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March 11, 2003
helping with a website
I've
been spending a lot of time trying to improve the Prince George's Information
Commons history Webpage,
which is modestly interactive. It's still a work-in-progress. It reflects
the contributions of our high school students, although I ended up doing
most of the technical work because we just don't have enough time with
the kids to teach them oral history techniques, the issue of desegregation,
and how to animate webpages. Tomorrow in class they will have a
chance to critique what I've done intensively and then I will try to implement
their ideas.
Posted by peterlevine at 3:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
reading George W. Bush
I've been thinking a bit about various theories that eorge Bush is pursuing war for unstated motives, some nefarious and some honorable. These thought are prompted by a Michael Kinsley editorial and various conversations and email exchanges with friends. As a general rule, I don't believe that we should try to assess leaders' motives. That's because:- We can never tell for sure what their motives are. (Or even what motivates our own actions.)
- Motives don't matter. You can do a bad or stupid thing with the best intentions, or you can do a great thing for awful reasons. We need to spend our time thinking about policies, not policymakers.
- A focus on motives makes us turn for advice to insiders, those who may have insight into leaders' secret thoughts. (For example, presidential advisors, speaking off the record.) We should instead listen to fellow citizens and experts with knowledge of the substantive issue.
Unfortunately, we cannot make a very intelligent judgment about war in Iraq, because so much of the important information that George W. Bush has on his desk is classified. Also, much depends on how the war will turn out in the end. No one knows, but George Bush's motives are relevant, since he will make many crucial decisions. Thus it is hard not to think about his motives as a surrogate way of grappling with the issue.
Posted by peterlevine at 12:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack