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n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1 v o l . 1

CONNECTIONS

every separation is a link by isabel kent

eco urbanite by ryan strzok

live isn’t lived for one’s self by isabel kent

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In this first publication of MIAD Bridge I chose the theme “Connections”. Recently this theme has been on my mind and I wanted to explore it in more depth within my art, design, and writing. I feel we are all connected and under-standing this is a very big thing. We are connected by our similarities, our differences, our likes and dislikes and the fact that we are all human. But connections aren’t only for human to human. Feeling connected spiritually or even just feeling connected to the environment are all connections that we interact with daily. The way we use and interact with these connections is what gives them life. Just one person can do alot but 500 can do alot more. The connections discussed in this volume of MIAD Bridge deal with human to human bonds, human to environment, and human to everything connections. These articles will hopefully show how different people make and interact with their connections and bring a greater under-standing to the importance of service.

letter from editor

letter from editor 2

local link urban ecology center

d e p a r t m e n t s

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CONTENTS

LIFE NOT SIMPLY LIVED

EVERY EVERY SEPASEPARATIONRATION

7get connected how to get connectted

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f e a t u r e s

RATIONRATION IS A LINK.IS A LINK.

every separation is a link by isabel kent

eco urbanite by ryan strzok

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Located just outside of downtown Milwaukee the Urban Ecology Center is much more then just an organization. The UEC helps to educate and bring awareness to the surrounding community about the ecology that surrounds them. The UEC is located in Riverside park about one mile from Lake Michigan and downtown Milwaukee. Back in 1906 the park was used for swimming, canoeing, and skating and served many locals with a safe and clean park. After many years and budget cuts the park became polluted, unmaintained and unsafe. In the 1990s the neighborhood surrounding the park joined together to reclaim the park. After surveying the land and learn-ing about the natural animals and plants in which inhabited the area an idea to turn the land into an outdoor classroom was born. Partnering with the Milwaukee Country Parks department the Urban

Ecology Center was created. The Center now serves 30 local schools with outdoor learning experiences that expose the children to the environment and teach them to respect it.

l o c a l L I N K

urban ecology center

urban ecology centermilwaukee, wi414-964-8508urbanecologycenter.org

LOCAL LINK

E Locust

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UEC

N Oakland Ave

N water st. N

lake dr

43

794

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g e t c o n n e c t e d

There are many ways you can either get connected to your community or to the entire world. By volunteering you can make connections not only with others but also with your community and environment. In 2010 4.4 million teenagers volunteered 377 million service hours in there communities. Either serving through school or through religious organizations teens all over America are doing their part and getting connected. Service brings people together and by embracing that we all can make this world a better place. Service can be done in big and small

ways everyday, from just by opening a door for someone to mowing your elderly neighbors lawn. With the definition of service being very broad almost anything can be service. To see how others are volunteering their time look to the preceding page.

how to get connect

to learn more about how you can get connected and serve in your community visit SERVE.GOV

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how others volunteer

26.5% Fundraising

23.5%Collecting, preparing, and distributing food

20.3%General labor

17%Mentor youth

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EVERY EVERY SEPASEPARATIONRATION

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Step back and look at the world. It’s such a strange thing, and incredible and beautiful, but rolling across that great sphere is also turmoil. Much of existence, perceived through the eyes of a human, is sorrow and violence, manifesting itself in multitudes of particular guises - war, poverty, famine, prejudice, crime, etc. But we’re stuck here. So, for the sake of being here, of living, how do we make it better? How do we go about diminishing these problems? Where can we possibly start? Underlying most of them, when the complications and differences are for the moment, stripped away, is something simple. For whatever reason, amidst the accumulated confusion of contemporary human life, we fall into the denial or hatred of another human being.

EVERY SEPARATION IS

IS A LINK.IS A LINK.written by-ISABEL KENT

-SIMONE WEIL

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So what happens when empathy ceases to function? On an individual scale, this can be a major component of closed-minded-ness, arguments, and physical fights. Cases in point are bullying, whether at school or over the internet, domestic violence, and gang violence. Among larger groups this is exhibited in similar ways, largely as prejudice against, and mistreatment and/or suppression of, another people. Extreme cases are genocide and war. Can’t these be seen as large-scale manifestations of the inability to take another’s perspective? I don’t mean to oversimplify these grand

issues. There are certainly various other complications that come into play. Many of these complications, however, could be explained as themselves arising partially as a consequence of lack of understanding between people. Circumstances like these coalesce and build upon each other, even-tually forming one mass conflict, which then leads to further atrocities.

