[-empyre-] response

[Alan Sondheim]

Renate, this is completely confusing to me; I was responding to Simon's 
post, not to yours.

- Alan

On Mon, 27 Mar 2017, Renate Terese Ferro wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hi Alan,  Please see my responses in CAPs.  My apologies for that but I thought it would separate what I am currently writing and what you wrote.
>
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- It is 
> interesting, to me, what you say, Renate, about the "chance to wait and 
> perhaps go back at a later time" in the light of Johannes's 
> predictables--leading somewhere--and perhaps missing the retrofitted 
> loco of linear history or listserv discussion. Why not sit this one out? 
> This thread, this post, this presidential tenure? Since we have 
> literally undeafening silence?.
>
> ITS INTERESTING TO ME THAT BOTH YOU AND JOHANNES FEEL THAT THERE IS 
> SILENCE.  ACTUALLY I THINK IT HAS CERTAINLY NOT BEEN A ROBUST MONTH BUT 
> A STEADY STREAM OF POSTS CONSIDERING THE FACT THAT THERE WERE NO INVITED 
> GUESTS.  YOU MUST REALIZE THAT EMPYRE (THAT IS MOST MONTHS) IS COMPRISED 
> OF BETWEEN EIGHT AND TEN SOMETIMES MORE GUESTS.  ORGANIZED AND CURATED 
> SO THAT THREE TO FOUR OR MORE POST AND CONVERSE WEEKLY.  I THINK I 
> MENTIONED THAT TO YOU WHEN YOU PROPOSED THIS TOPIC ALAN.  CONSIDERING 
> YOU DECIDED TO DO THE MORE OPEN FORMAT ITHIS MONTH HAS BEEN STEADY.
>
> To ?sit this one out' is not an option.
>
> YOU ARE LEAVING OUT THE THE REMAINDER OF WHAT I WROTE AND TAKING IT OUT OF CONTEXT.  PLEASE NOTE THE TEXT THAT I WROTE WITHIN THE POST WHICH WAS:
>
> Perhaps a thread,
> Perhaps a post,
> But certainly not THIS PRESIDENTIAL TENURE.
> RESIST SIMON RESIST
>
>
> PLEASE NOTE THE ?NOT.?
>
> I WOULD FULLY AGREE THAT SITTING OUT THIS PRESIDENTIAL TENURE IS NOT ON MY DOCKET.  I AM NOT SURE THAT I DO NOT NEED TO DEFEND MYSELF HERE BUT ANYONE WHO KNOWS ME WELL IS AWARE THAT I AM IN THE THICK OF GRASSROOTS POLITICAL RESISTANCE.  I HAVE NOTICED SO MANY FRIENDS, COLLEAGUES, ACQUAINTANCES  IN NYS ANYWAY ARE SPENDING SO MUCH MORE TIME ACTIVELY AND COLLABORATIVELY MEETING, PROTESTING, SIGN BUILDING, LETTER AND POSTCARD WRITING, PHONE CALL MAKING, AND SCHEMING FOR 2018.  SO PERHAPS TO SIT OUT A POST OR A THREAD IN EMPYRE THIS MONTH IS OK FROM MY POINT OF VIEW.  THAT IS GIVEN THE FACT THAT WE ARE SPENDING A BIT MORE TIME IN ACTIVE RESISTANCE.
>
>
>
> EMPYRE IS EXHAUSTING.  IN FACT I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF ORGANIZING NEXT MONTH?S TOPIC WITH INVITED GUESTS.  TO HAVE YOU ALL TAKING THE HEALM FOR ME HAS BEEN SUCH A WONDERFUL TREAT.  YOU ARE DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB WITH A COMPLEX TOPIC.  YOU HAVE ATTRACTED A DIVERSE SET OF RESPONDENTS WITHOUT ANY ORGANIZED GUESTS.
>
>
> SO THE LECTURE I AM AFRAID BELOW WAS CERTAINLY NOT WARMLY WELCOMED FROM MY POINT OF VIEW.  IN FACT IT WAS A BIT PREACHY AND INSULTING.   I PRESUME YOUR COMMENT WAS NOT MEANT AS AN INSULT BUT ONLY AN ENERGETIC AND PASSIONATE PLEA FOR ALL.
>
> UNDERSTOOD AS SUCH.  THANK YOU ALAN FOR SHEPHERDING THIS MONTH?S DISCUSSION.
> WARMLY,
> RENATE
>
> <SNIP>
> Or it is, if one doesn?t mind the unraveling of over a century of social and environmental legislation.
> You can't reverse engineer the destruction of species and biomes. You can't undo the effects of fossil fuels, particularly if coal is brutally resurrected. West Virginia is one of the largest producers of coal in the country. Soft coal, dirtier than anthracite, which has pretty much run dry elsewhere. As of ten years ago, when I was researching the issue, WV coal countries had mountain-topped 423 mountains in the state. That means literally blowing up the top of the mountain to get at the coal seams, and sending the refuse into the surrounding small valleys (hollers). These hollers contain some of the highest percentage of endangered species in the world, because they're isolated from one another. Whole towns were destroyed, without recompense because miners didn't own the mineral rights under their places. Look at google maps of the state to get an idea of the destruction.
>
> This stuff won't come back. The mountain environment is replaced, when it is replaced, by meadowland, somewhat good for deer, but nothing else. And of course the environment is decimated - not only locally, but with the pollution carried by coal-burning. I'm from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, north of WV, in the heart of what was anthracite country. In the 1950s, coal-burning created five times the density of New York City's pollution.
>
> This stuff isn't going to stay local by the way; pollution carries world-wide; Chinese aerosols etc. are found over North America.
>
> Most of the larger sea animals are endangered. Jellyfish (which I quite like) are doing well, probably some phytoplankton as well. But if you look at coral reefs - not only Australia's, but, say those in the South China Sea - they're dying rapidly - the latter as a result, not so much climate change as China's militarization of the atolls.
>
> So how exactly should we sit this one out? It?s obviously an easy solution - do nothing etc. - but at least in the US, this environmental and militaristic mess is seen as a _global crisis,_ not just something that worries hipsters in Brooklyn.
>
>
> - Alan
> <SNIIP>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
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>
>
>
>
> Renate Ferro
> Visiting Associate Professor
> Director of Undergraduate Studies
> Department of Art
> Tjaden Hall 306
> rferro at cornell.edu
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu

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