Independents Rising and The Parties Versus The People: Bring It On!

JACKIE SALIT'S INDEPENDENTS RISING
Author Sees Improved Discourse As Key To 2012 Presidential Election Outcome (By John Ostapkovich, CBS PHILLY) “I think independents are looking to see whether the president or his opponent are going to give voice to this central issue in American politics today, which is overcoming political partisanship,” she says.



If you have not already picked up a copy of Jackie Salit's new book Independents Rising, time's a-wastin'! And you can read Hankster chapter by chapter reviews here, here, and here -- and stay tuned for more! Utah League of Independent Voters [on Facebook as Utah League of Independent Voters] founder Randy Miller and I are the relay team, and watch for Independent Kentucky's [on Facebook as Independent Kentucky] Chairman Michael Lewis's review of Chapter 8...


And by the way, The Hankster has a Facebook page too -- hope you'll like it!


MICKEY EDWARDS' THE PARTIES VERSUS THE PEOPLE
Can we fix a hyper-partisan Congress? (By Mickey Edwards, Special to CNN) It surprises me still to hear people express amazement at the hyper-partisan nature of Congress and its resulting inability to deal collectively with the nation's problems. In a constitutional system that places most of the federal government's real power with the peoples' representatives, that is a serious problem.

Former Congressman Mickey Edwards is a lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is also a vice president of the Aspen Institute and director of the Institute’s Aspen-Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership program. His new book The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans is in stores and online now.


Edwards and Salit were featured guests at Cathy L. Stewart's Politics for the People monthly forum both last April talking about their books. Video snipits below. 

Gabrielle Kurlander at P4P: Independents & Centrism

Question from the audience by Gabrielle Kurlander at the recent Politics for the People forum:

Solving the Education Crisis in America

EDUCATION REFORM

• NAACP Dinner Focuses on School Reform (BY Allan Appel, New Haven Independent) Yale psychiatrist and school reform pioneer James Comer received a lifetime-achievement award.  His “Comer method” addresses social development as intrinsic to academic development; it is in place at the high-performing Davis Street Magnet School and nine others in the New Haven system.
• Leveling the Playing Field in our Classrooms (Gabrielle Kurlander, President and CEO, All Stars Project, Inc.) The All Stars Project recently released a new white paper, entitled  Solving the Education Crisis in America: Let’s Pretend, by our co-founders, Fred Newman, Ph.D. and Lenora Fulani, Ph.D. which discusses how poverty and the life circumstances of poor youth impacts on their capacity to become good learners and how that “difficult truth” (as Nocera calls it) can not only be faced – but positively and effectively addressed.
• The Limits of School Reform (By JOE NOCERA, NY Times) What needs to be acknowledged, however, is that school reform won’t fix everything. Though some poor students will succeed, others will fail. Demonizing teachers for the failures of poor students, and pretending that reforming the schools is all that is needed, as the reformers tend to do, is both misguided and counterproductive.

Tonight's News from New York City's Performing the World

Tonight is the kick-off of Perfoming the World, the exciting international conference/ performance festival that has brought together over 550 from more than 40 countries to "create some new performances together," as Convener Lois Holzman says. "There is too much that is old -- war, poverty, HIV/AIDS, national and ethnic conflict, sexual abuse and oppression, and countless other ways of stifling human potential and destroying environments... We don't know where we're going, but we do know that we the people have to create how we're getting there. We're going to change the world by re-performing it!"

Over the course of the next few days you will see images and vignettes on The Hankster that hopefully capture some of the spirit and creativity that we are engaged in here in New York City. I already find it inspiring.

I just came from registration and the reception at the beautiful newly renovated All Stars Project on West 42nd St. ("We're not Disney, but we're not Mickey Mouse either!") where many of the presenters and attendees are gathering. Gabrielle Kurlander, President and CEO of the All Starts Project, Inc. says, "For us, play is the thing. We play and produce play everywhere: on our four stages on 42nd Street, in corporate boardrooms, and in inner-city communities...."

"Blogging the World" also starts tonight, with photos of my house guests from Toronto, Gloria and Jacqueline (and myself) on the 7 train going from my studio in Queens to Manhattan. PTW '08 for the first time is being performed in New York City and the performance community has opened its home -- literally -- to attendees.

Ok, that's the last "officialness" on this conference/performance. Without further ado, here is Performing the World! Please stay tuned!