Exercise Your Rights...

 

by Mary Reiman

I am writing this on Right to Read Day, April 8th. 

Ballots for early voting were mailed today also.

Especially this year, these two events are closely tied together.  Having the right to read and the right to vote are two most important components of our democracy. 

As we move into May, it is more important than ever to exercise your right to READ. 

Whether you learned to read with Goodnight, Moon or Go, Dog, Go or Dick and Jane (yes, they are still in publication), you entered into the land of learning and thinking. Now you have the opportunity, some would say the responsibility, to use that power to vote. 

READ. Begin with one of the 97 books on the Moms for Liberty (M4L) list. They want these books removed from school libraries across the country. M4L has also been instrumental in the attempt to criminalize librarians and teachers for providing books they find offensive or obscene. Offensive how?  Obscene because they address feelings and experiences of others? Or offensive because they open minds, help us think, reflect and perhaps become more compassionate?

Read The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas OR Girls Like Us by Christine Alger OR Imbeciles by Adams Cohen OR The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult OR Sisters/Hermanas by Gary Paulsen OR Brave Leaders and Activists by J. P. Miller OR any other title from the list. Yes, THE list. The nationally known list.

Read, and be ready to defend the right for libraries to have these books in the collections. The right for youth to check out these books, to see themselves and their situations reflected in the literature. The right to know they are not alone. 

Unfortunately, the challenges will continue. This is a national movement to silence authors, publishers, librarians, teachers. Yes, a national movement and they are NOT going away. For example, The Moms for Liberty have an agenda behind their private Facebook page. Learn more about them. Watch the 60 Minutes interview with their founders. Be informed. 

M4L membership requirements include being ‘a person of good moral and ethical character who subscribes to the values in the bylaws.’ The group, formed by three mothers in Florida, now have chapters in 45 states with the following bylaws: 

A. We hold decision makers accountable or we work to replace them with liberty-minded individuals. 

B. We spread awareness and an understanding of the limited role of government. 

C. We stand together against government overreach and intimidation tactics. 

The first quote on the M4L website is from John Adams. “Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.” I believe President Adams was thinking of the freedom to read when he wrote that sentence. He also said, "Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people."

Yes, I have many questions about what liberty means to them. What is the definition of liberty-minded individuals? And, is it not considered intimidation when they threaten librarians and teachers?

During their 2023 annual summit in Philadelphia, one of the group’s co-founders stated that Moms for Liberty will use its political action committee to engage in school board races nationwide, including the elections of state school board members and superintendents. They spent their first two years inflaming school board meetings with aggressive complaints about instruction on systemic racism and gender identity in the classroom. They are now expanding their strategies to overhaul education infrastructure across the country.

After the offensive statements by Senator Halloran in the Nebraska Legislature on March 18th, LB441 did not pass. The vote was 30-17. Yes, 30 senators voted to pass that bill. 30 senators were willing to pass a law to criminalize educators and librarians. Did they know there are already policies in place giving parents the right to determine what their child may read? Another parent might find it is an appropriate title for their child. A parent simply does not have the right to say that no child should have access to the book. That is what the freedom to read is all about. 

I doubt the senators read any of those books. Nationally organized groups have created lists and taken one sentence or paragraph out of context to demonize the entire book as obscene. I am sorry the senators did not have time to have book groups, perhaps with members of their communities, where they would read the entire book and then discuss the value of each title for the purposes of helping students see themselves, or those they loved, reflected in the literature. I would have been happy to be part of a book discussion with them. 

It is now Thursday, April 11th, and one of the headlines in the Lincoln Journal Star today is: Librarians fear harsh new penalties. Nebraska is not the only state whose lawmakers are following a push for retribution of those who do not follow their agenda. Missouri, Utah, Idaho, Arkansas, Indiana. No, that is not by accident. This is a concerted effort across the country of those who want to limit the freedom to read. Those who want us not to think...just follow their truisms. 

So it is imperative that we READ and then...VOTE. 

Know the candidates’ views of book banning and censorship, especially those running for the State Legislature and the State Board of Education. 

Four districts in Nebraska will have new state school board representatives. Four voices of reason are retiring. Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Know the backgrounds of the candidates, and who the major contributors to their campaigns. It is important to learn their political agendas on public education and the freedom to read. 

