So that happened.
A lot happened this week. There are a lot of questions.
Living in Waltham this week was a stressful thing. Seeing Humvees on the next street over and having our streets shut down was eerie, but I was glad it was done, and I was glad they caught the guy. I'm glad it's over. I'm glad that they got it done. I'm glad that the system worked. I don't feel like the shutdown was unnecessary. I don't resent it. I think we did exactly the right think to stay put and let law enforcement do their jobs. I'm glad we did. The way things have unfolded has made me question the media in a big way, watching CNN eat its own tail, or as Jon Stewart put it, turn into the Human Centipede of news media. The Daily Show had a field day with the media this week, and I cannot fault them at all. It was so well deserved.
I've seen two kinds of people in the last week, and it's given me a lot of food for thought. I've seen a lot of critical thinkers who do the research and get multiple news sources, pointing out where they conflict. I've seen another camp of people who post photographs with reddit tags and no sources, linked to gmail accounts, that have the potential to ruin people's lives. This week has, at the very least, made me reconsider what kind of influences I want connected to my life and in what ways. My facebook feed has gotten a lot more "do not show in feed" people, and may get a lot more de-friended folks as time goes on.
This all dovetailed quite poetically with my current college course in Digital Literacy, which is mostly in how to seek out credible sources, and how to attain useful information online.
I'm not really interested in unpacking the emotional experience this week even this publicly. If you want to talk about it, you can talk to me one on one.
I've learned a lot, and I'm proud of my city.
Living in Waltham this week was a stressful thing. Seeing Humvees on the next street over and having our streets shut down was eerie, but I was glad it was done, and I was glad they caught the guy. I'm glad it's over. I'm glad that they got it done. I'm glad that the system worked. I don't feel like the shutdown was unnecessary. I don't resent it. I think we did exactly the right think to stay put and let law enforcement do their jobs. I'm glad we did. The way things have unfolded has made me question the media in a big way, watching CNN eat its own tail, or as Jon Stewart put it, turn into the Human Centipede of news media. The Daily Show had a field day with the media this week, and I cannot fault them at all. It was so well deserved.
I've seen two kinds of people in the last week, and it's given me a lot of food for thought. I've seen a lot of critical thinkers who do the research and get multiple news sources, pointing out where they conflict. I've seen another camp of people who post photographs with reddit tags and no sources, linked to gmail accounts, that have the potential to ruin people's lives. This week has, at the very least, made me reconsider what kind of influences I want connected to my life and in what ways. My facebook feed has gotten a lot more "do not show in feed" people, and may get a lot more de-friended folks as time goes on.
This all dovetailed quite poetically with my current college course in Digital Literacy, which is mostly in how to seek out credible sources, and how to attain useful information online.
I'm not really interested in unpacking the emotional experience this week even this publicly. If you want to talk about it, you can talk to me one on one.
I've learned a lot, and I'm proud of my city.