Yes, it's Another Freakin' Day in Paradise but maybe I should say 'freaky' day in paradise. Normally, I would love me some 'freaky.' But, the kind of freaky around the USA right now is just freakin' scary!
"What the world needs now is love, sweet love" the Hal David and Burt Bacharach song goes. I'd add...what the world needs now is us, sweet us!
There is no 'us' without community and there's no community without taking action to make it happen.
2012 Green Party Platform: Democracy: Community is the basic unit of green politics because it is personal, value-oriented, and small enough for each member to have an impact. Community is a foundation for public policy. Social diversity is the wellspring of community life where old and young, rich and poor, and people of all races and beliefs can interact individually and learn to care for each other, and to understand and cooperate. We emphasize a return to local, face-to-face relationships that humans can understand and care about.
The Green Party's platform also talks about our country having Civilian Conservation Corps that would organize around land and resource management. Well, how about a Civilian Community Organizing Corps too? Or to say in more simply, Community Organizers. Wow! Organizers actually paid by our government, funded by our tax money, to work in our neighborhoods with existing community activists to develop a close knit community that can empower everyone to participate in our democracy.
We were talking in the chat room during the GP-TV Green Stream show on Fracking about how half of the people in the US who can vote in elections, don't vote. I'm predicting that if we develop locally our 'basic unit of green politics', people will get so turned-on and empowered about our democracy that they'll just love to cast their votes whenever they're asked to! Imagine everybody voting in our elections.
Here's one idea I had and it's a project I'd love work on. How about creating a Neighborhood Democracy Center combined with an Intergenerational Coffee House?
It's a Democracy Center during the day where folks can go to find out what decisions their elected officials are making that day and that week. A ongoing straw poll is set up on a huge bulletin board and everybody can take the poll and all of the results get sent to the OHs before their meetings. People can take workshops, work on community projects, get up on their 'soap box' in a free speech zone, etc. There are tons of things that can be done to encourage folks to Have An Impact and to be Active Citizens in this community space.
At night, let's have fun and get to know our neighbors in the Intergenerational Coffee House. It can be managed and run by a Collective of Teenagers, mentored by adults of course. The teens learn how to run a business cooperatively and the community has a place to go to relax, listen to music, talk to friends, have some fun and not be isolated.
This is just one idea...one way among zillions of ways to Create Community with green grassroots community organizing. What are your ideas?
What the world needs now is us, sweet us. We can't forget that.
peace & love,
starlene