Kristin Christensen is the State Board of Education candidate from District 1 (Lincoln). She is a parent and teacher, a voice of reason, a voice who will listen to her constituents. She also has the endorsement of the current board member from District 1, Patsy Koch Johns.

There is an agenda of negativity and censorship bubbling up in this country. It is on the rise and if we do not stand up against it, if we do not vote, we cannot wring our hands later, appalled and overwhelmed by the lack of literature available to meet the needs of our youth. 

If there was ever a time to rise up, it is now. Talk to your friends, your children, your grandchildren. Remind them of the importance of voting, now more than ever. 

Thanks to Vicki Wood, retired Lincoln City Libraries Youth Services Coordinator, for allowing me to share these words from her presentation to the League of Women Voters on April 4th.

"We believe 16-year-olds are mature enough to drive around 5000 pounds of metal, hold jobs that require responsibility and judgment, and play in sports that may damage them physically. However, we don’t trust them to read a novel that contains difficult topics, and sometimes sexual scenes and know that they will integrate these experiences with books into the understanding of the world. A world which also involves their family values, the movies and television they watch, the video games they play, and all of the sex-based consumerism and advertising, TikTok, YouTube videos, and literally tons of other Internet content they come in contact with every day. 

People who seek to limit access to books both overestimate the power of books to “indoctrinate’” and underestimate a young person’s ability to synthesize information and develop an understanding of themselves and their world. I can think of no safer space than the pages of a book for a kid to explore the human experience.”

Exercise your right to read AND your right to vote. 

Words to the Wise (Women)

By JoAnne Young

If you want to insult a woman, call her a prostitute. If you want to insult a man, call him a woman. 

 

Gendered insults, it’s the way linguist Amanda Montell gets our attention in Chapter 1 of her book: Wordslut: a feminist guide to taking back the english language.

 

It’s true, isn’t it? If a woman does something someone doesn’t like, the go-to insult is  frequently related to prostitution or her sexuality. The throwdown for men is that they [fill in the blank] “like a girl.” 

 

Language is the next frontier that needs to be conquered in equalizing genders, Montell says. 

It can tell us about the nature and extent of the inequality of women, linguist Robin Lakoff wrote 50 years ago. Women experience discrimination in the way they are taught to use language and the way language treats them, she said. It’s used to keep them in line from the time they are young girls, taking away their right to express themselves strongly and denying them access to power. 

 

Author Percival Evertt said it this way: In language, and in ownership of language, resides great power. 

 

Power. Control of our own lives. Our own bodies. We are still struggling from centuries of limited power and limited control. There are people now – politicians, lawmakers, judges, influencers, swaths of the influenced – who would drag us back into the dark ages, who would decide how we should behave, spend our time, walk, talk, dress, and wear our hair. 

 

Sticks and stones may break your bones but, as many scholars will tell you, words actually can hurt you. The link between language and culture is forever entangled, Montell says, and continues to reflect and reinforce power structures and social norms. The time has come, she says, to challenge how and why we use language the way we do. That means questioning the words we speak every day. And the words used, even when someone thinks they are being supportive. 

 

This happened just last week at a hearing at the Nebraska Legislature in which Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh spoke to the Executive Board on her resolution to censure Sen. Steve Halloran because of his inserting her name into his reading during debate of a segment of a book in which a young woman was being sexually assaulted.  

After her testimony, Board Chairman Ray Aguilar said, “I just want to thank you for your courage and your composure today under some very difficult circumstances. I’m proud of you.” 

 

Thank you for your composure? I’m proud of you? Would he have said that to any man in the midst of a hearing? 

 

Let me say to Sen. Cavanaugh what I would rather have heard him say to her: 

I just want to thank you for your powerful words.

I just want to thank you for your strength in standing up for people subjected to sexual assault.

I just want to thank you for your persistence in believing elected officials should be held to a higher standard of dignity and integrity. 

 

The Legislature’s Executive Board, which did not forward Cavanaugh’s censure resolution to the full Legislature for a vote, is made up of 10 members and only one of them is female: Sen. Julie Slama. 

 

Buzzing around the internet, I came across a site listing 29 words only used to describe women. These will sound familiar to a lot of you. Abrasive, bossy, bitchy, bubbly, ditsy, frigid, frumpy, high maintenance, pushy, breathless, hysterical, shrill ... that’s fewer than half of them. 