A clash occurs when we see an individual or group as other than ourselves, that we disagree with so fervently that it appears foreign enough to be designated as wrong

We know that humans are at once imperfect and magnificent. What is difficult is accepting the imperfect as inevitable, and forgiving it in ourselves so that we can forgive it in others. There is so much sameness, if we decide to become aware of it. Our genetic code, which means our basic anatomical

structure, which means our physiological functions, are fundamentally identical. We have the capacity to empathize with one another, and we need to use this. What I am saying is obviously nothing new. But the fact that it has survived thus far in the course of human civilization only serves to testify to its solidarity.

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or even evil. To protect ourselves we often feel the need to do something to suppress that other. If these notions push further into action, physical harm is done. The thoughts themselves however, are already silently germinating this view of the world. In turn, this obviously impacts the deeds one carries out. If one continues this way unawares, the effects will only multiply.

But the human brain is malleable (Boroditsky 6). Biases can be turned around if they are brought to one’s atten-tion. The problem is that maybe reminders are not prevalent in our everyday lives. We may see images of war on the news, but this is perhaps not specific enough. We still watch through our own tinted lenses, maybe as a proponent of one or the other of the conflicting sides. What

should be emphasized is the nature of the core disagreement, how and why it exists, perhaps that it should not exist, and what the resolution may be. We also need to be made more aware of our own slant and the perspective we are missing in our repertoire. Once we can see all involved outlooks more holistically, we notice their

inherent sameness, and the ensuing ridiculousness of antagonism. The nature of how we view and interact with others has directed culture, politics, economics, and human society as a whole, which also extends to our impact on the environment. All of these things provide us with a striking image of how we participate in and create our world. This web of interrelationships has biological foundations, into which current studies surrounding the nature of the human nervous system have brought new insights. A region toward the front of the brain called the medial pre frontal cortex, or MPFC, activates when we are pondering our own feelings, but also when we are thinking about or observing those same feelings in another (Boroditsky 5). More

specifically, a class of cells called mirror neurons, which are located in various areas of the brain, have been found to direct our ability to read not only another person’s actions, but also the intentions and emo-tions behind them. In an interview with the New York Times, Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti, a neuroscientist at the University of Parma

EVERY SEPARATION IS

SERVES TO TESTIFY TO ITS SOLIDARITY.

WHAT I AM SAYING IS OBVIOUSLY NOTHING NEW. BUT THE FACT THAT IT HAS SURVIVED THUS FAR IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION ONLY

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credited with some of the first research of these structures in the 1990’s, was quoted, “We are exquisitely social creatures. Our sur-vival depends on understanding the actions, intentions, and emotions of others. Mirror neurons allow us to grasp the minds of others not through conceptual reasoning but through direct simulation” Here is very real evidence of just how connected we are. In a sense we can simultaneously experience the thoughts and actions of another. This also poses the intimate connectivity of thought, action, and language. These cells fire when one performs an action, sees another car-rying out that action, hears it happening, says the word for that action, or hears that word (Blakeslee 1). Mirror neurons can be seen as the meeting place of these different avenues, which all allow for understanding between people, and are essentially linked as a means of communication whose framework is emotional. It is also important to note that social emotions like shame, pride, embarrassment, and so on, are centered in a uniquely human mirror neuron

system in a brain region called the insula. In a study conducted by Dr. Christian Keysers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, it was found that when people watched a hand go to caress someone and then saw another hand push it away, this region registered the pain of rejection. He noted that humiliation ap-peared to be “mapped in the brain by the same mechanisms that encode real physical pain” (Blakeslee 3). This just goes to show us that when someone is suffering from emotional trauma, they are also really ailing from physical distress.

When mirror neurons malfunction, an emo-tional level of communication ceases to occur. It is now thought that this is a major cause of Autism and Aspberger’s disease. Autistic individuals are often cited as sort of living in their own world, or being highly antisocial. It could be that the neural basis of social abilities is lacking, and they there-fore are significantly unable to relate to other people. Studies show that these individuals

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WE ARE EXQUISITELY SOCIAL CREATURES. OUR SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON UNDERSTANDING THE ACTIONS, INTENTIONS, AND EMOTIONS OF OTHERS. MIRROR NEURONS ALLOW US TO GRASP THE MINDS OF OTHERS NOT THROUGH CONCEPTUAL REASONING BUT THROUGH DIRECT SIMULATION

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can identify an emotional facial expression, and even imitate it, but they do not feel its emotional significance (Blakeslee 2). A similar effect is seen in individuals with Aspberger’s, who are unable to read facial expressions and vocal inflections, recognize sarcasm, and also cannot understand figurative language. They interpret everything logically and literally. For individuals with either disorder, everyday life is made extremely difficult simply because they cannot adequately relate socially and emotionally to other people. The importance of empathy is apparent. It lends us the competence to recognize that other viewpoints must be just as valid as our own. Scientific research has provided us with more clues as to how and why this phenomenon operates, and has given us greater insight into how incredible this biological capacity truly is. The complexity and social grounding of our empathy is something uniquely human. It lies behind much of our daily decisions and behavior, and is one of the key components of how we have developed as a society. Truly, it needs to exist for us to exist. All of this serves to remind us of empathy’s profundity. But what teaches us most is the face-to-face encounter in which we share a real and fathomless humanness with another.

