Progressive Wednesday

Clergyman Charlie: On having an open mind

I'm pretty worried about our country. When a person must raise millions of dollars even to have a chance to be elected to national office, integrity is compromised. These gifts may not be outright bribes, but of course they have an influence. They are given with the expectation that the person receiving them, once elected, will favor the interests of the donors.

I heard Robert Kennedy Jr. speak the other day at Daemen College. He spoke of the “fairness doctrine,– which stated that the airwaves belonged to the people, and any TV or radio station desiring a license had to be accurate and balanced. When Ronald Reagan was president, that ruling was cancelled and it has not been renewed. He said that 80% of the American people receive their news from Fox and from Talk Radio. There's not much balance there. That is pretty scary, I think.

Speaking of Fox, he said that in England they still have a fairness doctrine, and that Fox has been fined more often than Al Jazeera! If people are not truly informed they can not vote intelligently.

The Roman Republic became the Roman Empire. Sometimes I wonder if an American President declared that we were under dire threat and the Constitution must be suspended, if people would accept that! Once freedom is lost it is difficult for it to be regained.

In some countries, especially recently in Eastern Europe and in the Philippines, thousands of people had to take to the streets to demand change. That also happened in the former Soviet Union. Sometimes such a mass protest works, sometimes it results only in violence by the government against its own people, as in China's Tiananmen Square.

I have a friend who no longer votes; he feels that both major parties are too compromised to make it worthwhile. I'm not ready to give up yet.

Maybe sites such as ProgressiveWednesday.com and columns such as this one will help urge people to become informed. Read newspapers; get both sides of issues. Turn off speakers who ridicule and shout down those who don't agree with them. Look for sensible, informed dialogue.

And as a minister, I'll add “pray a lot!– After all, most Christians pray “The Lord's Prayer– often, and it says “Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.– That is a hopeful prayer. We wouldn't have been taught to pray it if there was no hope of it happening. So we need to work as hard as we can but trust that if we do, reform can still occur. Don't pray that prayer and then do nothing yourself to show you mean it. If we want a better world, and ask God's help, we'd better show our sincerity by what we do. And I think that includes alerting people to what is happening and urging them to start becoming better informed.

Yes to Music, No to Muzak: Listen

Listen:

We grew up listening to the radio — Matt to oldies and crooners, Eric to 70s pop — and we love the idea of radio — music streaming through the air, cross-crossing the expanses, literally changing (not to sound too sentimental, but rather scientific) the beats of our hearts. But we despise the growing number of commercials, the lack of alternative choices, the top-40 rock and pop leanings on FM. And we're not quite willing or able to shell out ten to thirteen smackers each month for satellite radio. So, we've welcomed Pandora into our lives with open ears.

Believe us, when we first heard about Pandora, we thought there was a hitch. There ain't. Pandora is the product of the Music Genome Project, which, according to its founder, Tim Westergren, aspires to “help be your guide as you explore your favorite parts of the music universe.–

How do they hope to achieve it? Well, the bad boys and girls of the Music Genome Project pour over thousands and thousands of songs, and categorize tunes and artists by considering “melody, harmony and rhythm,– ¦instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony.– By doing this, the software they've created better understands your musical tastes. You select an artist you dig a lot, in my case, my first selection was Wilco, so Pandora started a Wilco “station– for me. When a song plays by an artist other than Wilco that they think I might like based on my preference for Wilco, I'm allowed to rate the song and let them know if I'd like to hear more songs like that one or not.

For example, since writing the first draft of this, my “Wilco Station– has automatically played songs by Sonic Youth (which I told it I dug), Stephen Malkmus (who I didn't realize put out solo work post-Pavement), The Go Betweens (which I told Pandora never to play again for me, thank you very much), Stephin Merritt (ugh), Box Set (another ugh), and Wilco. Based on the thumbs up and down ratings I was able to give, the station changed more to my liking.

The page does have fairly inconspicuous advertisements on the right side of the player, but if you're not into looking at ads, you can buy an ad-free subscription on the cheap.

So why are we suggesting this?

1. It can steer you clear of corporate radio, which is essentially owned by 10 media conglomerations.
2. It offers variety that you control.
3. You're bound to discover little known artists that you never would have thought of or discovered otherwise.
4. You might buy records from here or here and support creative efforts, or better yet, you might go see a show.
5. And if you do number four, you'll be helping the culture progress, because art, more than any other human endeavor, can express and alter a society's desires and intentions.

So go ahead: fire it up.

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