 

Women are often criticized for “being emotional.” Emotions, by the way, serve important purposes and are normal responses that all humans have. They are not a form of hysteria, a word first coined by Hippocrates, the founder of Western medicine. It’s from the word hystera, Greek for uterus, because he believed women’s wombs induced “a lack of control and extravagant feelings.” 

 

I think about Anna Cox, a woman who lived in Pawnee City at the turn of the 20^th Century. She was 33, with six children, ages 4 months to 11 years old. Her husband divorced her, saying her behavior had been erratic for about nine months. He took custody of their children and dropped her off at the Nebraska Hospital for the Insane, now known as the Lincoln Regional Center. 

 

They diagnosed her with subacute mania, even though upon her arrival she spoke rationally, was controlled, quiet and even cheerful. Over the next few years, separated from her children, family and friends, her medical records showed she was known as an excellent worker, even if sometimes “a bit incoherent” and at times had outbursts. 

 

She remained at the asylum 43 years, from 1904 to her death in 1947 at age 75. In those times, other women found themselves in the same predicament, with no rights, brought to asylums for hysteria and other acts of defying domestic control, which were commonly diagnosed as abnormal and therefore a mental disorder. 

 

Christine Blasey Ford (you remember that many of us were glued to her words in 2018 as we watched her testimony about the former president’s Supreme Court appointee Brett Kavanaugh) has turned the phrase "I believe you" on its head. 

 

Those words, said Blasey Ford on the podcast We Can Do Hard Things, are only said to a woman reporting an assault or rape or harassment. “I don’t think we say it for anything else other than sexual assaults, or maybe domestic violence.”

 

We don’t say it to a man who has reported being a victim of a crime. 

 

The underlying question when someone says “I believe you” is whether the woman is believable, whether women in general are trustworthy, Glennon Doyle said. 

 

 I will leave you with this, a word from author Ben Montgomery: Cloistering. He was talking to writers, but I would give this same word to women. 

 

Find a sect, a fortress, a coven of those who are like-minded with whom to dwell in the dark times, he said. Find your people and take care of them. Stick with them. Genuinely love them. Learn from them. Write them letters. Swap stories on barstools. Nurture and sharpen one another. Do not be exclusive. Others will come in search of what you have found. Invite them in. Cheer them on. 

 

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Dear Senator Halloran...Did You Read the Whole Book?

 By Marilyn Moore

Dear Senator Halloran,

I wonder….did you read the whole book?  You know, the book Lucky, by Alice Sebold.  The book from which you read on the floor of the legislature, the book that begins with a detailed description of a brutal rape (I wonder if there’s such a thing as a rape that isn’t brutal…), a rape that Alice endured, and survived, when she was 18 years old and a first-year college student.  Because you inserted the names of senators into your reading of that passage from the book, essentially demanding oral sex from Senator Cavanaugh, your speech went viral, Nebraska Nice sounds like hypocrisy to the nation, and the Legislature’s Executive Board is considering a resolution to censure you. That will play out in some way over the next few days, and whatever the outcome of the censure motion, you will complete your term and return to life as a citizen, with the new role of “retired legislator.”

It's the book I want to address.  Lucky is a memoir, a book based on the writer’s memory of her life.  It’s not fiction. It was first published in 1999.  Copies are available in the Lincoln City Library collection, where there’s a waiting list, and in high school libraries in many communities, including Lincoln.  Based on the description of that rape, found on the first ten pages of the book, which was indeed hard to read and hard to hear, and without a doubt a thousand times harder to experience, you labeled the book “obscene” and said it should not be in school libraries, that children needed to be kept safely away from such obscenity.  Such a conclusion to be drawn after reading only a few pages of the book….

Had you read the entire book, you would have read the rest of the story...the impact of this assault on Alice’s relationship with her parents, and her older sister, and college friends, and future male friends and romantic partners.  You would have read about her experiences with law enforcement officers and medical examiners and mental health providers immediately following the rape, and the judicial system for months to come.  You would have read about the people who stepped up to support her, especially her writing professors, and those who just couldn’t, or wouldn’t. You would have read about moments of sheer terror that overtook her for years to come.  You would have read about bouts of drug and alcohol addiction.  You would have read about people who didn’t want to be around her, because she was “that girl, the girl who was raped,” and people who wanted to be around her because she was “that girl, the girl who was raped.”  You would have read about the decades of effort that it took for her to emerge as whole, and healthy, and the writer that she is.  But I doubt that you know any of this, because I’m pretty sure you didn’t read the whole book.