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ECO URBANITEECO URBANITEECO URBANITE

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Taking the service learning class forced me to get out of my shell and volunteer. It’s allowing for me to volun-teer for a cause that I see to be important, which is an environmental cause. With one of the most influential environmentalists saying that the best way to change the way the earth is being treated is to volunteer your time, passion, and self to an organization it definitely puts a giant smile on my face when volunteering. I chose to volunteer my time and energy to the Milwaukee Urban Ecology Centers at both the Riverside location and the Washington Park location. Living in Milwaukee and being on my own I live more so around my ideals and want to began my journey as this sort of eco urbanite. Creating an urban homestead catered towards my ideals on environmentalism. My ideas are a bit more extreme than that of the pretty term of being green. I want my journey of being environmentally active to stretch into the ideas of minimalist living, living off the grid, and acting outside of conformity. Service has connected me to my community in a way I never thought I would. Serving at the Urban Ecology Center’s opened me up to the idea of living a more self-sustained life. What I am going to be discussing is the a detailed description of what the Urban Ecology Center does and who they are. Then I will look into what the agency has taught me and what were the experiences I gained from volunteering.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY: HAYLEY EICHENBAUM

WRITTEN BY: Ryan Strzok EDITED BY: BRIAN FREY

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During the early years of living in Milwaukee I would cruise by a towering rock climbing wall with a sleek solar powered building next to it. Never really knowing what it was until visiting it with my service learning class. The congregation of people there who shared similar viewpoints to mine truly sparked my interest. It’s a sort of vessel to meet people and to get better acquainted with the environment and living off the grid. The UEC’s mission statement revolves around the idea of creating ecological empathy and using it as a tool for change. They also focus on providing an educational science service for Milwaukee youth, protecting and enhancing the flourishing Milwaukee natural areas, building a community around volunteering, stewardship, recreation, and camaraderie, and finally the teachings of environmentally respon-sible behavior. The types of services they offer are: Neighborhood environmental education project which supply existing K-12 science courses with more hands on experiences, urban adventures that get people active, field research, summer day camps, lectures, workshops, discussions, steward-ships, internships, and so forth. Riverside Park has been around for quite sometime and was once a flourishing attraction to the residents of Milwaukee County and travelers. Activities such as swimming, boating, skiing, and ice-skating were very common in the early 1900’s. As the river became more and more polluted due to the growing industrial powers of Milwaukee the river became less active. It wasn’t until 1991 when Dr. Else Ankel started the revolu-tion to revitalize the Riverside Park system. Twenty years later it has morphed into a keystone of Milwaukee culture and community building. There are now two locations Riverside on the East side of Milwaukee off of Oakland and the other, Washington Park, is on 40th and Lisbon.

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Before working at the UEC I didn’t know what to expect. My preconceptions were that it was just another nature park but once actually experiencing it fully it was much more than that. It turned out to be extremely engaging. The center brings the community together in many different ways that I had no idea about. What surprised me the most about my placement in volun-teer services was the difference between the Riverside Park and Washington Park. I believe that the Washington Park needs a lot of up keep and more workers and I see funding being a thing that stands in the way of Washington Park blossoming into the community that Riverside is. I believe it is on the right path though. As for experi-ences go I would have to say Washington Park proved to be the best. It all started on Saturday when weeding at Washington Park for a good four hours. I was weed-ing by myself minding my own business when a little voice came up behind me and exclaimed, “Hey! Sucka!” I turned around to see a ten-year old little kid with stitches under his eye. He then said, “Can I help you weed?” I replied, “Of course.” For about the next two hours we talked back and forth laughing and joking about random stuff. He asked if I was a football player and dubbed me the nickname Lil’ Wayne. I said, “Do I look like Little Wayne to you? He laughed and said, “No.” His name was Tavares and also went by the

nicknames Chris Brown and Man Man. Everyone at the UEC knew him by Man Man so I stuck with that one. It was funny to find out too that he wasn’t even apart of any of the youth science clubs at the UEC. At the end of the day when we were done weeding I carted him around in a wheel-barrow through Washington Park while we talked about flying to the moon in card-board space suits and drum lines. He made my work probably twice as difficult but he

made my week. It was a real eye opener to see the kind of kids from that neighbor-hood. Overall the UEC have opened me up to the community of Milwaukee as a whole. It has made me closer to the people here and the causes they support. This class took me out of the typical classroom and put me into real life experiences with people who taught me real tangible things. The UEC sure has taught me a lot about life, invasive plants, and everything in be-

-Beavan, Colin. No Impact Man. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009. Print.-Welcome to the Urban Ecology Center! Web. July 2011. http://www.urbanecologycenter.org/index.html.-Black, David S. Living off the Grid: a Simple Guide to Creating and Maintaining a Self-reliant Supply of Energy Water, Shelter, and More. New York: Skyhorse Pub., 2008. Print.

