Happy Constitution Day and Why I’m a Liberal

Alert: I don’t typically write about politics or religion, so I’m forewarning you. Turn back while you can…

Subscription image from iClipArt for Schools in Iowa

For close to 40 years, I have been registered to vote as an independent. I’ve never liked political parties, and I still don’t.

Today is Constitution Day, September 17, 2012, the 225th anniversary of the Constitutional Convention’s signing of the U.S. Constitution.  In school we are celebrating this day, also called Citizenship Day. Because of that, I suppose, I spent some time this weekend considering the preamble.

As I said at the beginning, it is unusual for me to write about politics; I’ve been fairly apolitical throughout my life. However, it was just last week in a blog post, that I first called myself liberal — I’m liberal with my photographs, I said. Today I feel I am a liberal for two more reasons.

First, I believe the Constitution’s preamble gives a fairly liberal agenda that necessarily calls for a strong government if we are to provide these things:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

In addition, I am a follower of Jesus. Each day I read a chapter in the Bible, and yesterday my bookmark happened to be at chapter 10 of Mark. Here are just a few quotes from this one chapter:

About divorce: “What God has joined together, let no one separate.”  verse 9

About heaven: “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” verse 15

About wealth: “Go and sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” verse 21

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” verse 25

About position: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” verses 43-44

A liberal question: “What do you want me to do for you?” verse 51

About faith: “Go, your faith has made you well.” verse 52

There are 88 additional chapters in the gospels about Jesus’ life on earth. Besides the things above, he said much more — impossible, crazy, profound, amazing, revolutionary, liberating things — like “Don’t be afraid”, “Do not judge”, “Be perfect”, and to the religious hypocrites: “You snakes!” 

I believe the government was ordained and established to help all its people, and I want to be like Jesus, so I guess I am a liberal.

Subscription picture from iClipart for Iowa Schools

Resources for Constitution Day

Share Your Own Six-Word Stump Speech

The Constitution’s 225th

Sign the Constitution

The Preamble to the Constitution YouTube Resources on Diigo

Freedom With CC-BY Licensed Images

So, why do I like the Attribution license best? First, here’s what the license says…

You are free:

  • to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to Remix — to adapt the work
  • to make commercial use of the work

Under the following conditions:

Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

Three reasons for using the liberal Creative Commons –  Attribution (CC-BY) license.

1. You can use beautiful images to make cool posters or use just a portion of someone’s picture. (derivatives allowed)

This is my favorite reason! When I need a picture of the Eiffel Tower or the Coliseum, I don’t have to go there. I have friends all over the world who take photos and share them, entrusting their pictures to people like me! The last time I looked there were over 150 million photos on Flickr alone, of which we have permission to make derivatives.

Daunting Notebook” by Laura Coughlin (lauracoughlin) with CC BY-NC 2.0

2. You can change the license on derivatives. (no share-alike)

Although I can imagine a time when someone might need to do this, my guess is that most people fail to share-alike by accident. Here is a photo I took, and I suspect here and here, where this person kept “All Rights Reserved,” that it was done unintentionally. S/he shared this in the Flickr group Great quotes about Learning and Change, so perhaps s/he doesn’t know how to change permissions. Maybe s/he is new and just learning how to be a digital citizen. Maybe s/he has no idea what Creative Commons are. It would be ridiculous to believe it’s for any nefarious or money-making reason.

Plus, if I had a stricter license, I would feel obligated to complain to a user if he/she didn’t adhere to the license, and I don’t like to complain. If I am anything, I am liberal. Liberal with belief that most of my fellow humans are trying to do their best. Liberal with good will toward others. And liberal with the photos I’ve shared. That’s why even in derivative sharing, I choose the liberal Attribution license.

3. You can make money. (commercial)

I say this tongue-in-cheek, but it’s true. By using images (and sharing them with) the Attribution license, you are receiving (and giving) permission to use images commercially. I’ve never sold anything or benefited financially from using anyone’s images, but others have used some of my images commercially. You know something, it just makes me proud, not upset, jealous or angry. (See image below for some examples.) Maybe someday, a group I’m in will have reason to make a calendar for a fundraiser, and there will be CC images available for us to use.

It’s risky to share pictures with the Attribution only license, but I made the decision to do it because I’m serious about being a contributor. My friends Kris and Laura, whose pictures I used in this post, each share their images with a different license,  but they both gave permission to make derivatives and just asked me to give them credit and I appreciate that!

There are six different Creative Commons license, which are helpful to both the sharer and the user. Here are two simple questions to ask and answer to help you “Choose a License.” I would encourage you to read about each of them here: Creative Commons Licenses.

How to Cite a CC Image

Using and properly citing Creative Commons images is a characteristic of good digital citizenship. To cite a CC image…

  1. First find a picture you want to use that has a CC license. My favorite license to use is CC BY (Attribution) license, which allows for the most freedom. Search for CC BY images here on Flickr. (If you use other CC licenses*, be sure you understand the limits of each.)
  2. Credit the person who took the photo. I use both the real name and the username when available.
  3. Help your viewers get back to the original image. Take care so your viewers can find the original image without trouble. Make sure your links are working and go directly to the intended image. Notice on the two images below, both the picture and the title are linked back to the original photo on Flickr.

It really is simple.

Bubbles” by Kris McGuire (krismc2011) with CC BY-SA 2.0 license.
Daunting Notebook”  by Laura Coughlin (lauracoughlin) with CC-BY-NC 2.0

That’s just one way to do it. There are other ways too, as long as you follow the licensing agreement.

Thanks to Kris and Laura for sharing their images with a CC license!

Creative Commons is great. However, don’t forget that sometimes, it’s also great to take and use your own photos.

* Other Licenses

CC BY-ND 3.0 – Attribution and no derivatives

CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 – Attribution, non-commercial and share alike

CC BY-SA 3.0 – Attribution and share alike

CC BY-NC 3.0 – Attribution and non-commercial

CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 – Attribution, non-commercial and no derivatives

 

Noticing and Appreciating

Yesterday my husband and I were out, and we had to stop for a train that was approaching. The first thing my husband said was not, “Bummer — this looks like a long train.” Instead, he said, “Hey, get your camera. There are some great pictures of graffiti on this train.”

You see, last week I had asked him to stop the car so I could take the picture above, because “graffiti” was one of our themes for August in the #T365Project photo group.

Well, I didn’t really need another graffiti picture, but I started snapping pictures anyway. They are in the mosaic below.

We watched the long train go by, commenting on and enjoying each new artwork, watching in anticipation of what would come next. We actually were a bit disappointed when it finished!

This was another reminder of the many benefits I’ve received from taking pictures and sharing them on Flickr: I’ve relearned to notice and appreciate all the beauty around me.

Besides both my husband and I doing more noticing and appreciating, I have also added over 2,000 Creative Commons photos to the pool of images available for others to use. My students now do the same, and we have also learned to properly cite photos of other people’s when we use their Creative Commons images.

There was a time not long ago when my students and I just Googled any images for our own use.

There was a time not long ago when I had heard of Creative Commons but didn’t know what it was or how it related to me.

There was a time not long ago when I wanted to properly cite images, but I didn’t even know where to start.

Well, now, a year later, I’m doing it! I don’t even know how I learned really, except I do know that mostly it came by doing — by creating and contributing. I joined Flickr, and I began to figure it out. You can too.

I posted the train graffiti mosaic picture in a group called #TFotoFri. It’s for teachers to post one picture from their week. If you are like I was not so long ago, maybe you’d like to join the #TFotoFri group to get started on your next adventure in learning.