You described the book as “obscene,” and a how-to guide for boys on raping girls.  Oh, my, Senator, what an absurd statement.  First of all, most boys don’t want to be rapists.  They don’t plan to be rapists. They don’t have “rape an 18-year-old virgin in a tunnel” as one of their life goals.  Second, for those who do, they do not need a how-to guide.  For all of human existence, men have raped women, in every millennium, on every continent, in every culture, before wars and during wars and after wars, at professional conferences and in workplaces of every kind, in homes and parks and cars and churches and schools, on city streets and country roads…men have raped women.  They have not needed a how-to guide.  The perpetrator’s actions may make readers uncomfortable, but that doesn’t make the book obscene.  Those behaviors are described in every crime report taken by a local police officer, they are a matter of public record, they are reported in local newspapers, and they are testified to, under oath, when assailants are charged and tried.  

But what I find most troubling about your statement is that it is totally devoid of understanding that this scene, this brutal rape, was Alice’s real life.  This happened to a young woman, and she describes all the terror she experienced.  She describes what she did and said in order to live to see the next day.  Her fright must have been beyond words….but she found words.  Did you acknowledge that?  Her feelings, her emotions, her terror, her determination?  Her courage?

And it’s because of that, her courage to describe what happened, and all that happened in the aftermath, that I believe firmly that this book should be accessible to teenagers.  You see, what Alice experienced wasn’t something that happened to her and her alone.  You probably know that sexual assault is one of the most under-reported crimes; according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, two-thirds of rapes and sexual assaults go unreported.  The Nebraska Crime Commission reports that 788 forcible rapes were reported to law enforcement agencies in Nebraska in 2023.  Given the likely under-reporting, it’s not unrealistic to think that nearly 2400 forcible rapes happened in Nebraska in 2023.  That’s 2400 people who experienced what Alice experienced, nearly all of them were women.  Closer to home, 6 forcible rapes were reported in Hamilton County, your home county, in 2023.  If the same under-reporting is true in Hamilton County, there were more likely to have been 18 forcible rapes.  Eighteen people in Hamilton County endured what Alice endured, just last year.  And it’s likely some of them were teenagers.

Every high school counselor, every high school principal, every school nurse, every school social worker, and yes, every high school librarian, has most likely at one time, or many times, known a student like Alice, a young woman, sexually assaulted, fearful, angry, uncertain, hurt.  Some, like Alice, can tell their parents.  Some cannot.  Some, like Alice, are able to report it to the police; some cannot.  Some, like Alice, are assaulted by a person unknown to her, a stranger; most will have been assaulted by someone they know, a family member, a friend of the family, a trusted adult figure (think coach, or priest, or camp counselor, or teacher) or a boyfriend, who she is trying to please.  Some will tell a trusted person at school; some will become known to the trusted person at school because rumors start, whispers happen, and a counselor soon knows that someone like Alice needs help.  And part of that help can be knowing that it was indeed awful, and frightening, and not your fault, and that you are not alone.  

You see, Senator, had you read the whole book, you would have heard the relief in Alice’s voice when she learned that Mrs. McAllister, a woman in her hometown church, had been raped when she was eighteen.  In her words, “Mrs. McAllister gave me two things: my first awareness of another rape victim who lived in my world, and…the proof that there was power to be had in sharing my story.”

So there you have it, Senator, in Alice’s own words, and in the words of every survivor of sexual assault that I have known, the reason this book needs to be in libraries, available to teenage readers.  There is power in story, there is power in knowing you are not alone, there is power in knowing that you can survive. I hope you will take time to read the whole book, and I hope that you will acknowledge and affirm the strength and bravery of women like Alice who survive and who share their story, so that others may survive, also.   

(Afterword:  Yes, I know that the man who was convicted of the rape was exonerated in 2021.  This person served 17 years of a hellish prison sentence.  The fact that the wrong person was convicted does not make the trauma that Alice experienced any less severe, and it means that whoever did rape her is still unidentified.)  

