Greg Hartnett

Funny how the definition of a boys night out has changed over the years. I recall a day that seems not so long ago, that a night out with the boys carried a bit more risk, and definite health consequences.

Nowadays, my nights out with the boys take on a bit of a different hue. The Philadelphia Flyers were in town tonight playing the Islanders, and Brian was taking his sons to see the game. As the Coliseum is directly across the street, I decided to have Lily drop JR off at the office and make it a party.

Though I did not partake in the consumption of any alcohol, and the evening was much more low-key than days of yore, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Better than any night out with the old crew - and no hangover tomorrow!

Newest additions to some personal pics at my Flickr account. Pretty easy to use, and easy storage on online pictures. So far I give it a thumbs up.

It was really nice being out of the office for a handful of days. I was able to finish painting the main bathroom, and do some clean up in the yard (damn leaves). The kids and I played a ton of video games - I’ll need to throw a game on the holiday shopping list. So much to do at work though - looking forward to a strong finish to a banner year. I can’t wait to see what ‘06 brings…

While shopping at Whole Foods, I struck up a conversation with a college-aged girl about Thanksgiving. She expressed her love of the holiday, saying that it was one holiday that brought all Americans together, regardless of religion or sex. To which I replied, “How do you think the Native Americans feel about Thanksgiving?” She shrugged her shoulders, and said “They probably don’t get as excited about it as we do - just another day for them.”

Somehow I doubt it. I find it hard to believe that such a proud and strong people simply forgot about the atrocities committed upon their people in the name of advancing civilization. So below I present (courtesy of Howard Zinn) some history of the Iroquois, just a portion of the 25 million Native Americans killed so that we could have shopping malls from sea to shining sea.

In the villages of the Iroquois, land was owned in common and worked in common. Hunting was done together, and the catch was divided among the members of the village. Houses were considered common property and were shared by several families. The concept of private ownership of land and homes was foreign to the Iroquois. A French Jesuit priest who encountered them in the 1650’s wrote: “No poorhouses are needed among them, because they are neither mendicants nor paupers… Their kindness, humanity and courtesy not only makes them liberal with what they have, but causes them to possess hardly anything except in common.”

Women were important and respected in Iroquois society. Families were matrilineal. If a woman wanted a divorce, she set her husband’s things outside the door. Families were grouped in clans, and a dozen or more clans might make up a village. The senior women in the village named the men who represented the clans at village and tribal councils. The women tended the crops and took general charge of village affairs while the men were off hunting and fishing. Gary B. Nash notes in his comprehensive study of early America, Red, White, and Black: “Thus power was shared between the sexes and the European idea of male dominancy and female subordination in all things was conspicuously absent in the Iroquois society”.

Children in Iroquois society, while taught the cultural heritage of their people and solidarity with the tribe, were also taught to be independent, not to submit to overbearing authority. They were taught equality in status and the sharing of possessions. The Iroquois did not use harsh punishment on children; they did not insist on early weaning or early toilet training, but gradually allowed the child to learn self-care.

Gary Nash describes Iroquois culture:

No laws and ordinances, sheriffs and constables, judges and juries, or courts and jails - the apparatus of authority in European societies - were to be found in the northeast woodlands prior to European arrival. Yet boundaries of acceptable behavior were firmly set. Though priding themselves on the autonomous individual, the Iroquois maintained a strict sense of right and wrong…. He who stole another’s food or acted invalourously in war was “shamed” by his people and ostracized from their company until he had atoned for his actions and demonstrated to their satisfaction that he had morally purified himself.

So, Columbus and his successors were not coming into an empty wilderness, but into a world which in some places were as densely populated as Europe itself, where the culture was complex, where human relations were more egalitarian than in Europe, and where the relations among men, women, children, and nature were more beautifully worked out than perhaps any place in the world.

They were people without a written language, but with their own laws, their poetry, their history kept in memory and passed on, in an oral vocabulary more complex than Europe’s, accompanied by song, dance, and ceremonial drama. They paid careful attention to the development of personality, intensity of will, independence and flexibility, passion and potency, to their partnership with one another and with nature.

Some things to think about while we celebrate the awesomeness that is America.

Perhaps you have heard of Guantanamo. Up until a few years ago, it was a relatively unheard of area that American troops have occupied to protect our corporate interests in the region. Today it houses suspected terrorists and enemy combatants, and Amnesty International recently referred to Guantanamo as the “gulag of our times.”

Torture and blatant civil rights abuses have become commonplace at Guantanamo, and at secret US operated detention centers throughout the world. In an effort to spotlight these abuses, and potentially hold those perpetrators accountable, a group of Republican senators have introduced a bill that would prohibit cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners held by US forces.

Not surprisingly, the Bush administration has threatened to veto the bill, stating that it would interfere with the president’s ability to fight terrorism.

As the world’s pre-eminent superpower, it is us to us to provide the example of how prisoners should be treated. How can we expect the beheadings of US civilians and soldiers to cease in Iraq, when we torture prisoners on a daily basis? Where is the accountability, or the concept of universality that is required in our 21st century world?

