In his March 20, 2012, article for Truthout (“Gated Intellectuals and Ignorance in Political Life: Toward a Borderless Pedagogy in the Occupy Movement”) Henry A. Giroux writes:
… [T]here is a need to develop what I call a project of democratization and borderless pedagogy that moves across different sites – from schools to the alternative media – as part of a broader attempt to construct a critical formative culture in the United States that enables Americans to reclaim their voices, speak out, exhibit moral outrage and create the social movements, tactics and public spheres that will reverse the growing tide of authoritarianism in the United States.
In this spirit, beginning on April 12, 2012, in Brooklyn, New York, the National Know Drones Tour will use three Reaper drone replicas – 8 feet long with wingspans of 11 feet – to undertake sidewalk education on drone warfare and drone surveillance.
The premise of the tour is simply to take information, in however small a way, directly to people, where they already are, and to engage them in conversation. The hook is the drone replica, which has proven to stimulate great curiosity and, always, questions.
The tour is focused exclusively on the home districts of 18 of the 55 members of Congress who are members of the Unmanned Systems Caucus, know informally as the Drone Caucus. These members function within the Congress to promote the interests of the drone industry, which includes all the major aerospace contractors and other makers of robotic machinery.
The schedule for the tour appears on www.KnowDrones.com.
This ten-minute film, based on sidewalk education visits in late 2011 outside New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, shows what will be happening on the Know Drones Tour.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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