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Taking a Pause....Seeking a Presence

By Marilyn Moore

This is not the blog I intended to write.  I was going to write about Lucky, the book from which Sen. Halloran quoted on the floor of the legislature, the tirade that put Nebraska in the national news in the most unflattering of ways.  That was the blog I was going to write…and I will.  Soon.  Just not today.

These days, marked by the life force of spring, with trees and grass and daffodils coming alive again, buffeted as they are by March wind and cold and snow, these days, the time of celebration of Holy Week by Christians, Passover by Jews, and Ramadan by Muslims, these days that are sacred, and reflective, and hopeful, are days that I simply cannot cast into the collective air that we breathe the anger and despair and frustration of the blog I was going to write.  

This day….I’m taking a pause, sensing a presence…that will soothe and smooth rough edges of my heart, mind, and soul…

In the quiet curve of evening, in the singing of the days,

In the silky void of darkness, you are there.

In the lapses of the my breathing, in the space between my ways,

In the crater carved by sadness, you are there.

You are there, you are there.

                                                   

In the rests between the phrases, in the cracks between the stars,

In the gaps between the meaning, you are there.

 In the melting down of endings, in the cooling of the sun,

 In the solstice of the winter, you are there.

 You are there, you are there.

In the mystery of the hungers, in the silence of my rooms, 

In the cloud of my unknowing, you are there.

In the empty cave of grieving, in the desert of my dreams, 

In the tunnel of my sorrow, you are there.

You are there, you are there.

The lines above are by the author Julie Howard.  They are not the “sunshine and roses” pause; they acknowledge the spaces and moments in our lives, and the emptiness and loss that’s there, too.  She seeks assurance, as do I, as do all who are lonely, or grieving, or uncertain, or just overwhelmed by all of life right now.  A pause, seeking a presence.

Many names can be given to that presence.  It may be the name that is used by people of faith, the name Yahweh, or God, or Allah.  It may be Creator, or Holy One, or Mystery of Mysteries.  It may be the name of someone much loved, or the memory of that someone.  It may be the wind, or the sun, or the stars.  It may be no name…a presence that is sought, sensed, felt, by which we are comforted, held, assured.  

For this day, a pause.  The blog I intended to write will hold for another day (not long, watch for it in a few days).  And I will nestle into the embrace and wise spirit of the presence.  

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A sexual assault on every woman in Nebraska ...This is personal

 

By Mary Kay Roth

This week a Nebraska state senator most certainly sexualized – and, in some sense, sexually assaulted – every woman in Nebraska.

During debate on the floor of the Nebraska Legislature – concerning a ludicrous proposal to criminalize librarians – State Sen. Steve Halloran read aloud a graphic rape scene excerpted from the courageous memoir, “Lucky,” while several times inserting the name “Sen. Cavanaugh” into his reading. 

Selectively choosing the most salacious sections, Halloran was clearly referring to State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh in repeatedly injecting her name – including a passage that made it appear Halloran was directing Cavanaugh to perform oral sex on him.

Several days later, I determined to force myself to watch the vicious video of this despicable, abusive performance.  And as I listened, I could actually hear my own name inserted, my daughter’s name, the names of my friends.

When Halloran addresses the Nebraska Unicameral, he is addressing everyone in our state.  He is addressing every woman in our state.  And he abused and assaulted every one of us. 

This was personal for me.  This was brutal. 

Here’s what one Lincoln woman – a friend of mine who hails from western Nebraska – had to say: “Sen. Halloran forced every person in that hearing room to participate in an assault on another human being. No one in that room consented to hear the content read aloud ... and hear a woman degraded, embarrassed and humiliated.” 

It appears unclear the State Legislature will have the spine to take any meaningful action, censure or dismissal against this arrogant, misogynist tyrant.  

So, in the past few days, I felt compelled to check in with women in my orbit, a broad swath of ages, ethnicities, professions.  I have chosen not to use their names in this blog, as I asked for naked truth.  

But, bless them all, they agreed to help me send a message:

Dear Sen. Cavanaugh, We don’t know you. We have only admired you from afar.  But please know you are not alone in this fight. Multitudes of women stand with you. This behavior can no longer be given a pass. It must end. Now.

A woman who worked in the local school system sent me this message: “Clearly, he thoroughly enjoyed reading this passage, totally out of context, out loud, and inserting Cavanaugh’s name. As far as I’m concerned this was a shameful act of sexual aggression on his part.  His disgusting behavior is traumatizing to anyone who has been a victim of sexual assault.” 

