Ricci and The So-called "Tragedy . . ."

Since the White House failed to check with us to clear the date, they mistakenly designated the State of the Union address for 8 pm CST Tuesday night, halfway through our previously-arranged class time. This poses a problem: On the one hand, we don't want to miss President Obama's remarks in the golden opportunity he's been afforded by political time to finally establish a "narrative" that will legitimate well-designed and sorely-needed efforts by the federal government to step up its intervention in the mythical free market to use fiscal tools to hasten the recovery, accelerate job creation, and stave off the collapse of revenue-starved state and local governments with badly-needed infrastructure projects as well as plain-old revenue sharing over the objections of Tea Party-type deficit hawks in the Republican party.

On the other hand, we don't want to slide further behind in the communal read and dissection of the Ricci volume. Recall that as a partial concession to this worry, Tuesday is to be devoted to chapters 3-5 rather than 3-6. For those who are just receiving their copies of Ricci, it will mean chapters 1-5, a tall order for a volume of such density as this. However, deferring any further the time allocated to the "mandated" portion of the capstone is simply not acceptable. The prospect of carving out a collectively negotiated, from scratch capstone experience, replete with appropriate rigor in readings and (inquiry-based) writing in fewer than the two-month window that is available is dim indeed.

Accordingly, I propose that we use this medium to facilitate the effective attention to course obligations in the time and space we have available. Specifically, that means using Obamadogs as the forum for class-related conversations it is intended to be: a way of communicating between class members between classes so as to relieve the pressures created by a once-weekly formal class meeting. Therefore, anyone with a question -- which should be everyone in the class -- about Ricci's argument(s) should feel free to post it on the blog. Also, since we did not have volunteers to serve as "discussion guides" for chapters 4 and 5, perhaps four class members yet to do so, would step forward via this blog: two to guide the 4th chapter and two the fifth chapter discussions. Since we have eleven members and six have stepped forward already for chapters 1-3, that leaves five members from whom these four roles are to be filled: Messers Lusamba, Woodin, and Fonck; and Misses Dohlman and Brown. Volunteers can do so individually or in pairs, either in this forum or via email to me. I will ensure that there are no duplications.

Finally, we have yet to see overt demonstrations of interest in directing the post-Ricci focus in one direction or another. If specific volumes are not proposed, perhaps topics or problems can be identified. One way or another, we need to begin the deliberative process that is required for a genuinely democratic and educational experience of this magnitude (i.e., where ALL voices are heard and no one is permitted to "opt out" of a decisionmaking role).

We have thus far heard from only Trevor and Isaiah in this forum; that leaves nine of eleven so far choosing to sit on the sidelines.

DT