The civic club system is extremely vulnerable to the forces, corporations and powerful institutions, of neo-colonialism. Their leaders are targeted by corporate/institutional professionals and the community is repeatedly plunged into ugly divisive struggles such as the Penn hotel battle. Characteristics inherent in the current civic association paradigm make these clubs logical and vulnerable targets for unscrupulous corporate agents.
Surrendering our rights as a community and as individuals, assured that such organizational back room dealing is vital to a modern community, is a very tragic and common belief! There is a much better alternative mechanism to introduce large scale community wide changes/projects consistent with the values and principles of representative democracy. Civic associations must not continue making backroom deals on behalf of the community. Permanent civic clubs are not necessary to give the community “a voice,” and their overwhelming tendency to grab power for their leaders over backroom deals never yields positive results! But together we must create the alternative! It is the duty of free citizens to stand up for their rights and to pass these on to successive generations! ___________________________________________________________________ Proposal: For a group of community democracy advocates to organize, a mechanism to facilitate ad hoc town hall style forums, for the purpose of introducing all major projects and connect powerful forces, honestly, with the entire community. The association would have absolutely no other role and would only be called upon as needed and thoroughly defined/limited by its founders! The town hall process must be supported, recognized, and respected by political and government agency leaders as a mandatory first step in a process for all powerful entities wishing either popular or governmental support. A small group, not any individual, of respected community members committed and fluent with processes of representative democracy could be recognized by governmental agencies as the first point of contact for powerful agencies to engage the community! Once recognized, this town hall association and process would relieve the civic clubs of all duties to the larger community while providing a system for legitimate projects and powerful entities to interact, inform, and network transparently with the entire community for mutual benefit. ______________________________________________________________ Problem: Neither civic associations nor dishonest entities wish to do the appropriate first steps when changes and proposals are thrust upon the community secretly. This causes all subsequent community problems and inefficiently causes mutual benefits of any positive projects to be lost. The current model of tightly controlled, “dog and pony shows,” would be replaced by open announced meetings and public discussions! (In time, colonialistic forces and entities would learn that it is in their best interest to conduct a comprehensive open process when wishing to engage with the community. Then, the community town hall association could fade away along with the current neo-colonialism!) If the community redefines the process for corporate entities (eg. Penn Real estate), the people would both take back their rights, and allow all projects and proposals to be welcomed and supported by the public! This town hall forum follows the principles (first steps) of community engagement often studied at universities, but absent from all West Philly colonization projects during more than a decade of neo-colonial struggles. ___________________________________________________________________________ Benefit and Second Steps: Civic clubs and new ad hoc associations could all organize around specific projects when first provided with a transparent beginning to each project! A process which encourages transmission of honest information and respectful plans during on-going engagement between powerful forces and a well informed and involved community is not something to fear like the current neo-colonial paradigm must be feared! We could protect ourselves from bad projects and welcome, much more efficiently, changes which could be embraced by a well informed and involved community! We could avoid unnecessary intentional divisiveness sown by the colonialist agents. We could seat the proper stakeholders at a transparent planning/collaboration table. All plans started with appropriate community processes would be forged cooperatively yielding much better outcomes than currently produced. Civic associations can be players too, should their members wish reform and bring credibility to the clubs (eg.SHCA/FOCP/UCHS)! But they would not be at all necessary for the public good to be realized and good projects to be engaged openly by the community! Conclusion: Can we learn from the hotel, the divisiveness, and controlled dog and pony shows from the past neo-colonial decade? The model I propose is achievable by a small group of democratic patriots ready to embrace the concept for the betterment of our part of West Philadelphia. A responsible and respected group of citizens must define an association with the singular purpose of facilitating ad hoc town hall forums in order to gain recognition for this first step to all large scale projects/changes. We would need to come together to define and document the guiding principles and concepts and draft a proposed process to facilitate town forums. I think it is worth the effort now as the dangerous civic association model is thoroughly exposed. I am not proposing an alternative civic association!!! This is an entirely different “community engagement” model that entities should, but do not, undertake when they want to make changes which effect us all! It’s time for West Philadelphia to distinguish itself in the struggle to reclaim representative democracy! This is a national problem taking place in communities across the country. Let’s be one community to blaze the trail to freedom, democracy and empowered participating citizens! Thank you for your long attention, Friend and neighbor, Glenn PS: Feel free to forward this to interested parties and democracy advocates. If a positive response to this idea emerges, I will be happy to host an initial brainstorming fruit and cheese party to make ad hoc town hall forums a reality in the community. ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
