Our communities are more than just the physical spaces, or indeed even the relationships, that constitute them. Rather, our communities are a reflection of the countless individual times when each and every one of us has looked beyond our parochial interests to invest time, energy, and resources into something bigger than ourselves. Bringing food and comfort to an ailing neighbor, organizing a block party, or even stopping to pick up a single piece of litter; these are the actions that build a community.
As Americans go about their day, they chortle, croon, and chatter. Conversations are constant. Hymns are hummed. People sing even when there is no tune. There is much said, and little heard. Cries may strike a chord; yet, these too may be perceived as silence. People talk. They wail; and no one listens to the lovely lyrics are sung.
(Blogging isn't organizing, either. But the two can intersect, and/or interact. - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
Popular conceptions of civic action in America have become extremely impoverished. While struggle goes on in many arenas of our society, coherent traditions of community organizing in America have mostly faded to myth in the popular imagination.
Old black-and-white newsreels of marching students, brave sharecroppers, and police-wielded water cannons from the 1960s flicker through our minds. But these images have lost most of their concrete meaning and contain few coherent lessons for social action.
I've been writing about community organizing, but I haven't been clear about exactly what I mean by this. There is no single effective model of "community organizing." Currently, however, the approach Saul Alinsky developed in the 1930s on the back streets of Chicago has become dominant in America-for good or ill. I call the current version of this model "post-Alinsky" since it has been significantly developed and changed by people like Ed Chambers, Ernie Cortes, Heather Booth, and others who came after Alinsky.
Well once again it's 'Veterans Day', I'll borrow a description of another holiday that really has lost it's meaning, Bah - Humbug!!
Lets take a look at how a Country "Supports it's Veterans", a Country of citizens whose greater majority never serve in it's Military, a majority who never do much of anything of service to Country, a majority who don't even bother to Vote, and a majority who readily bitch about paying their contribution to it's Society, not about how that money is spent just that they have to Contribute.
Huge Defense Budgets means a Strong National Defense! At least one political party takes that Mocho stance.
