Touro Communication Club Notes #32

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With finals and graduation, the past week was a blur. However, life goes in the rest of the world. Catastrophe dominates the news. Terrible floods in the Midwest. Forest fires on the West Coast. Gas prices are soaring, Food is getting more expensive.

And the Presidential campaign is certainly heating up. Factcheck.org (from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania) has been posting its observations about how both the Obama and McCain campaigns have been stretching their facts. The wives of the candidates, Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama, are becoming targets of political attacks, a new wrinkle in Presidential politics. Scott McClellan, President Bush’s former press secretary, appeared on Capital Hill to explain his statements on deception in the White House that he discussed in his new book, “What Happened.” The televised memorial for NBC commentator, Tim Russert, who died suddenly last week, was very moving.

We are on “vacation” for two weeks

Wednesday, June 25

Wednesday. July 2

Of course, our Communication skills never go on vacation! We have the opportunity to reflect on what we’ve discussed in the past several months.

When we return, here’s the upcoming schedule of the Communication Club is

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 1 pm– Debate –Finish our Gun Control debate video - SPAR Instant debates

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 – 1 pm– Club – “Do Cultural Rituals work?” - a continuation of

What happened on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 – 1 pm –“Cultural Rituals”

Ten people participated in this fascinating discussion.. Olushile Akintade, James Millner, Theresa Wright, Kazi Fathah and Lorinda Moore participated enthusiastically in the exchange. Faculty members Richard Green, David Nussbaum and Hal Wicke were joined by an old friend Carlisle Yearwood, English instructor and Freshman Coordinator and a new friend, Max Kopelman of the Education Department.

Since Touro’s graduation ceremony was last Sunday and Shile graduated with summa cum laude honors and a couple of individual awards, we began to examine the elements of the Cultural ritual and rite of passage called graduation. We looked at the purpose of this ritual (recognition and acknowledgement for accomplishment and the tassel flip), the ceremonials aspects (the speeches of Dr. Lander and Congressman Rangel and the two student speeches) and the celebratory aspects (the gowns, the procession, the recognition awards, the awarding of the diplomas, the photography) Of course, having the graduation at Avery Fisher Hall Lincoln Center, one of the premier music halls in America, raised the bar of expectations for the graduation.

We also identified other “Cultural Rituals” such as weddings, funerals, birthday parties. All these rituals have a central highlight – the diplomas at graduation, the rings at wedding, the birthday cake at birthday parties, the eulogies at funerals.

Why do these cultural rituals exist? People need formal rites of passage to demonstrate acknowledgement of accomplishment. These public events of recognition show respect to particular individual with a coming together of a community. Shile spoke about certain rituals in his native Nigeria as did Kazi of his native Bangladesh. David spoke about the Jewish ceremony of the bris and the bar and bas mitzvah as important religious rites of passage. Even getting a driver’s license, .Sweet 16 parties and being able to vote and drink are cultural rites of passage

Lorinda brought up the concept on “honoring elders” as an important function of a culture. She was concerned that, because of the impact of slavery, there has been a loss of connection to ancient traditions in the African American community. Shile commented on the impact of the end of British colonialism in Nigeria, creating a new sense of African pride. Carlisle commented on his experience growing up in post-colonial Barbados and competing with Jamaica to become the most correctly “British” without being British.

As the session drew to a close, Lorinda suggested that we try to summarize what our individual impressions were to the discussion. She suggested we ask ourselves several questions:

1. How did I feel about the discussion?

2. What part of the discussion influenced me the most?

3. Was there something that did not change the discussion?

4. What will I definitely do after this discussion?

Join us as we try to promote more light than heat! See you next time. Bring a friend!

Hal Wicke