And here's what I heard from someone with a long-term career in Nebraska state government: “It's another example of privileged white men/policy makers speaking and acting without suffering any consequences from their peers. As elected officials they should be held to a higher standard of respectful behavior and speech.”

When Cavanaugh finally had a chance to respond to Halloran, she spoke through tears, saying his words were among the cruelest she has experienced during her time as a state senator – words particularly damaging to anyone with experiences of sexual violence.  

Since that evening, Halloran has issued a half-hearted, pathetic and worthless apology, refusing to resign and listing a number of lame excuses.

Here's the response from a Lincoln woman who often serves as a citizen advocate: “I am appalled, sickened, disheartened, nauseated. And his weak attempt to explain it away only increased my fury … A person of any good moral character would certainly demonstrate an ability to self-reflect and learn and admit their deplorable action.”

Instead, Halloran made the bizarre claim that the book he was quoting from is a how-to rape manual – as opposed to the truly brave 1999 memoir of Alice Sebold, a woman who agonizingly describes her experience of being brutally raped and beaten when she was an 18-year-old student at Syracuse University in New York.

A Lincoln teacher had this to say: “This is a MEMOIR, not a piece of fiction.  This is Alice Sebold's LIFE.  How dare this man use this memoir in such a grotesque manner. His reading of the memoir was poor and unfeeling, making the rape scene crude instead of the violent attack that it was.  Halloran was attacking not just Sen. Cavanaugh but every female member of the Unicameral and every woman of Nebraska.”

And this came to me from a Nebraska college student: “I’m sure this guy hasn’t even read the book.  The whole point is visualizing the horror and trauma of rape, particularly so other rape survivors can understand their feelings are valid. Rape is about violence, not sex.  Halloran just made it about sex … creating a possible trigger for anyone who has experienced rape. This was vile.”

In the past week's rocky aftermath, senators from across party lines have criticized Halloran – a few called for his resignation. State Sen. Ray Aguilar, who chairs the Legislature’s Executive Board, launched an investigation under the Legislature’s workforce harassment policy – that could take up to 45 days to complete.

One wonders exactly what they need to investigate. The entire state watched Halloran not only disgustedly demean a colleague but traumatize every sexual abuse victim in Nebraska. And since he will be term-limited this year, any delayed slap on the wrist is meaningless.  

A resolution was also filed this past week stating that Halloran “should be censured and condemned for conduct that rises to the level of harassment and hostility to fellow members of the Legislature.”  Such a censure resolution would involve a public hearing and, if advanced, require a vote by the entire Legislature. 

A Lincoln woman in her 30’s who works for the University of Nebraska said she was confused: “I don’t get it.  How does this guy still have a job? I’ve worked in many places, and there’s no way someone could make such a flagrant, unashamed, sexist statement, and not get fired.”  

State Sen. Julie Slama – a Republican senator who has experienced sexual violence — said the Legislature’s workforce harassment policies are “completely inadequate” and regularly make the Unicameral “a national joke.”

Pushing for the Legislature to create an effective process where allegations of sexual assault could be authentically adjudicated, she explained there are now only three actions that can be taken against such a senator, including a formal letter, a censure vote and a formal expulsion from the body. 

As reported in the Lincoln Journal Star, Slama asked:  “If you were at any other job in the world and you got up and told your coworker in front of the rest of the workplace ‘give me a blowjob’ and then you interjected their name into a graphic description of a rape, what do you think your company would do to you?” 

She and Cavanaugh believe a legislative investigation is inadequate and support the censure resolution: “We don’t need an investigation,” Slama stressed. “It only serves to slow walk this and sweep it under the rug.”

One of my friends whose career was with a national business headquartered in Nebraska, noted: “I work with people across the country and Canada, and I tell them Omaha and Lincoln are really nice places with good people. But I find our Legislature embarrassing, continually subjecting people – often people who are not straight, white, rich, Republican, male – to the most abject, cruel degradation and disregard.”

I love my home state, a place of beautiful prairies and many honest, decent people. But if we don’t call out the ugliness in Nebraska – particularly in our own Unicameral – we will never stop such victimization.

