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Civil Rights & MLK: Remembrance and Media

Excerpt Citizen Media Maven _ The Life

Real change requires risk and going against the status quo. It comes with discomfort and sometimes confrontation.

It might be a cruel illusion, but I live every day guided by You were put here for a reason the belief that community TV in a suburban community near the city of my maturation is indeed justice work, the work Dr. King intended many of us to have. Since leaving the city that gave bloom to my curiosity, I venture into New Haven whenever possible in the company of my son, poet, playwright and educator, Josiah Houston.

I was a city of New Haven resident on the first Martin Luther King Holiday, a neighbor of John C. Daniels who would become the first black mayor nearly a decade later. In this city divided, economically stagnant and challenged by the crack epidemic, housing shortages, crime, and racial strife, I had become a civic leader and an activist as President of the League of Women Voters of New Haven. It was during this time that, unintentionally, I became acquainted with public access television.
…

For over fifty years, the country as a whole has wrestled with the movement and legacy of Dr. King. I was 14 when King was assassinated. The television in our house was in color unlike when President Kennedy was shot. It began to feel like assassinations of leaders and stories of war in distant places were part of the fabric of America. Robert F. Kennedy had yet to fall. He would attend the funeral of Dr. King.

My dad had finally given up on his idea of a full-fledged civil preparedness bunker, but when the news reported riots he seemed ready to repurpose the cellar bunker for other unknowns. It is hard to imagine what school shootings and heightened security measures for entering schools today make fourteen-year-olds feel Dead students are much more personal than assassinated leaders.

Early television and public access television have eerie similarities in appearance—public access often still looks and feels much the same—however, public access never had a much-trusted voice like broadcast news had Walter Cronkite. Unconsciously, my journey with what my dad called my life’s work began the day Dr. King was shot. I was transfixed as many were with the announcement and updates on the ‘murder’ of this well-respected leader. But, hearing Dr. King mention the First Amendment made history lessons feel astonishingly connected to my life.

CBS Evening News Breaking Report: The ever-trusted Walter Cronkite appears in color in a ‘Just in Live TV’ report. As his eyes dart about for cues from the production crew he adjusts his suit jacket collar. In his well-modulated, unemotional voice he reads the scripted announcement from a paper in his hands:

“Dr. Martin Luther King, the apostle of nonviolence and the civil rights movement, has been shot to death in Memphis, Tennessee,” Cronkite said. “Police have issued an all-points bulletin for a well-dressed, young white man seen running from the scene.” … He reports that in a companion’s words, “The bullet exploded in his face.”

The story facts and carefully selected adjectives speak volumes: the Nobel Peace Prize winner; the turbulent racial situation; on the scene almost immediately; high powered hunting rifle; dusk-to-dawn curfew; 4,000 national guardsmen Will my dad be called-up? They rushed the 39-year-old Negro leader to a hospital where he died of a bullet wound in the neck. Police report that the murder has touched off sporadic acts of violence in a Negro section of the city. Cronkite trips over the word violence That is how he spoke of being mobilized for military action.

After referring to sporadic acts of violence in a Negro section of the city, CBS cuts to President Johnson expressing the nation’s shock “… Saddened by the brutal slaying tonight of Dr. Martin Luther King, I ask every citizen (the president looks down to read more and concludes) to reject the blind violence that has struck Dr. King who lived by nonviolence.”

Returning again to Walter Cronkite reporting on the assassination, the story is crafted to ask and answer the question as to why Dr. King was in Memphis, suggesting King was “determined to prove that he could lead a peaceful mass march in support of striking sanitation workers most of whom are Negroes.” In another cut-away to news footage from the prior day, Dr. King appears mid-speech, “Maybe I could understand the denial of certain basic First Amendment privileges because they haven’t committed themselves to that, over that,” King said. “But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for rights.” The audio track cuts off the crowd’s enthusiastic reply as CBS news producers cut back to Walter Cronkite who echoes the President’s reference with “shock across the nation.” He mentions a place well-known to people like me. A place where black people live: Harlem. Then, the subtle spin. An anonymous quote of a young person in Harlem, “Dr. King didn’t really have to go back to Memphis. Maybe he wanted to prove something.”

It has become routine for WPAA-TV to … The station is closed for the day. We rarely close.

Remembrance seems to make the media world a remix. Dr. King’s face is ubiquitous on the Internet. Quotes and misquotes characterize the man. Facebook is afloat in memes. Politicians, justice workers and pseudo evangelists for people’s rights post some quotes I am not denying that it is hard to eke understanding out of days of reflection and possibly action. Like his initials, MLK celebrations are simplified, peaceful, non-threatening, and most important to the program organizers, they must be digestible I could even say shallow.

As reported in our town’s newspaper, our Mayor is once again the keynote speaker Using the ceremony to parent the community as the benevolent dictator he sees himself as.

Let me share some history here. The state began recognizing Dr. King’s birthday as a holiday in 1973, 10 years before President Reagan signed the Federal law declaring the third Monday in January as the designated holiday. In 2000, a bill submitted by Wallingford’s State Representative to officially recognize the holiday statewide, became Connecticut Law. The only community not already doing so was Wallingford. Paid days off and this holiday was central to a multi-year dispute between the Town and its workers’ union. As Rev. Jesse Jackson said, referring to our Mayor’s resistance to recognizing the King Holiday, ”Maybe he hadn’t gotten the word. But he has got the word now, and the law, and I think he’ll do the right thing.”

The following year, the last of the longstanding inclusive commemorative MLK Day morning services sponsored by the clergy association welcomed a standing room only crowd. The first town-sponsored ‘remembrance’ to honor the civil rights leader with the Mayor presiding was the same day at noon at Town Hall. Wilbert Lawrence “Robby” Robinson, a town resident who founded, and led until his death, the new Wallingford Coalition for Unity was involved in the planning. For the next thirteen years, Robby interacted with the Mayor in supplicant fashion, as he himself described it to me “… it is more important to me that our youth know about Dr. King. I just wanted to make things better and to rid my hometown of its very bad reputation. It is not about me.”

Robby was in the crowd at the March on Washington shoulder to shoulder with believers in nonviolence, experiencing the ether of the ‘I have a Dream’ speech first hand. He was now living as Martin said of that dream “sometimes it is a nightmare” as a black man in Wallingford.

“I think one of the best things that happened to this town—and it’s a sick way of saying it —is Matt Hale (founder of the white separatist group, World Church of the Creator), coming here, or at least his feeling that this was a place he could be … It really got people to open their eyes, to look and think. To think about how members of the KKK could march by our Town Hall.”

In 2015, Robby was honored during the annual MLK commemorative event. I attended and heard once again, for myself, a deep lack of understanding about the struggles for decency and equality then, and now. The Mayor spoke about Rosa Parks, “Would we have been there? What would we have done? … Had this surfaced today, let it be known that his message is not forgotten.”

Mr. Mayor, the message must be heard not to be forgotten. It is not about slaves and stories about the back of the bus. It is about the promise of a decade of open struggle to break the barriers of ‘legal’ segregation to attain citizen rights followed by the ongoing, to this very moment, struggle for equity.