So please take a moment to tell our leaders that

Opposing torture is not a partisan cause. The practice of torture so fully embraces evil it dehumanizes both the torturer and its victim. No just cause can be won if it relies on torture to succeed.

Send off a quick email at Act For Change. It takes less than a minute, and it could help to save lives.

As I try to become more advanced in the digital age, it has come time for me to get up to speed with digital pictures. I have messed around in the past with digital pics - I have a digital camera and digital camcorder. My laptop came equipped with iPhoto and iMovie, so I should have more than enough computing power to manage and manipulate my digital photos.

As a husband and father of two, we take our fair share of pictures. Thank God for technology, and the advances in photography. Gone are the days of wasted film - today we can take hundreds of pictures, and simply delete the ones we dislike. Very nice for the vain amongst us.

I set up an account at Flickr, the online photo thing that Yahoo bought a while ago. It has gotten rave reviews, and I have seen it in use by a number of bloggers, so I figured I’d give it a try. You can check out my current photos here. As I get the hang of it, I will try to incorporate it more.

Wow! A week and a half since my last post - what a piker. Alas, my inactivity should not be misconstrued as disinterest, or a sign of things to come. Indeed, I do believe that my absence was justified by my presence in Las Vegas, manning the BOTW booth at the Webmasterworld conference.

The conference proved moderately fruitful - while the foot traffic on the exhibit floor was a bit slower that I had hoped, we did make a nice showing, and we were able to network with new contacts, and enjoy time with industry friends. As this marked my second trip to Vegas this year (with another coming in only six weeks), I must confess that I long for an alternative location. Next winter, my vote would be for a tropical location - Miami, Caribbean, Palm Springs, Hawaii (ha) take your pick.

Sometimes, it is nice to be able to tie your professional interests into your outside activities. As my professional career has taught me, the power of the internet as a mass communication medium is absolutely astounding. Approximately a decade ago, it would take millions of dollars, and a small army of employees to reach a couple/few thousand people a day.

In today’s digital world, with the power of a handful of skilled and dedicated people, a message can be broadcast to millions of people on a monthly basis for relatively little cost (less than a couple thousand dollars a month). Given the scalability of the medium, the internet lends itself perfectly to the activism cause. There is little to no censorship, low barriers to entry, a worldwide audience, modest maintenance, and a large talent pool.

With these resources, I placed a few ads on craigslist (free in Boston, Seattle, and Denver) looking for activist bloggers. As the ad only runs for 30 days, I will reprint it here for future reference:

Blog network needs activists to contribute to group activism blog. Blog covers national and international events, issues, and civil liberties subjects.

Successful candidates will be active members of the progressive movement, willing to contribute posts on a regular basis informing the public of activist events and news.

Strong command of the written English language a must, and current bloggers preferred.

We got pretty good response from it, with 30 or so replies within the first 24 hours. I am guessing that it will draw in close to 100 replies over the next couple of weeks. The authors that we choose to participate will post on ways for citizens worldwide to get involved in the democratic process, and as a gathering place for progressive voices to be heard.

The site is brand new, and can be found at Activism Blog .com I am both proud, and excited to be part of this project, and I look forward to doing my part.

I began moving the contents of my blog at Blogger over to this new domain. I switched from a Blogger format to a Wordpress format, and tried the import feature, but had nothing but bad luck. The first couple of times I received garbled text, and I had to uninstall Wordpress and reinstall three times before deciding to call that method quits. Seems that I am not alone in my difficulties - Wordpress Support

So I have decided to copy the contents over one post at a time. Though it is a tedious task, it should prove effective. Luckily I have years of experience performing tedious tasks through my directory editing work. In order to avoid any duplicate content issues, I am copying the code over and holding the post as a draft in my Ecto interface. Once I transfer all of the code over, I will delete the blog through my account at Blogger, and change the status from draft to published for each post here. That should do the trick in avoiding any dupe content issues. Now I need to look into setting up a 301 via Blogger.

As the second step in my journey to become a full-fledged activist, this week, I have signed a petition, and pledged a donation to MoveOn.org to help their campaign to stop Samuel Alito from being appointed to the Supreme Court. In addition to the petition, I sent a letter to my representatives (once again with the help of MoveOn):

The nomination of Samuel Alito poses a grave threat to the protections Americans count on, including basic workers’ rights, women’s rights, and civil rights. We call on the Senate to stand up for all of us and reject the nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court of the United States.

After Miers withdrew her nomination, Bush has acted in typical fashion with a knee-jerk response pandering to the right wing. Alito’s pro-business, anti-abortion, HIV-discriminating record has got fellow liberals nervous. The stakes are high with this nomination. At least he has a more impressive biography that Miers - but so do I.

So, with the help of MoveOn, I have signed a petition stating my displeasure over the appointment of Mr. Alito, and I ponied up some of my hard earned dollars to help in their efforts. Pretty painless, and it took me less than five minutes to complete. If you are interested, sign the petition.