Good grief, enough is enough. Censure this guy. Create a better system for investigating sexual violence in the Nebraska Legislature. Stand up for decency.  And please let Cavanaugh know she is not facing this fight alone.

A few final words from women of Nebraska: “The climate we establish must communicate clearly that this type of conduct is not tolerated. Ever.”

“We cannot allow this to stand. We cannot do nothing anymore or we are no better than those who force themselves on others to make them feel powerless, take away their voice. We must do better.  Be better. We must.” 

** Write your state senators. Now. 

https://nebraskalegislature.gov/senators/senator_list.php

Artificial Intelligence

by Mary Reiman

There’s a news report almost every day about AI. Artificial Intelligence. After viewing Matthew McConaughey’s Gold Rush commercial for Salesforce during an NFL game, I began to pay more attention. Several days later I started documenting the headlines in the Lincoln Journal Star (LJS). 

"Chatty AI helping lonely seniors." (LJS, 12-30-2023) ElliQ, the device which looks like a small lamp, with a top that lights up and swivels. It talks, tells jokes, plays music and remembers each user’s interests and their conversations. Is it described as "the only device using artificial intelligence specifically designed to alleviate the loneliness and isolation experienced by many older Americans." For many senior citizens, especially those living alone, ElliQ may fill that gap.

The following day, ‘A Tsunami of Misinformation’ (LJS, 12-31-2023) reports “...fabricated images, videos and audio clips known as deepfakes have started making their way into experimental presidential campaign ads.” Ah...here it comes. Another election year. What to believe? Who to believe?

And then, “Microsoft adding AI button to keyboards” (LJS, 1-7-2024). Hmm...so now I know my laptop will soon be outdated because it doesn’t have that new feature that I’m sure will be needed for my future endeavors.

Yes, AI technology has been with us for some time. Is it possible that Siri and Alexa have been with us since 2011? How did we get through our days without them?

Remember the Jetsons? George Jetson often complained of his hard work pushing buttons for an hour a day, two days a week at Spacely Space Sprockets. And they had Rosie, the robot maid. Now 'CES unveils AI tools and robots that cook.' (LJS, 1-17-2024) “Chef-life robots, AI-powered appliances and other high-tech kitchen gadgets are holding out the promise that humans don’t need to cook...for themselves anymore." I look forward to the day when the robot knows what I am hungry for and automatically prepares that meal!

Be assured I could not give a workshop on AI or deepfakes. I know just enough to hopefully make sure I never get scammed. But it seems that simply by turning on our devices, that risk is greater every day. 

How much artificial intelligence do we really need? Looking up the definition of IA gives us a glimpse. "Here are some thing that AI can do that humans can't...AI systems excel at processing vast amounts of data rapidly, identifying patterns, and extracting insights that might be challenging or impossible for humans to discern manually."  OK...it's hard to argue with that. Processing vast amounts of data? Of course I cannot compete with that, especially if anyone would expect me to do that rapidly! 

It’s important to think about how AI may be helpful to us. From 'Appy Place: Can artificial intelligence help guide well-being?' (LJS, 1-28-2024) One free, online site is FuturSelf (https://futurself.ai). Answer a few questions and the AI program “...assesses areas where you need help. Maybe you’re depressed, not exercising, not socializing or not going to the doctor enough. You can see what’s bothering you and decide if you want to make tweaks in your life.” I did not take the survey, but if it can figure me out...more power to it!

By February the news reports began to focus on the elections:

“Big Tech companies sign pact on AI content: Largely symbolic deal targets deepfakes that seek to mislead voters” (LJS, 2-17-2024)

“Bill would alert voters about AI campaign ads” (LJS, 2-29-2024)

“Elon Musk sues OpenAI and its CEO” (LJS, 3-3-2024)

 Permission was received from the Caltech Science Exchange to use the image at the beginning of this blog. It is from their publication,  Can We Trust Artificial Intelligence?   

I highly recommend we all look at the News Literacy Project , a nonpartisan site with links to many resources about News Literacy in the Age of AI. Scroll down to the infographic on misinformation.  Also, watch the video explaining Reverse Image Search in the section: Develop skills to identify fabricated content. It explains the digital verification tool used to determine the origin of an image. I know...hard to believe anyone would post an image incorrectly just to deceive us. 