The Mayor is speaking to his choir. Robby, this is not good enough.

In 2020, the Mayor chooses to reflect on the life of orator Frederick Douglass relating Douglass’ courage to Dr. King’s in their respective struggles for abolition and for civil rights roughly 100 years apart. It is reported the Mayor said, “He (King) didn’t grow up a slave, but he recognized what the problem was, and through peaceful living and example brings us to the point to just follow the truth.” Again he entwined his milquetoast world views peppered with slavery stories and avoided the truth of our times. Martin did grow up with a knowing quite different than his own.

Among the commemoration highlights were essay readings by three local high school students. This portion is what had disappointed me most in the past when with camera in hand Which meant a bit of optimism, I did go to the Town Hall ceremony. In our town, authorized events coverage is in the purview of the Mayor and when covered it is to be handled by Government TV, the channel he controls. Since I believe that every story can have many tellers and points of view, as with the day Rev. Jackson came to town, and that exposure to the many stories best informs our ‘knowing,’ I brought a camera along. However, each time the essays were so unremarkable, the video I captured never even made its way to the pending queue for production. I erased it, thereby distancing myself from the experience I do not want to uplift the shallows.

It is Tuesday, shortly after 9:00 PM, and our longest-running WPAA-TV show is airing. Host, Citizen Mike, has actively journeyed in our community media space since 2010. The voice I hear is familiar but it is not the voice of Citizen Mike. The stand-in host, a current Town Councilor says, “I think the Mayor did an excellent job at the Martin Luther King ceremony.” The guest, another Town Councilor, replies, “I agree.” They each call out the strengths of the Mayor with such community gatherings and speeches.

I immediately go in my head to that place that anything about the Mayor makes me go. It is a dark place full of suspicion. I am not a fan. I am someone he wishes never stepped foot into ‘his’ community If only there were a video of the Mayor’s speech which I could play, a video that could inform my sensibilities about my hometown. I am left to wonder ‘what would MLK do?’ recalling the “What Would Jesus Do?” the book which popularizes WWJD bracelets and other paraphernalia meant to be a reminder to act in ways that personified Jesus and his teachings. Would he remind me that “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Do I need to reread A Testament of Hope, to stay the course, to avoid the temptation to subvert my own work?

I am certain that unlike these students with search and find quotes and no deep dive into meaning, the Mayor did not need Snopes’ advice on Dr. King’s quote accuracy. Being the technophobe that he is, and likely yet to be a cherry popped Google–Virgin, his Amishness sheltered his access to ‘The 201 best … the 17 inspiring … the 123 most powerful … and the 31 MLK quotes that can inspire the greatness in you! Google’s code of conduct is “Don’t be evil,” but the Mayor believes technology is And without digital literacy, it can be.

While I cannot prove it without video capture of the ceremony, I am near certain the Mayor did not represent Dr. King’s vision of citizenship: voting rights, a living wage, adequate housing, access to health care, and excellent and racially integrated education.

Indeed, the community I serve is proof that we can commemorate Dr. King on the one hand and eviscerate his legacy on the other. Remembrance is not just for storytelling to demonstrate that we have a collective past Collective here, with intent. It is not about slavery or reparations. It is not about the past. It is about being in our own time, with awareness, waging contemporary battles. Dr. King called the American racial revolution, a revolution to ‘get in’ rather than to overthrow. It remains so, in our own time. Dr. King intimated the need not only to see injustices but understand how we all participate in them. Constantly asking himself, Where Do We Go From Here, he answers, “We cannot afford to make these choices poorly … the issue is injustice and immorality.” We can and must consciously do something to change within and around us. Even using this day as a day of service is a digestible cop-out that distracts. If inoculated with a mild form of commitment, thus immune to genuine moral injustice, there can be no transformation.

And then in an Aha moment, …

Our Bones Are Good – What Is Next

Our Bones Are Good | The governance team has spent the past decade on barn-building. They focused on the property acquisition, renovation and installation of technology tied to the mission. In 2020, we are pivoting toward long term sustainability of the operation. The infrastructure of people and finances and the connection between both. This may be more challenging than transforming a barn into a community space but with the dedication of the core team we intend to be in a better position to serve what we hope will be a more engaged community.

As was the case across the globe, the year 2020 was not experienced as intended. Our 2020 goals were to be relevant for our times, to empower our brand and to evolve as #MoreThanTV. Unlike many stations across the nation that had a hiatus for several weeks or months, we were busier than ever immediately, just differently. We adjusted our programing to include replay of remote spiritual services expanding the churches involved weekly, added predictable viewing for silver sneakers level fitness programs and Storytime for those under age seven. We provided alternative video production tools for local producers that could not safely use the studio. We hosted a LIVE music series in support of CT musicians and sponsored contest with prizes from local businesses. And our producers represented our community with eight winning production in the Alliance for Community Media New England Video Festival exploring topics such as child trafficking, inclusion, homeschooling and nonpartisan get out the vote as well as wins in performance categories. We also successfully transition our three college interns to remote work that enabled them to meet graduation internship requirements. We added the ‘As Told Here’, the podcast, extending the way some our most powerful stories could be experienced by the community.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, WPAA-TV had a calendar filled with people-gathering events: drum circles, improv theater, performances, writers’ groups, gallery visits and open houses. We did not foresee the ubiquitous and Internet replacing our success in becoming a public space with virtual meeting tools.

Few singular events change a world view. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I believed that what the Internet could not be, or easily replace, was the potential to meet and gather in person, teach, discuss and share what is local based on the reasonable needs and interests of a community. Then the socially starved world experienced the rise of the racial justice movement in rallies, protests and online conversations creating more community engagement opportunities than community TV could envision supporting.

2020 has been nothing but evolutionary, eclipsing 1965: the bridge in Selma Alabama, the race riots in Watts, The Voting Rights Act, Vietnam War, Medicare, the Gemini Space Program, Mini-skirts and CT imposing a 9% Gross Income Tax on cable companies that was still being adjudicated in 1990 before the FCC. (Is my age showing here?)

As people gather virtually, there is a palpable hunger to engage in person. So what is the real and future need for physical spaces to make media? There is a need for youth to discover, learn and experiment interactively with technology, and elders to stay connected inter-generationally in a public space. Locally WPAA-TV and Community Media Center is preparing to be that public space. We are not yet all we can be but our bones are good and we are planning for the future.

StreetshotZ No Expiration Date

A #NoExpireDate #SocialActionArt Project
Feeding and housing our neighbors by inspiring your donations with art.

You can receive #StreetshotZ, the photo book, for your generous support of programs serving the housing or food-insecure in our community.

PDF: Send a copy of your thank you letter to art@wpaa.tv from any of these organizations and we will send you #StreetshotZ.

Master’s Manna
Columbus House which manages Wallingford Emergency Shelter
GrowStrongCT the Coalition on Housing and Homelessness
or places such as Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen in New Haven DESK. We will reply with a download link.

Photobook: A perfect coffee table book and conversation starter. For a contribution of $225 three nonprofits will receive $70. WPAA-TV disburses all donations except for a book reprint fee. That is how we keep this going. Send an email to art@wpaa.tv to make arrangements. Go to our Support Page and choose the donation method of choice. Check payable to WPAA-TV can be mailed to 28 S Orchard St. Wallingford CT 06492.

