December 26, 2003
Tweak some Movable Type settings?
A couple of tweaks I'd like done to both Notepad and Youthlib Dev:
1. Change settings so that the last seven postings are always visible. I don't think that postings should disappear after a set period... It's embarassing to go to one of these sites and see it totally blank.
2. Change the color of the postings' titles to red, or something that stands out better. Right now the postings' titles are slate gray, which blends in too much with the posts themselves. On a day when I make multiple postings, it's difficult to see where one ends and the next begins. [Especially if I have bold sub-headings within those posts!]
Posted by Sven at 11:59 PM | Comments (9)
Draft homepage for youthlib.com
NOTE: I already posted this text to Notepad. Gretchin asked that I post it here as well...
[This is a first draft of what the youthlib.com homepage might look like.]
YOUTHLIB.COM
tools for youth liberation activists
This website contains original essays about Adultism and Youth Liberation. Youth activists and adult allies are the intended audience. My hope is to inspire readers to start new direct action groups based on the Youth Liberation model -- and to help existing groups thrive.
About youthlib.com
ESSAYS:
1. How to Fight Adultism [read this first]
A short introduction to "adultism" and "youth liberation" activism.
2. Youth or Adult?
Who counts as a "young person"? Who as an "adult"?
3. Adultism - The Oppression of Young People
What is "adultism"? What does it look like? What is its cause?
4. Youth Liberation Movement
Criteria for deciding if a group is an example of Youth Liberation.
5. Adults as Allies
How can adults help the Youth Liberation movement?
6. Relating Adultism to Other Oppressions
How is adultism similar to racism, sexism, classism, etc.?
NEW MATERIAL:
Notepad
Short entries. A frequently updated journal about my thoughts on Youth Liberation.
The Generator
Long semi-polished essays. This is where rough drafts first get posted -- including ones that don't make it onto youthlib.com.
Posted by Sven at 11:49 PM | Comments (0)
Intro to youthlib.com
NOTE: I already posted this text to Notepad. Gretchin asked that I post it here as well...
[Here is some text I've just composed for the youthlib.com homepage.]
About youthlib.com:
This website is about Adultism and Youth Liberation.
"Adultism" is an oppression -- like racism, sexism, or classism (etc.). It is the oppression of young people by adults. The root cause of adultism is the belief that "adults should command, youth should obey". This belief shapes how adults and youth relate in nearly all of our society's institutions: family, school, church, government, policing, criminal justice, child protection...
The norm of total adult control is harmful because it encourages petty tyranny and abuse of power.
"Youth Liberation" is a method of working for the welfare of young people. It is activism led by youth, for youth interests, that challenges adult power. This method stands in contrast with traditional child protection methods, which have depended solely upon the voice of adult advocates.
The movement of people using Youth Liberation theory is diverse. However, some of its distinguishing goals include:
- winning the right to vote in elections
- democratizing public schools and promoting school alternatives such as "unschooling"
- ending the practice of spanking / corporal punishment
- eliminating laws based upon arbitrary age lines (e.g. curfews, drinking age)
- challenging defamation of young people in the media
The goal of this website is to support the Youth Liberation movement. My focus here is on providing original content: essays that analyze adultism, and essays that describe how to do effective anti-adultist organizing. The intended audience is youth activists and their adult allies.
My hope is that these essays will inspire readers to start new direct action groups based on the Youth Liberation model -- and help existing groups to thrive.
Sven Bonnichsen
"I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn't much improved my opinion of them."
--Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince)
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
--Lord Acton
"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."
--Martin Luther King, Jr. (Letter from Birmingham Jail).
Posted by Sven at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2003
What Sven's got done...
* 12.10.03 Posted notifications on Generator and Notepad, telling people to change their bookmarks to the new "youtlib.com/" nomenclature.
[Included a link to the youthlib.com site-to-be, thinking that if folks look back later, it should be there... Bad choice? To even let them know that youthlib.com exists yet?]
Posted by Sven at 11:09 PM | Comments (1)