Monday, October 23, 2006

Thoughts on Amy Goodman's Lecture

The Rialto Theater had a full house Friday [Oct 12th] to hear journalist Amy Goodman, hostess of the Democracy Now TV/radio show speak about her new book Static. She is as dynamic a speaker on radio as she is in person. I don’t question the force for the good she has created. However, I have an observation.

I attended her address hoping to find a democratic forum of questions and answers to her after she spoke. No such forum opened up. Instead, she closed her speech asking us to buy two books instead of one so that her book would have a better chance of climbing to the New York Times best seller’s list. If there had been an opportunity to ask her a question I would have ask her how a utopian vision of a global democratic structure can be born?

My partner had contacted her organization before she came to Tucson in hopes of scheduling a time to record her thoughts on our question for our independent documentary video on Lovolution, a documentary of influential thinkers and doers who have visions of a better world. We never received a response to our request.

After experiencing the Goodman lecture, I realized the structure of the lecture was autocratic. Maybe the organizers would say that there was not enough time for the people to ask a leader of independent media questions. What more can I say but Democracy Now!

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