Thank You

What is #StreetshotZ? A one-of-a-kind collection of evocative photographs by Charles Buzinsky. The book includes images featured in the gallery at #wpaatv.

What gallery visitors say:

“Extremely moving. ”
“Thanks for letting me see differently, to see the people I pass on the street. To actually see them.”
“These photos are pictures of souls”
“Great work”
“You, Charles, are an inspiration. I see inspiration.”

These photos can not be sold, correct? Correct!

It is wonderful that they can be shared to raise money for worthy causes helping homeless and hungry people. Good luck with sharing this photobook to help do the work of helping our neighbors.

Thank you.

#InformationLiteracy Resolution

Leaning in to our birthright and purpose. Resolution adopted 10.5.2020

WHEREAS, Wallingford Public Access Association, Inc. (WPAA-TV and Community Media Center), a non-profit 501©3 operating in the Town of Wallingford CT as the designated Cable Access Provider since July 28, 1993 [as reaffirmed by the franchising authority in Docket #08-04-09 in accordance with CT. Agencies Regs. §§ 16-331a-1 to -13 Community Access Support – Definitions]; and

WHEREAS, the primary obligation established in CT. Gen. Stat. § 16-331a is stewardship of the resources for meaningful community access; and

WHEREAS, meaningful community access requires the technical, managerial and financial support of citizen media inclusive of production facilities, equipment, and training for the development of content for community TV channels; and

WHEREAS, the franchising authority in Docket No. 99-10-05 codified that Cable Access Providers are the vehicle for these requirements to reach the community served; and

WHEREAS, the organization’s mission envisions empowering people to meet their own communication needs by facilitating creation of media; and

WHEREAS, as a member organization of the Alliance for Community Media we do our work under the guiding principles of promote free speech, expand civic engagement through local media, and ensure the people can seek redress of their grievances; and

WHEREAS, community media advocates c. 1960 pursued First Amendment Rights legislation to provide for a meaningful opportunity for citizens to convey diverse messages with access to the mass media; and

WHEREAS, the subsequent emergence of Internet speech suggests access to mass media is no longer the essential opportunity for preservation of robust and egalitarian debate among diverse voices; and

WHEREAS, the content created for distribution on the designated channel has more reach in the secondary distribution of the Internet and social media; and

WHEREAS, disinformation has always existed but the unprecedented communication power of the Internet and social media, linguistic virility (misinformation spreading quickly from person to person behaving like viral mechanisms) has reached epic proportions; and

WHEREAS, as far back as the 1980s, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) identified the need for the public to be trained to critically evaluate the media and more recently the UNESCO Information Literacy Group (2018) defined Information Literacy as “the ability to think critically and make balanced judgments about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to reach and express informed views and to engage fully with society; and

WHEREAS, digital literacy builds upon media literacy inclusive of practices that allow people to access, critically evaluate credibility, examine, comprehend and create or manipulate media with an understanding of tools such as computers, social media, and the Internet; and

WHEREAS, for our purposes, information literacy is inclusive of digital literacy (the ability to find, evaluate, and compose information on various digital platforms using technology) and media literacy, (the ability to understand the difference between creative expression, reporting, commentary, opinion, analysis, fact and fake); and

WHEREAS, civic engagement by citizen media makers necessitates information literacy training to enable the production of media in an ethical manner (thereby not contributing to threats to the quality of public discourse).

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that WPAA-TV and Community Media Center interprets its charge to provide access to resources and training for development of content for community TV channels that incorporates the principles and tools of information literacy; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that media and information competencies are a means of promoting inclusion, cultural diversity and citizen engagement in areas of justice and equity; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that everyone is a stakeholder in the struggle for better information access, social cohesion, and democracy; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that WPAA will embrace civic initiatives that Engage, Educate, Equip, and Empower citizens to Expose misinformation or Exemplify the values and tenets of professional news gathering and information dissemination

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, WPAA will strive to provide production training equivalency from pre to post-production such that interview techniques, story structure, presentation of data in images, style awareness (news vs. opinion) copyright | fair use and production knowledge, use of a camera, audio, lights, editing are resourced.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, WPAA will strive to increase the number of digitally literate residents in Wallingford, persons who possess a variety of skills, technical and cognitive, required to find, understand, evaluate, create, and communicate digital information in a wide variety of formats, and use these skills to communicate with the general public to actively participate in civic society and contribute to a vibrant, informed, and engaged community.

Information Literacy According to Freeman

All of us carry bias. Our beliefs and opinions are influenced … When we first meet someone, we already have a narrative we tell about them, just by looking at them. DANA STACHOWIAK Literacy Now

Acts of Journalism, Acts of Literacy

Journalists must check their biases daily As best they can. The Fourth Estate Journalism Code of Practice sets forth principles and practices for fairness and accuracy, accepted sources All too often the power brokers and balance Often troubling. These principles and practices are a necessary awareness for people engaging in ‘acts of journalism.’ Reporting tells about events, situations, and in a watchdog role, problems. Framing and social empathy elevate newsgathering to the “Seek truth and report it” ideals meant to enlighten the public. What the public deems to be true is seen as necessary for justice and the foundation of democracy and fundamental to the role of journalism.

Australian journalist, editor, and educator Alan Sunderland suggests that the most obvious change in journalism is that it is no longer solely the preserve of the professional journalist. He is working on an updated code that can serve people committing themselves to acts of journalism every day as they work to inform their communities about matters of public interest.

Our existence is an experiment in democracy.

Citizen journalism is part of our birthright.

Discerning Reliable Information in All that is Freely Spoken is Challenging

What is free speech? Is it a prayer, picture, song, rap, poem, story, tweet, blog, flag, bumper sticker, money Campaign financing, or video Even video captured via smartphone? Is it what a politician says to followers, a preacher to congregants, a conversation at dinner, a lesson in a classroom, a made-for-TV movie? Is it strictly related to the First Amendment, and therefore, the role of government? Should the message, method of delivery, and speaker, each be subject to scrutiny? Can comingling perceptions about the speaker and the method of transmitting a message heighten one’s sense of the message’s believability? Is government, when engaging in crowd control, as people exercise their right to assemble, obligated to ensure equity of viewpoints for those choosing to assemble? Sometimes rights compete, and that is never simple.

Is it saying whatever comes top of mind: what a bully, robber, abuser says to a victim? Or is it intentional speech? How is truth-telling, and the source of truth, important to the discourse on truth in the modern world? Debates among the early Greeks found a correlation between belief and truth for the teller, and the listener’s perceptions of the teller’s morality a potential danger to democracy. In contrast, some posited that evidentiary truth, inclined toward science and fact-finding, may better serve a democracy founded on the exercise of power by the people, equal before the law. Their word for free speech which ranged in meaning from chatter to truth depending on its usage was “parrhesia.” This text presented by French philosopher Michel Foucault in his discourse on the problems of truth, argues that parrhesia is a risk to democracy.

