Edgeworkers

This is the story of my exploration of the Health Care Reform Bill and the discourse surrounding it, the eventual creation of the YouTube video I made to explain some of the key points of the bill, and my analysis of how through this journey I became a Hope-full edgeworker crafting a public, rhetorical space in which to talk about the Health Care Reform Bill and related issues.



I have been following the health care reform bill for months. I have been using google reader to share and read stories on it, usually from a very liberal (although I'm not sure what that word means anymore) perspective with my brother.

I also went on an internet search to find out what is in the bill straight from the source (but failed, not being able to read the bill's dense language, and ended up using summary documents provided by the government and the Congressional Budget Office online) which culminated in me creating a YouTube video that asserted provisions as stated by the government, financial results/consequences as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office, and also engaged a little with divergent opinions on interpreting certain aspects of the bill, once aligning myself with the Wall Street Journal's assesment of the impact the health care bill would have on large companies as being overstated, and once merely mentioning in passing that some politicians intend to challenge the constitutionality of the bill based on the 10th ammendment which asserts states rights.

I have used facebook's share feature twice: once to share an article, and once to share the YouTube video I made that was the culmination of months of following and many hours researching the topic. Interestingly, I have no way of knowing who is actually receiving my links, as with facebook, anyone who disagrees with me or dislikes all my sharing could have blocked me ages ago. I don't know who I'm reaching. Here are the links and a summary of the responses I received on facebook:

Gul: February 22 Informal Writing Project 2

Gul was kind enough to email me his informal writing project! I've uploaded it to my google docs so you can view it. Unfortunately the arrows didn't transfer, so I'm still thinking of a way to make that work. I welcome ideas. Here's the link; at least we have the body of the text available!
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AUt8lTLn3nu_ZGM1M2ttM3NfMmcybTZmcnRu&hl=en

Table Questions

Amanda and I are at the Library, considering using these 4 questions in place of the questions Dr. Long suggested.

1) Outline the author's historical account of the Public Turn.

2) Why is the author writing about The Public Turn? What do they want, practically, from a better understanding of the Public Turn?

3) List Key Terms the author uses to argue the importance or value of the public turn.

4) List scholars the author focuses on, noting how the author uses their work to develop his/her account of the public sphere.