Most importantly, do I really want a digital twin? 'AI twinsies.' (LJS, 1-17-2024) New technology (Hollo AI) is available that will allow me to upload a selfie and voice memos into my phone. Then my twin can interact with my fans on social media platforms. According to the site, “Hollo leads the way in personalized AI interactions, connecting creators and celebrities with their fans ethically and authentically.” Well it’s being created for celebrities at this point, but how do they know I’m not a celebrity?

I think I need a digital twin...and she will write my next blog.  Or maybe I have already signed up and my twin wrote this one... 

Resources:

Can We Trust Artificial Intelligence (https://scienceexchange.caltech.edu/topics/artificial-intelligence-research/trustworthy-ai)

News Literacy Project (https://newslit.org/ai/?gad_source=1)

Reverse Image Search

(https://checkology.org/demo/lesson/7dfd7cb251430f1c28f84051056b4aff8e65ad75?utm_source=ai&utm_medium=click&utm_campaign=ai_landing&_gl=1*1n9niv0*_ga*MTY2OTQxMTczNS4xNzA5NjY4NzQx*_ga_TCGD1R62ZJ*MTcxMDAwOTEyMC4zLjEuMTcxMDAwOTIxMS42MC4wLjA) 

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A time to commit

By JoAnne Young

This week I listened to a father tell a story about his own listening to Debussy’s Claire de Lune while mourning the loss of a baby. I could hear that haunting piano along with him as he read out loud the essay he had written about the empty space the baby left in his and his wife’s house and life. 

 

“I don’t just play it to remind myself,” he wrote. “I play it to live in the fade of each note and dance with your spirit. It is the closest that I will ever come to holding your hand.” 

 

Hearing, one of our five big senses, is a great human gift. There are other beings who have better hearing than we do, using it mostly for survival. Ours helps us to survive, too, but also in large part to connect and to find pleasure, even delight, when we go a step further and really listen. 

 

In recent years, I have come up with a word each January that will guide me through the new year. Last year it was “connection.” For 2024, I had decided to continue with the word connection because it had served me well. But as I took a cold walk around Holmes Lake one morning and listened to winter becoming spring in the drumming of woodpeckers, the lapping of water that had lost its last skim of ice, the scampering of a squirrel up the bark of a tree with leaves for her nest, I decided to add listening to my 2024 intentions. 

 

There is so much to listening, not the least of which is listening to people, our families, our friends, our politicians (just enough to know what they’re up to), and those who can guide us, teach us or just make us laugh. One of my vows on that cold morning walk was to listen this year for understanding, without judgment, agenda or distraction. 

 

I will make one exception. Politicians.

 

I had an opportunity recently to inquire with the Nebraska Attorney General’s office about interviewing and writing a profile on a woman – Grace Johnson, an Oglala Sioux Tribe member – who had been hired last fall as the liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons in Nebraska, a long ignored, troubling issue that is finally getting attention. 

 

The office said no, I could not talk to her, even though the Nebraska Legislature funded the position to improve these needed investigations and disclosures. 

I appealed to Attorney General Mike Hilgers, himself, reminding him about the national media’s high profile interest in this, on television series and movies, that Nebraskans should know something about the woman who taxpayers are funding, what motivates her and what she specifically is doing. Nebraskans should be able to listen to her directly. 

 

He said they “had challenges with that,” even though “Grace is a wonderful person. She’s doing amazing work.” Maybe, he said, there’s a way to meet in the middle. But there was, honestly, no middle. A disservice, when listening is blocked, to her, the Legislature, the Native population and its missing people, and the rest of us. 

 

I tried. Didn’t succeed. So onward with my year of listening through conversations, music, reading, the sounds of nature, TV, movies, plays, podcasts, body language and the soulful eyes of our pets.

 

I’ll devote much of my listening to others through conversation. 

 

We listen, on average, to about 20,000 or more words each day. On some days, much more than that. Women speak an average of 16,215 words a day. Men rack up about 15,669, according to a University of Arizona study. That’s an average of 950 words in an hour, give or take. 

 

Part of my commitment to listening this year will be to listen for understanding, to pay attention, to learn, rather than thinking about what to say next. And at the end of each day, I will take note of the best thing I heard that day. 

 

Today, it was once again on a walk at the lake: a herd of young people running up behind me on the path, the staccato sound of each shoe hitting the gravel in soft rhythm. I can’t rightfully describe the joy that brought. 

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