Greeks: Democracy … is condemned to give equal place to all forms of parrhesia … Because parrhesia is given even to the worst citizens, the overwhelming inﬂuence of bad, immoral, or ignorant speakers may lead the citizenry into tyranny, or may otherwise endanger the city. Hence parrhesia may be dangerous for democracy itself.

Foucault: Thus this problem … of a necessary antinomy between parrhesia—freedom of speech—and democracy, inaugurated a long impassioned debate concerning the precise nature of the dangerous relations which seemed to exist between democracy, logos, freedom, and truth.
Source: Parrhesia and the Crisis of Democratic Institutions: Discourse & Truth, Problematization of Parrhesia – Six lectures given by Michel Foucault at the University of California at Berkeley, Oct.-Nov. 1983

A long, long time ago, civil discourse—person to person, face to face, or in a letter—became public predominantly by rumor A custom kept alive by my grandmother in a small town in Vermont. The printing press modified speech by both expanding the audience and ceding power to those in control of the tools. Speech to more than one person at a time is about access: the right to assemble Now with social distancing, media ownership, and rules of engagement. For example, the perils of a hot mic and not yelling fire in a crowded place.

In the digital age, free speech is morphing once again. There are more challenges for those of us committed to the ideals underpinning this freedom. For advocates, free speech is broader than a constitutional right. Speaking freely embodies the concept of speaking truthfully and boldly, while aware of the obligations and risks. Most advocates embrace the idea that the absence of speech to counter radical views is dangerous for all, but few would suggest they are absolutists, putting individual speech above all else. In a Free Speech Center article, September 30, 2020, David L. Hudson Jr., professor, attorney and first amendment scholar, wrote that even Justice Ginsberg, “…balancing First Amendment rights against a variety of other interests,” sometimes supported “opinions that did not favor First Amendment claimants.” Some countervailing rights were copyright, discrimination, and situationally qualified immunity, putting safety first, also part of the ethical standards of journalism.

“For the most part, those are our ideals, our treasured First Amendment and the notion that in our nation we are many and yet we are one … “

Source: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Feb. 2017) In a discussion moderated by NPR’s Nina Totenberg and co-sponsored by the Newseum and the Supreme Court Fellows Association in Washington.

Many endorse inclusive and reflective discourse. St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuit Order and an influential figure in the missionary, educational, and charitable works of the Roman Catholic Church, suggested that reflection entails removing oneself from the situation to look at it independently and objectively. Objectivity is an essential tool in a world full of information in all forms inclusive of disinformation which is intended to mislead and in the case of government would be called propaganda. The prevalence of disinformation was a significant precursor to our review of our role and adoption of a #LiteracyInformation Resolution.

WHEREAS, disinformation has always existed but the unprecedented communication power of the Internet and social media, linguistic virility (misinformation spreading quickly from person to person behaving like viral mechanisms) has reached epic proportions …

Before the nearly universally accessible Interweb of commerce and resources, people depended on public libraries to search for information or conversations with elders. Today, reliable information is available with equal footing to the cancerous misinformation, disinformation, and ‘spin’ information by vested interests. Equal footing necessitates tools for discernment Some would save the word discernment for understanding if one is called to a life of faith. It is difficult, even challenging, when thoughts and prayers are inadequate.

Misinformation causes real harm to people’s lives, health, finances and to democracy. We need good evidence on how to tackle it. | Media and Information Literacy Research FullFact Briefing 2.2020 supported by Luminate

Recognizing the challenge and the peace of mind that come with understanding, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) provides media and information literacy resources that align UNESCO’s mandate to “promote the free flow of ideas by word and image”. The higher goal is ‘Building peace in the minds of men and women’ Not the peace that surpasses all understanding.

#InformationLiteracy Initiative

Community TV is not the media. It is a resource for citizen media makers, some who may strive to commit to acts of journalism. It is a public resource for expression which may also be seen as necessary for justice and democracy. Both creators and consumers are to be encouraged to confront their assumptions about how the world works. It is the responsibility of creators to release accurate material, and it is the duty of consumers to be aware of what sources can be relied on and what contents can be trusted as well.

The purpose of our #InformationLiteracy initiative is to help efface biases in our communities at-large where there may be strongly held non fact-based opinions being espoused. There is always more than one truth, but democracy works best when many truths are heard for the purpose of governance.

Community TV Creation Story

Community TV organizations are committed to providing the tools & stage for free speech. However, the roots in our creation story are entwined with the lack of opportunity for some stories to be told. Our existence is an experiment in democracy. Citizen journalism is part of our birthright.

Advocacy for the underserved voices, first-person stories, and local stories is at the heart of our movement, not, “I have an opinion. I deserve a stage and a microphone” To amplify that opinion. Similar to our constitutional founding fathers, advocates have concerns about balance, power and representation. Unlike our founding fathers, citizen media advocates are a rainbow of representation. Advocates believe that communities can come together when they can identify shared values and reach a consensus on concerns and representative responses. This belief is the democratic bedrock of community television.

Community TV: Public, Education and Government Access

WPAA-TV is not a news organization or a media production house. It is a regulated community resource charged primarily with enabling pubic access television. The public access aspect of Community TV is about enabling citizens to be media makers.

In 2007, regulators expanded the role of WPAA to include aspects of Education and Government access television. Education access was intended to be a platform for distance learning and a resource for media education. Government access, a public affairs venue, was to provide transparency on the actions of the government on behalf of citizens with gavel-to-gavel production of government meetings and public hearings. WPAA was also to be a resource to provide the community with updates on the actions of government from elected officials and civil servants.

Media Training in Community TV Organizations

Exemplification Do as I do is one method of improving literacy. Freeman social media posts selected to exemplify substantive and accurate analysis will include the hashtag #Information Literacy. Selected articles, research or opinion pieces are meant to tackle trending misinformation. Expected topics—justice, health, and government action—are those most often connected to purveyors of social engineering or fraud. Criteria for selection of content to be redistributed in the #Information Literacy are reliant on research, data, primary sources, relatively unknown facts and triangulated with credible sources.

The design of future producer training will strive to provide equivalency with pre- and post-production knowledge. Basic understanding of what differentiates content, i.e., news vs. opinion, ethics, issues, and challenges; objectivity in representing reality; and practices such as labeling, citing sources, and other efforts to be transparent will be part of pre-production training. We will go a step beyond design, setting a tone with elements such as the use of color, metaphors, and typeface appropriate for the subject matter to accountability, responsibility, and intent.

Although documentaries are constructs of truth, they can reveal conspiracies or be conspiracies. Style choice and execution can amplify the credibility of any production, even those produced with the intent to bend the truth.

Technical challenges with audio or video could keep a story from community TV distribution. This is less so with content. Content cannot be censored if it complies with being noncommercial, is not slanderous or obscene. Since lack of technical viability has the highest likelihood to prohibit content distribution and comes with a substantial learning curve, technical training is foremost in preparing prospective users as citizen media producers.

Content can be improved, not censored. Training can improve watchability. The media makers’ goal, after all, is not making media as much as it is having their voices heard. Therefore, from the onset, community TV organizations were actually required to provide training. For decades that training has been of the ‘lights, camera, action’ variety, and post-production editing.