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LIFELIFE

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ONE’S SELF

LIFE ISN’T LIVED

One is always aiming for something, propelled by one’s own inertia, but is also subject to force exerted from the outside. From another perspective, one may ask, are these two apparently disparate forces actu-ally one and the same? In this sense, one’s entire life is comprised of service. One may do something to achieve one’s own ends, but it could also be of help to others. Or, helping others may in the end lead to a greater sense of wellbeing in one’s self.

ISN’T

written by-ISABEL KENT

ISN’TLIVED FOR LIVED FOR

ONE’S SELFONE’S SELF

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Put more simply, service involves helping people, or acting to benefit something other than only one’s self. This is crucial to life because we are not autonomous beings, but rather are connected to everything around us. If our surroundings are in an ill state, it affects us, and the cycle continues. More specifically, there are those who truly cannot support them-selves, and so service to them is crucial to life. Karma- what goes around comes around. Also, having emotional, engaging relationships with others is crucial to human happiness.

The description I have given of service does not differ significantly from those I’ve come across elsewhere, including those of the individuals I’ve interviewed. Each stated that essentially, service is another word for helping, or that its result is the betterment of something else. If interpreted in more conventional terms, however, the word’s use has a more specific connotation. One who volunteers time and effort, that is, without pay/reciprocation, at an organization, is a familiar example. According to this definition, and even so, just barely making it in, the only service in which I have participated has involved playing my violin at fairs, festivals, and organizations. People listened to the music I produced and most likely derived pleasure from it, which I think is enough. But at the end of the day, these events did not deal with what are considered society’s most pressing, life-or-death issues.

I think it all comes down to empathy, and I also think we really all know this. Current research suggests that this impulse is innately human. Within our brains are structures called mirror neurons, for example, which are believed to

I think it all comes down to empathy

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Tristan defined service as, “the act or event of doing something to help somebody else.” When asked how or why service may be important, Tristan replied that theoretically, it is not impor-tant at all. His argument was that each human could potentially be self-sup-porting. He even referenced medieval society, during which most people were quite isolated and did not usually rely on others to aid them in survival. Tristan acknowledged that in the contemporary world this just doesn’t happen. Humans are arguably more connected, over larger expanses of time and space, than they ever have been. Nonetheless, looked at from a broad perspective, what he is saying does make some sense. A human could live out his or her life in such a way that did not require much interjection by others in terms of aid. What this does not mean, however, is living one’s life entirely alone. Beyond the fact that there truly are some who are in such a poor state that they cannot survive without significant aid, living all alone may not be possible at all because we are inherently social. It is arguable that humans need some form of interaction to survive. But obviously Tristan has posited an extreme scenario, and there is no need to get into the philosophical underpinnings of this issue at the mo-ment. It will suffice enough to say that

need of humans for other humans has significant implications for the role of “service,” or helping others, in our lives.

be correlated with our ability to immediately understand what another is experiencing (Society for Neuroscience). Brains scans have shown that some of the same areas of the brain light up when one is experiencing an emotion as when one is viewing the facial expression of another who is feeling that same emotion (Society for Neuroscience). The fact that we possess such abilities at all insinuates that empathy is somehow es-sential for human survival, and in fact, it has been found that human connection is a fun-damental necessity. We feel better just being around other people and we require closer, caring relationships for our own wellbeing (This Emotional Life). Altruism in particular has been shown to establish closer relation-ships and a greater sense of community. Giving to others involves positive emotions like generosity, compassion, and gratitude, all of which actually increase happiness (This Emotional Life).

Even so, we do not need science to tell us this. We can just look around us, and within ourselves. Each human is distinct, but is also dependent upon the whole. If what sur-rounds us is in a poor state, we will be too. We truly know that being of help to some-thing beyond ourselves is inherently good, because we also feel it.

TRISTAN KENT

INTER VIEW15 YEAR OLD

-Kent, Tristan. Personal Interview. 7 Feb. 2011.

PBS: This Emotional life. NOVA/WGBH Science Unit & Vulcan Productions, Inc. Copyright 2011. Online. 10 Feb. 2011. http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife/.“November 2008: Brain Briefings.” Society for Neuroscience. Society forNeuroscience. Copyright 2011. Online. 10 Feb. 2011. http://www.sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=brainBriefings_MirrorNeurons.

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CONTRIBUTERS

editor brian frey

art direction brian frey

illustrator hayley eichenbaum photographer brian frey

writers isabel kent ryan strzok brian frey

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