Do We Still Need Physical Community? | An Interview with Bob Fitch

Broadcast on 21 March 2015 on KSCO AM 1080, KOMY AM 1340 and KSCO.com Live Stream.

'It's A Question Of Balance' balances the intellectual with the creative. The show combines a debate topic with an arts interview because discussion and creativity are two of the most vital ways we engage in the world.

For more info on Ruth and the show go to www.itsaquestionofbalance.com

HOUR 1: Talk With Listeners' Views

We consider ‘Do we still need physical community?’ With the rise of technology we are increasingly becoming more individualised and physically isolated. Do we still need physical community or can internet community suffice? Community can be defined as a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals. One participant in a survey described community as ‘about belonging. It is a place that supports me in many ways - friends, neighbours, jobs, resources, play time. It is home’. Can virtual community provide these things? Our online friendships can be relatively shallow with quantity trumping quality. How real/genuine is virtual support? When it is so easy to ‘like’ something or enter a quick comment is the support’s worth diluted? Are virtual and physical community just different but equally valuable? What does community mean to you and where do you look for it? What do you think? 

For more info on the show and to hear past shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com

Hour 2: Begins at 0:53 minutes Interview with Bob Fitch

This week as my special guest from the arts I’m pleased to be interviewing iconic photographer and photo-journalist Bob Fitch. Bob’s photo archives are a principal source for the iconic images of the peace, social justice and cultural movements of the last 60 years including intimate photo documentary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Civil Rights Movement; Cesar Chavez and the United Farmworkers; Dorothy Day and the Catholic Workers; Joan Baez and David Harris and the Draft Resistance; Fathers Phillip and Daniel Berrigan; Congressman Ronald V. Dellums and other participants in this vibrant period of history. Such is the quality and significance of Bob’s work that in October 2013 Bob's images were acquired by Stanford University to establish the Bob Fitch Photographic Archive at the Stanford University Libraries. Bob’s photographs have also been featured in two Smithsonian traveling exhibits. Bob moved to Watsonville, CA in 2008 where he manages his photo archives and, although affected by Parkinson’s disease, remains active in community empowerment programs. 

For more info and to hear previous shows visit www.itsaquestionofbalance.com