Our Spiritual Communities Inspire Me

A Tradition of Service

WPAA-TV has done its best to carry on our decades-long tradition of sharing faith community services as TV with the homebound. With COVID-19 many more are homebound.

Same Day Sunday #NowMoreThanEver

Since social distancing became a way of life, WPAA-TV expanded its commitment to local faith communities to share their worship experiences as Community TV. How people gather to worship has been among the changes in many lives. Among our changes were welcoming new to us communities of faith: Christ Presbyterian Church and Church of the Resurrection.

Returning to In-Person is not an option for everyone
As communities are gathering again in their physical spaces for worship, I reviewed our TV cable-casting arrangements for equity and viewing predictability. The following schedule was adopted by the participants.

Same-Day Sunday support to communities of faith has been a priority for the governance team of WPAA-TV since its inception in 1993. Board membership initially included members of local church camera crews. Having a key to the building made Same-Day Sunday possible when the production of the service required access to the tap dubbing machines and distribution tape decks.

Did you know that the longest-running program on WPAA-TV is the 8:00 AM Monday morning replay of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Sunday Service. For nearly thirty years members of the ladies guild have watched the service together as they participated in other church activities. That morning replay as well as 5:00 PM on Sunday continues to be on the schedule along with a few other long time arrangements.

The next longest-running program is the UCC-First Congregational Church of Wallingford I am not sure how long it has played at 3:30 PM, but I do know that Robert Berlepsch was the longest-serving volunteer crew for any program in Wallingford. I miss seeing him every week. For me, that was seven years of Sundays.

For decades some of the most avid users of community TV channels in the country have been faith communities or independent pastors. This is one of the few rare ways Community TV in Wallingford has been like Community TV in other towns.

I have enjoyed watching all the flavors of virtual togetherness this pandemic has brought forth within each of your faith communities.

It is personal …

Since March, providing this community support has been a 5-hour commitment rather than 3 hours. And if you know me, you know I am not a person of faith. I am however committed to community building. Supporting all of you were you gather in a community is part of that avocation.

#Staywell #KeepWatching #WeAreInThisTogether

Freeman ‘On Social Media’

… bubbly, bubbly, bubbly. What a relief it is.

It was a good day for a few unanticipated reasons. Another volunteer, Kay, agreed to handle the kindness aspects of our daily social media presence, the public face and outreach for WPAA-TV in the persona of Freeman Penny Quinn, 1st, Free Speech Ambassador. It was not pure altruism. Being a highly valued volunteer—compensated, but not at market rates—would net her $1250 for the year. Optimistically, we would, in due time, see a return on our virtual kindness investment with a commitment from grassroots donors. With over 1500 Freeman friends there are more than a few birthdays, anniversaries and life’s milestones to acknowledge each day. We have a few contributors who cover this investment in Freeman’s indirect appeal to the hearts of his followers to enchant future followers.

There are approximately 18,000 cable subscription-based households in Wallingford. Four thousand households contributing $1 a month would be life-changing for us. We would like to think this a reasonable goal. Our committed community reach is light years away from this critical benchmark needed for meaningful—in a connected to our mission sort of way—engagement.

When Freeman reached 500 friends Exceeding my dozen on social media, friends management began to add mileage to my already overstretched self. Every nonprofit administrator I know has been overwhelmed by the need to engage on this new front: social media. For many administrators, Pages and Groups often go unattended for days or weeks. I committed to daily interpersonal engagement. To augment Freeman’s milestone messages, I initially co-opted a delightful free blue bird emoticon, #FacebookSticker, Mrs. Rose Bird, designed by Joey Ellis—it was blue and a bird—conceptually on target. Sketches of a birthday cake and candle to blow out, two love birds, celebration of wins, sadness, brokenness, frustration, perspiring wellness, running late with a big watch on the wing, DIYness with a toolkit, a shake it off attitude, or stop right there sign and some key phrases like ‘Hi!’, ‘Please?’ and ‘Thank you!’ made the work with images spot on. But as right as Joey’s Mrs. Rose Bird was, she was off-brand. I decided to contract with a local comic book artist to sketch our ambassador of free speech for the growing opportunities for virtual kindness.

Freeman was already a decade old when s/he became a brand emoticon. The Freeman sketches, according to design specifications, were to look like the costumed mascot that had attended community events since 2008, and similar to how Mrs. Rose Bird handled life’s milestones: birthdays, sadness, illness, love and various reasons to kick up one’s Webbed heels. The artist was another highly valued volunteer—compensated, less than market rates—but after five fifty-dollar sketches taking longer than the contract suggested, it was time for me to Photoshop the bird. Freeman, with a speech bubble encouraging the receiver to “enjoy the next trip around the sun,” has been the most common act of outreach kindness. With theme-based Photoshop enhancements, an array of congratulation images were designed for graduations, sports achievements, retirement, new car, new home, new driver, beating cancer and welcomes for additions to the family including newborns or other family special additions such as adoptions, pets and grandchildren.

Facebook shows which friend’s birthdays are happening today, yesterday and tomorrow. The Freeman’s friend birthday list is how the work day starts. This handful of posts feeds the algorithms. Later, Freeman check-ins yield the next layer of algorithm induced engagement—friends’ posts about family too young or too feeble for Facebook or wise enough to not to be on it—folks having life’s milestones who will make up the next round of Freeman well wishes To grow household awareness of Freeman.

Freeman, the persona entity, is a shared login. This means we must have a consensus or policy on branding, style and copywriting, schedules and targets, and cross-posting including video guidelines. These evolve, as all things technological, more rapidly than what we can keep up with. In 2020, Pages can now post on Groups. If that posting option were available in 2015, the Freeman persona may not have been created. The Freeman existence is a breach of Facebook policy. It was suggested by several millennial teachers who found they needed a pseudo identity to have their personal or adult life exist on social media. For me, or so I thought, it was just adding to the long list of my other names I am not Freeman per say #AnybodyCanBeFreeman.

There is much more to communication in stories and on media timeline on behalf of the community to the community. To achieve outreach results, the volunteers behind Freeman must check in a few times a day. Social media consumption and interactivity is consuming regardless of how many productivity tricks like cross-posting are deployed. So far we have found that the key to our goal of being interpersonal seems to be three five-minute logins daily for kindness. Friend familiarity is important Sadly, friends can live on Facebook beyond their earthly years.

The Origin Story
By now I hope you are wondering what does a penguin, a blue bird affiliated with oceans in Asia, have to do with Wallingford. There are a few stories that preceded the one where a board member finds himself making snide remarks about the silly No, he said stupid and horrible Freeman sketches to the artist that was often at the station, not realizing he was talking to the artist who indeed had nailed the design assignment Oops.

The story of the blue bird begins with my stepdaughter, Heather, several wire hangers, masking tape, glue, five-yards of plush blue fabric, a bolt of white felt, and a yard of yellow. I did not inquire, merely watched the transformation happening as the family assembled during the evening news. There were some vestiges of the Cronkite era with the gathering even though the family had likely not sat together for dinner. Typically, the kids caught up with the events of their dad’s day, took a moment for anything that the news had to offer that was attention grabbing and dispersed by the time sports commentary began. For a few weeks the hangers and masking tape were part of this intersection in our lives. Eventually, the creation was obviously a head of a blue creature Nothing scary. Once the crafting began to take form, there was a clear opening for my inquiry, “So, what is that going to be?”

