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Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg

http://www.gladwell.com/pdf/weisberg.pdf

This is an article mostly about how interconnected we are as a society, even over longer distances which we wouldn't think much of.

1. Consider the Source and the Audience?

Malcom Gladwell is a world renown author, researcher, and social scientist. It is published in the New Yorker, which is an upper-level magazine, read by influential people. The New Yorker is known for having well-detailed and researched articles.

2. Lay out the Argument, the Values, and Assumptions

Gladwell persists that we are a connected society, and uses those in the community to prove his point. He's right on that we are all indeed a connected society, and having been involved in local politics, there's always someone who everybody knows.

3. Uncover the Evidence

Gladwell, a noted researcher, mentions the famous Milgram experiment. It's evidence is verifiable, and logical.

4. Evaluate the Conclusion

Gladwell doesn't really proffer a conclusion, but makes the observation that we're a connected society. It's pretty obvious that we are.

5. Sort out the political implications.

This article is non-political in scope. 

Sweet 16 Overview

As you can see, I ended up with reproduction as my winner, and in specific, reproduction rights. Topics such as crime, energy, welfare...while these issues are all important in their own right, I'm not particularly too passionate about any of them. For me, and it's actually kind of funny how it ended up at reproduction and children in the end, the assault over the last few years on a woman's right to abortion has been offensive, and needs to be blunted. As someone who has donated to both Planned Parenthood of Western PA, and the National Network of Abortion Funds,

I think I need to take a more hands-on approach to my activism, and dive head-first into a white-hot controversial topic, and fight for what I believe is right.

Introduction

Hello there. This is my first blog, so if I suck at this...well, give me some time, and I'm sure it'll suck less eventually.

This blog is the result of a class I'm taking at Carlow University, called Special Topics in Service-Learning, Community Innovation Through Networking. It's taught by two professors, which is actually kind of interesting for me. First, Cory Maloney, is an IT instructor on course, but other than him and I having radically different politics (from what I hear), I know nothing about him, but he seems very tech savvy, which I can dig that about anyone, regardless of personal politics. The other, Jessica Friedrichs, I've had before in a great public policy class, and I also know her through Carlow's Honors Program. She's an outstanding, and empathetic instructor, and has a good sense of humor. Her and Professor Maloney seem to mesh well, and I'm kind of excited to see how the dynamic of having two professors lead a class plays out.

For all of my political advocacy, I've done relatively no volunteer work in the community. My MO in the past has been either to simply donate money to candidates who support the community programs I support as well, or merely just talk about how a program is done. For me, it seemed to be just as easy to write a check to say, Meals on Wheels, as it would be to actually deliver a meal to someone. I'm sure it's as incredibly fulfilling on some level, as most people claim, but on the other...I'm perfectly content being an anonymous donor, which these programs need more than volunteers. Without cash or political support, these groups cannot do their work.

I hope to keep you all updated on my experience actually getting my hands dirty in community involvement, and learn through this course, what it means to actually serve the community.

Josh :)