susanne, Tabba, and wreke.

        And extra big fat sloppy kisses go to De, denguy, Donna, Erika , Heather, Kitty, Leslie, Mad, Mary G., Sarah and Tabba for going above and beyond the call of duty, and coming back to help with more.  Or, in the case of Heather, came back and back and back again.  Heather, would a kidney do?

        And to all of you above: each time you said, ‘wow, I’m so glad to have found this new blog,’ or ‘thanks for giving me the opportunity to read these,’ or ‘I learn so much from the Just Posts,’ it was like the internet opened up, handed us hand-made chocolates served on paper doilies, then cleaned our houses and did the laundry.  I mean it.

        Y’all got a round of free drinks waitin’ for you in NOLA, baby.

        We also appreciate those of you who, while you were not able to actively participate in the project through reading and reviewing posts, expressed your interest and support in the endeavor.  (Also, I feel like I need to thank John, who let me keep Alejna up chatting online and by phone waaaay past her bedtime.)

        In the meantime, would you like to see our list of semi-finalists?  These posts are those which at least one of two reviewers asserted should make our finalist list.  We’re categorizing these and the top scores in each category will be our final-finalist list.

        Then, we really hope that you and your friends and your family and your co-workers and neighbors and school teachers and dentists and all those other people you interact with each day will ALL VOTE.  Because we’ve got PRIZES.  OH YES, wonderful and beautiful and fantastic hand-made prizes.  Stay tuned.  Because we have a new deadline!  March 1st.  That’s, like, next Friday, right??

        Semi-finalists!  Below!

        2010 02 27

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