‘So’ is a ‘let me catch my thoughts’ word I edit out of videos every day. Its absence strengthens productions by suggesting the speaker is in command of the subject matter or interview. The listening experience is enhanced as is the perception of the speaker. This absence is good. Sometimes it can take several hours to enhance a video product by removing these anomalies to suggest a presenter’s cohesiveness in speech. Often this investment in making a project cohesive and succinct is missing in Community TV. Much of the content is raw interpersonal engagement by non-professionals. So, the word I used to open discussion about what was now a head exposed my hesitancy to embark into unfamiliar territory.

“It is Prinny,” she replied.

I remained clueless about a fictional race of creatures affiliated with a video role-playing game coming out of Japan. I would eventually come to the following understanding sans all the references to the PlayStation games Words that were Greek to me.

A prinny is a small, usually blue, pouch-wearing penguin-like creature with disproportionately small bat wings. When thrown, they explode on impact. Prinny reincarnation lore has them embodying demon souls of humans who led worthless lives, redeemed by servitude and good deeds. Some storification has them as mascots, and others transform them into heroes. A common trait of prinnies is their upbeat attitude.

Flashback: Community Building 2007
Our prinny goes to ConnectiCon 2007, the comic-con at the Hartford Civic Center. A comic-con, short for comic (book) convention, is where fans of sci-fi, roleplaying games, and of course, comics, congregate in costume with other fans, creators, and experts to do all activities fans engage in from panel discussions to parties. Local attendees of ConnectiCon 2007 are departing and returning to the WPAA’s Center St. location, home of the TV show Planet Access, which delves into the same content sphere Other worldly distractions, hooey foolishness, gobbledygook multi-million dollar industries and independent fan-geek entrepreneurs.

That same Friday evening, there was a planning pow-wow at the Center St location with members of the town’s Save Main Street movement, WPAA volunteers and myself. Our agenda, “What role, if any, would WPAA play in the next chapter of the turn of the 20th century Queen Anne T-shaped home built by Roger S. Austin, adjacent to the Town Hall. Could this town-owned property, with a destiny again in limbo—Historical Commission lawsuit—be our future home?”

Heather, aka Prinny, returned from ConnectiCon bursting with energy just as the emotionally exhausting discussion about 41 South Main St. was adjourning. During the Save Main Street meeting we agreed to move forward on the building rescue despite concerns about it being three floors and an overarching concern about decades of neglect. We struggled to get consensus on next steps, leadership, and mostly, a strategy for positive visibility.

Maybe out of pure fatigue, several of us saw potential in the prinny positivity. The upbeat prinny was instantly enlisted as our mascot. Heretofore, Prinny was destined for the back of Heather’s closet to keep company with Pac-Man and a red leather corseted costume with a saber accessory representing a character whose name I do not recall Or maybe never knew. Prinny’s first public appearance would demonstrate that in our haste we neglected to factor in that the volunteer in the costume was the upbeat ingredient.

2008 Introducing Ambassador of Free Speech

Heather gifted the costume to WPAA and garnered support of her friends to make posters that supporters could hold as they stood aside the prinny. [Save Main Street] [Support Citizen Voices] [I support WPAA]. That was in June. In October, our prinny appeared with Save Main Street people at a Town Council Meeting described as contentious. The after-meeting photos were adorable and subsequently used in the mascot naming contest.

October 24, 2007 American Legion building inching closer to sale?
After a wide-ranging discussion Tuesday night, the Town Council in a contentious party-line vote approved the first steps in a plan to sell the town-owned American Legion building … It was approved by a vote of 5-4, with Democrats in opposition … concerns about parking and … a request for proposals would yield poor results and could be used by the town to argue the building is not marketable and should be demolished.

Unexpectedly, the Town Council Chairman addressed the prinny directly. He said “Blue chicken at the back of the chambers, do you have anything to add? Frozen chicken may have been more accurate. The fluent and conversant Heather was not the volunteer under cover of plush blue prinny this time. The volunteer inside the prinny costume failed to reply. The chairman hit the gavel on the table and that concluded the meeting.

By December, WPAA would be publicly an integral part of the Save Main Street discussion. The governance step preceding that status included adoption of a resolution in October that tied this initiative to our mission.

The board passed a resolution inclusive of these criteria:

WHEREAS, most communities with Community Access are well served by Public & Government Access Television with government underwriting the production costs of Local Government Meetings; and
WHEREAS, the preservation of community buildings is much like preserving community memory; and

WHEREAS, Wallingford Public Access Association, Inc. could build community awareness of its own purpose rooted in the preservation of democratic ideals concurrent with uniting the community in the preservation of its downtown landscape.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that Wallingford Public Access Association, Inc. seeks to acquire the American Legion Building adjacent to Town Hall on So. Main Street in Wallingford for its future home in accordance with the procurement process to be designated by the Town Council.

As the appeal to the community for support of our acquisition proceeded, I came to understand that a few of my presumptions were faulty. More importantly, our mascot needed to be more than a charming handshake. Prinny needed to be a brand and ‘Blue Chicken’ would not do. Prinny needed a name and a voice Other than mine.

From Prinny to Blue Chicken to a Brand
WPAA decided to have a ‘Get to know WPAA’ event on the Parade Ground in front of 41 South Main St. We were advised that The Parade Ground is considered a town park so we completed the park use application well in advance of our May event. We began designing promotion of our name our blue penguin contest.

Ultimately, we had our attorney call the Mayor’s Office to determine the status of our permit because mysteriously, nothing was allowed to be scheduled to happen in this park without his permission. He was of the opinion that only town sanctioned events were allowable. It turns out this was indeed just his opinion. Nothing restricted Parade Ground use prior to his Mayorship. Quite to the contrary. The Parade Ground had been a place for citizens to assemble without a permit for centuries which was why it was excluded from the park permit process.
It was a lovely day In the neighorhood with a bounce house and a VCR-TV combo playing VHS archive tapes of shows from the 1980s and 1990s. Several name suggestions were put into the collection bucket. Many included some reference to Penny for penguin. A year after the prinny was enlisted as a mascot, s/he was being photographed with eight-year old Jeff who, with the help of his Grandma Freddie, won the naming contest. The blue penguin was reintroduced to the world on Facebook as Freeman Penny Quinn, 1st, Free Speech Ambassador with a birthday equivalent to the WPAA incorporation date.

Freeman, accompanied by Jeff in his blue penguin hat and penguin hand puppet awards designed for the occasion by Heather, became a Facebook persona with a greeting for new friends:

I say to all my new friends: thx for becoming my friend. I want to be the feather that tickles you to service, tells you a best-kept secret, supports your voice being heard, and encourages your informed participation in democracy. This will make sense if you know I am a blue penguin called Freeman P Quinn, 1st Ambassador of Free Speech at Home of Free Speech at WPAA-TV. #wpaatv, #powerfulWildFREE4arts #AnyoneCanBeFreeman #YourTownYourStationYourVoice
Please Follow WPAA-TV and Freeman for community notices and 'what is playing' updates for local TV.

As we made the transition from a prinny to a penguin to be more accessible to a larger community, I realized it might be useful for everyone to know something about blue penguins. What I uncovered was remarkably aligned with how we are as a collection of engaged people.

-Penguins are birds, but they are unable to fly A bit like cablecast and broadcast.
-Each penguin has a unique voice What we preach about people.
-Blue penguins are mainly nocturnal. They perform most of their activity during the night in small groups of ten or less When we are open to for Make TV with small crews.
-Blue penguins are not migratory. They stay close to their colonies most of the time Hyperlocal.
-Blue penguins as a species are not endangered but some populations are threatened Our Wallingford Story so unlike Waterbury or Windsor or Wethersfield or West Hartford.
-Blue penguins perceive their environments through visual, auditory and tactile stimuli It is all about what we see and hear, and ultimately come to feel.
-Blue penguins breed underground but will make use of man-made cavities Our cow barn was dug into a hill and the 1st floor is partially underground and if you have ever seen our sets you know we make use of whatever is at hand.
-Community Birds: Blue penguins move in groups Better together.

Freeman’s story much like our own is about adapting to do what we do together in the public interest in media of all kinds with community building giving a beat to the heart With Kindness.

Sharing kindness is definitely easier as a rallying response to a crisis. Communities apply a balm to their collective pain with acts of kindness. These acts echo forth in applause, newsworthy human interest stories, and virtual story sharing and thank you initiatives. They may tumbleweed into viral stories which easily overshadow, in the media amplification, the purity of aha moment intentions.

‘Feel Better Soon’ was the initial interaction between Freeman and Kay. A prolific user of Facebook, it was a tool in her survival kit as she contended with personal health challenges. The algorithm increased my awareness of her story. She asked for donations of bottles eligible for redemption to help with her uninsured medical bills. I had been routinely giving a large black garbage bag full of returnable bottle to an older Hispanic gentleman who was dumpster diving for discards at the bar next door. I would see him on Sunday mornings. Community TV is a seven days a week adventure. I went to the station to support our Same Day Sunday Initiative that enabled communities of faith to reach the homebound the same day as the service. I did not know his story, just his humility. But knowing Kay’s story made me redirect my redemption bottle behavior. The irony of giving away $5 to $15 worth of bottles belonging to WPAA-TV to random people as I sought discounts and gifts in these amounts did not escape me I am the girl who walked miles along the roadsides of my hometown for bottles discarded from car windows for the $.02 and the America the Beautiful Act of 1965. The coincidental disappearance of the dumpster diver was a relief much like the relief of being able to turn over, with basic instructions for daily posting of Freeman images, the Freeman kindness tasks to Kay.

Postscript: Coming Clean

As Freeman gained more friends, the ability to be Freeman became an awkward exercise in value testing for reasons beyond the sheer volume of interactions. I had been in need of a social media respite for months. I was feeling compelled to silently middle-finger the world more and more. This was about the time of the 2016 election.

Being Freeman, as the ambassador, consists of hundreds of virtual encounters with people The person behind the brand never met. The majority of worldview and values expressed on social media by Freeman Friends do not align with mine Or others behind the brand. Being Freeman with awareness versus rote rules of engagement is what I imagine hitting one’s head against a wall feels like. There is raw, naked awareness of the contact as the pain above one’s eyes makes cracks in your heart. The throbbing lingers as you push through to the next virtual encounter. Maybe a smile is on the horizon. Maybe congratulations to offer. Maybe a R.I.P., and taking a moment to pause for the life of a stranger. The micro-aggressions released into the world are the manifestation of the dystopia of our time That must not overshadow the intentions of the Freeman brand. The real person behind each encounter collects the particle dust of all of them. Some days are sunshine and others make you want to shake your middle finger at the world or at least at a few people in it I cannot be more honest than that.

A data phishing meme appeared on Facebook which promised Meyers-Briggs insight into values and priorities based on social media behavior It’s easier to hack people than computers and I was about to prove it. The questions did not appear to be risking my passwords It was more of the exploitation variety. I decided to use this social engineering tactic for some research of my own. Both Freeman and Susan would submit responses. I envisioned this as proof that the brand and the person were indeed engaging in the world differently That was the proof I needed.

My virtual social interactions as Freeman were confirmed as more upbeat and affirming than mine Bubbly, bubbly, bubbly. What a relief it is. I was succeeding externally with the dichotomy. Internally, not so much.

It turns out there is something about getting to know strangers, even from behind a persona, that eeks out humanity. Kay could not resist adding her own kind words or worldview to her acts as Freeman. In six months she was exhausted, and made ‘my medical condition’ excuses to indirectly quit. I returned to the daily task with a sense of renewal and some insight into scoping out future Freeman ambassadors. The time on task needed to be limited. The images did not require additional text. Humanizing with a name would be enough. Engaging more with individuals already confirmed as friends with mission awareness was needed. Future humans behind the brand needed to be better than I at exuding kindness in person and less entrenched in a political or moral worldview. I also knew I needed a human who would feel connected to the role, and if so, do things that I might not otherwise do. And so it was, the next Freeman immediately added value by asking me if I were aware that I referred to Freeman as ‘he.’

Who is watching?

Ironically, our TV audiences are basic cable subscribers for which we have no data: no totals, no demographics, and therefore no context such as “What percent of subscribers are basic cable only?” Individuals that can afford cable packages are highly unlikely to be our viewers because they choose to pay for entertainment channels that they can watch on-demand.

Most of our active producers believe their audience is either viewing their show via the Internet stream or after the fact on YouTube or on more likely on Social Media therefore they do not care even care about how their show is scheduled after the first play. When we do hear from viewers, most are commenting on the curated content that actually is educational access content and should be viewable on the education channel. We know a few regularly tune in to listen to the #GoodEnough2Share Independent News Democracy Now.

I obviously believe in what we do together since I give 60 hours or more of unpaid time a week to this idea; but honestly, it is impossible to really know if the channel is what is necessary vs. the functions related to channel management. Is the place itself as a space for fostering talent and empowering action our truer purpose.?

Regarding the channel, I just needed to say it …

It would be nice to have subscriber and viewer data to understand who we are fighting for.

Our Bones Are Good Internet Connected World

In an Internet connected world, can or should Community Access TV, as we know it, be sustained? Yes and No.

Everything this experiment in democracy has at its core remains a vital part of sustaining democratic communities: building community through the production of ideas, opinions, stories, news, information and/or performance while valuing free speech, individual expression, inclusion and diversity. There is no comparable network of local organizations dedicated to being ‘of, by and for’ the voice of the people. If seen collectively, it is the largest television network in America. However, it is not a monolith. As a network, Community TV stations, many organized through the Alliance for Community Media, have shared principles, values and leaders that keep them from being rudderless, but they are as different as they are alike.

The Internet’s potential for worldwide connectivity provides many opportunities for expression and the possibilities may include a variant on this experiment someday. But thus far there is no Web amalgamation of local entities that is anything like community TV. As an experiment, it represents the diversity of America. It engages people agreeing and disagreeing about what makes a difference to them locally where they still have the potential to influence outcomes.

Yes, the Internet changed Community Access TV as it has many aspects of daily living. The Internet provides the infrastructure for a variety of information collections and services within the World Wide Web. For Community TV it is another tool for content delivery.

If the Internet is ubiquitous and free to all Ignoring those pop up ads and digital divide will the eroding uniqueness of local television still be desirable as local television?

• Comfortable watching of content from a living room recliner Smart TVs already let you view YouTube this way;
• Sharing the same viewing experience as your neighbor Smartphones already let you share links to what you want others to also see;
• Community projects bringing folks together to tell community stories The social distancing pandemic has made virtual meetings a mere calendar entry away;
• Commercial-free viewing Assuming the local station is not infiltrated by self-promoters; and
• Hyper-local media that is not controlled by corporate media But may be captured by self-appointed power brokers.

For now, Cable TV Community Access is a delivery system for hyper-local content: content important to the shut-ins who cannot attend church Who are not Internet savvy, commuters who cannot attend a public meeting Although they are likely watching a replay on the Internet, a child proud of his/her report or talent as it is shared with everyone in town, immigrants learning a new language as they listen to the same news stories in two different languages, or new homeowners eager to learn about their community.

Social distancing and essential business guidelines made some community TV stations go dark temporarily, or become a platform for archival reruns or virtually attended message boards, or as was the case for my station, busier than ever as essential media. Essential media stations assisted with online graduations, extended redistribution of online faith-based gatherings, and repurposed online community conversations into digestible resources. New content included fitness programs geared toward the silver sneakers generation and a children’s storytime in the late afternoon.

Juneteenth Guest Blog| to Freedom …

Juneteenth to Freedom, My Grandmother and Me

By Alease Annan, Marketing Manager; founding member, One BRIC Racial Equity Steering Committee @BRICBrooklyn

“Let’s go, Alease!” my grandmother who I am named after would yell as she put on her apron and walked into the kitchen at our home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It was always hard to pull me away from my favorite after school cartoon, DuckTales. “I’m coming, grandma!” I politely and respectfully yelled back to let her know that I was on my way.

It’s June 19, 1990-something and my grandmother, Alease Whiteside (I’m Alease Annan) and I are preparing for our grandma/granddaughter cook-a-thon to prepare for her annual Juneteenth Freedom Dinner.

In our house Juneteenth was a big deal—a really big deal.

As a Black woman, who came of age in the 1980’s and 90’s, I have undoubtedly experienced racism and discrimination. My grandmother, however, grew up in the Jim Crow American south in the 1920’s and 30’s experiencing, witnessing, and feeling a level of hate and racism that I cannot imagine.

My grandmother never explicitly outlined the terror and discrimination she experienced growing up for fear of scarring me but I could see it. I could sense it.

Through her pain though, there was incomparable beauty, immense joy, Vogue-like style, and unmatched skill when it came to the culinary arts. Simply put, my grandmother could cook.

Sweet potatoes. Cabbage. Collard greens. Salmon steak. Turkey wings. Mashed potatoes. Fried chicken. Potato salad. String beans. Macaroni and cheese. Yellow chocolate cake. Chocolate chocolate cake. Sweet potato pie. Cornbread. “I know I’m forgetting something. What am I forgetting?” my grandmother would ask me. Always wanting to be helpful I excitedly said, “Banana pudding, grandma!” She would gently cup my face with a sweet smile as a sign of approval that I had done well.

As I meticulously tore the ends off each string bean, careful not to take off too much, my grandmother would talk about Juneteenth and why we celebrated. “As my mother would tell me and her mother’s mother told her, Juneteenth was the day we received our freedom. It’s a way to honor my grandparents, and my great-grandparents, and my great-great grandparents who were slaves. Their sacrifices are why you, your mom, your uncles, and your cousins are here. We must honor the ancestors. That is why we celebrate.”

I think my grandmother’s Juneteenth definition is great but I’m biased. Here’s how Wikipedia explains Juneteenth: “Juneteenth (a portmanteau of June and nineteenth) is an unofficial American holiday celebrated annually on the 19th of June in the United States to commemorate Union army general Gordon Granger’s reading of federal orders in the city of Galveston, Texas, on 19 June 1865, proclaiming that all enslaved persons in the U.S. state of Texas were now free.

Although the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed them almost two and a half years earlier, and the American Civil War had largely ended with the defeat of the Confederate States in April, Texas was the most remote of the slave states, with a low presence of Union troops, so enforcement of the proclamation had been slow and inconsistent.”

As I got older and learned more about America’s deep seeded history of segregation, racism, and oppression, I proudly continued my grandmother’s annual Juneteenth celebration. The menu was much, much, much smaller but the amount of love and commitment to honoring the tradition was the same.

In light of the murders of George Floyd, a Black man killed by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Breonna Taylor, a Black woman killed while sleeping in her bed in Louisville, Kentucky by police, and Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man killed by criminal vigilantes while out for a jog in his Brunswick, Georgia neighborhood, America is experiencing a New Civil Rights Movement that has inspired people all across the globe to rise up and stand against racism and oppression. Legislators have taken notice and started implementing police reform measures as well as strategizing pathways to dismantling the policies and systems that adversely affect American citizens who happen to be Black Indigenous People Of Color (BIPOC).

In a historic move, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam declared Juneteenth a state holiday on June 16, 2020. “It’s time we elevate this. Not just a celebration by and for some Virginians but one acknowledged and celebrated by all of us,” Northam said. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo followed suit the next day and Texas declared Juneteenth a state holiday in 1980. Additionally, there have been efforts in Congress to make Juneteenth a federal holiday.

From Juneteenth in 1865 to Bloody Sunday in 1965 to today in 2020, we’ve been fighting for freedom. With the global movement for Black lives and human rights, you can hear Black Lives Matter chanted in Berlin, Spain, Amsterdam, Ghana, Paris, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, London, Syria, Bed-Stuy, to the Upper East Side, to Boston, to Portland, and every state in between.

Through it all, My Black is still filled with 2008 Hope. My Black is proud, and smart, and fearless, and joyful, and all kinds of badass. My Black honors the ancestors and my incredible grandmother who taught me the importance of love, soul food cooking, and Black history. My Black is boldly marching and working to effect real change so that we’re not just freeish but FREE.

JUNETEENTH FREEDOM DINNER RECIPES
Were you salivating reading my grandmother’s Juneteenth Freedom Dinner menu? I was, too! I wanted you to be able to make your own Juneteenth meal, so I reached out to Chef Paul Austin, Owner and Head Chef of The Missing Ingredient catering and he graciously agreed to share his Rosemary Chicken, Roasted Baby Vegetables, and Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salad recipes. Chef Paul is fantastic and has a special connection to BRIC as he has catered our B Free Awards many times. Enjoy!

Recipes: Rosemary Chicken Roasted Baby Vegetables Roasted Corn & Black Bean Salad

A #NoExpireDate #SocialActionArt Project Feeding and housing our neighbors by inspiring your donations with art.