Juggling Life and Activism

People are not always on the ball.

Sometimes the ball rolls right over us.

In times when the ball slips away, or crushes you,
just think of Happy Bunny... Every now and then, its okay to say that it is all about YOU, and your loved ones. Be it work or grassroots activism, you just got to claim the time you need to be successful in your life.

Through life, that multifascited construct of shared reality, many of us will drop the ball or be crushed by it ;-)

I have dropped the ball. It happens.
Actually, I think I have dropped the ball more than a few times--this is part of what prompted me to focus on the topic of how to manage involvement with a busy working and personal life!

Births, deaths, business ventures, going the extra effort for work, needing a day to lay about the house.....these are just a few of the reasons I have heard from people on why they are not able to keep up with what they WANT to do, what they TRY to do, to promote Democracy in America.

Actually, I probably spent more time doing things that I hope will promote democracy than I probably should. This time spent going to vigils, to hear condidates, to documentaries, and managing Link-ups/Meet-ups may be all be in vain, and actually more a form of procrastination from other tasks (you know the tasks people pay me for...).

Somewhere in the Federalist Papers, Andrew Jackson said that America needed a representative government so that the majority of citizens could go about their daily lives participating in business and commerce.
The problem is that we, the majority of citizens, still need to be informed enough to tell our representatives what is best for our interests!
It generally takes massive numbers of voices to get representatives to listen (or, apparently, a good lobbist and a bunch of cash).
And so, people have come together in grassroots activism to get their voices heard and to support progressive, financially responsible candidates who they trust.
The issue, of course, is the time involved and all the bouncing balls life throws us.

From all the times that I have been the one who dropped the ball, and from all the times I have seen others drop the ball, I feel I can say this with some certainty:

TELL SOMEONE YOU HAVE DROPPED THE BALL.
This is what makes being part of a team really worth it.

Candidate Forum: Planning and Anticipating

Being involved in grassroots activism does not always meaning taking the lead, sometimes it means offering support.

The DFA meet-up in Falls Church is sponsoring a candidate forum on April 1st.

Attending the event are Congressional Candidates:

Shawn O'Donnell http://www.virginiadem.com/ for the 1st district

Judy Feyder http://www.judyfeder.org/ for the 10th district

Andrew Hursthttp://www.hurstforcongress.com/ for the 11th district

Ken Longmyer http://www.kenlongmyerforcongress.com/ for the 11th district

and the 8th congressional district incumbent Jim Moran http://www.jimmoran.org/

Democracy for America & Democracy for Virginia
Proudly Present

THE 2006 CANDIDATE'S FORUM

APRIL 1, 2006

2:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

George C Marshall High School

2231 Leesburg Pike

Falls Church, Virginia

Featuring
Democratic Candidates
for
The Senate Congressional Candidates from
House Districts 1, 8, 10, 11

Being interested in what other link ups, AKA meetups, are doing in Virginia, I attended the Falls Church meeting in February. There were 8 people in attendance at the meeting. I think four were regular attendees to the Falls Church link up. The other four attendees were people I recogized from Democract for Virginia meetings. There is an overlap between the Democracy for America link up members and Democracy for Virginia (not all DFV are DFA). It seems that most of the people I have meet are also involved with other orgnizations, like the Virginia Grassroots Coalition, the Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC), and so on.

I have not heard much from the Falls Church Linkup organizers of this event, so I have written to check in and offered a list of things that I thought of that may be pertinent to ensuring a great candidate forum for all.

Staying in touch and reaching out when you need help, or when you have an idea, are essential to successful planning.

Social Change, Collective Action, Individual Reflection

Working toward social change, or any change that would benefit a collective, should be consider not just on the level of the group but also on an individual level. I would be interested to hear from people about how they have felt, seen witnessed a consciousness-change.

What are the steps?

1. What activities may occur concurrently?
2. What phenomenon tends to co-occur?
3. How can we assess progress?
4. How can we coordinate with others so that the change we work toward becomes a part of the system of day-today life?
   

The changes we make in how we see our world may benefit us immensely, not just in terms of our peace of mind and physical health, which are indeed fabulous and amazing things, but also in terms of our financial security!

To be productive for one's job or at school it helps if you have head a good night’s sleep, if your belly is full....to obtain these things it is best if you are paid a wage that promotes your ability to have a life where you can ensure your own productivity through your own well-being.

To work without sight of how to benefit yourself, to purchase without sight of how you benefit yourself is to stay locked into the dissatisfaction of the consumer society lifestyle: we do not know what we want, but we are sure that we do not have it. If we have a job and can keep our heads about total bankruptcy, then we are fine. If we have a little something stashed away, excellent. BUT, how does this cycle help us to advocate for change in our society that will help us move into a place where we are not just maintaining a sense of security for ourselves and our small family unit, but where we are building security for our neighborhood, our community, our nation, and our globe?

There are many issues in politics that get people worked up.

Those that make the most sense at this time are voting procedures and campaign reform. We want candidates who will not be owned by special interests and who will feel supported by the large constituency that is (possibly) best represented by a grassroots base.

But how to develop that grassroots base, get decent, fiscally responsible, progressive, pragmatic, and honest politicians and appointed officials in place? How to get an active group of voters who will PARTICIPATE in issues like a living wage, safe and cost efficient transportation and infrastructure, as well as affordable health care and coverage?

Good politicians in place is half of what we need in America; we also need active constituents who will offer ideas for solutions to social problems, people who will tell their stories that will influence policies that will ensure each citizen the means to be emotionally, physically, and financially secure!

For me, the question of how to get people to work together to help work on SOLUTIONS to social problems is a constant: mainly because of how my work as an instructor of education overlaps with the potential I see with Democracy for Virginia and the Democracy for America linkup meetings. I think that there needs to be a constant maintenance of relationships to build social networks and turn a group into a team, so that eventually each team can implement an action plan and assess their own progress as well as the progress of the network.

The issue many others may see with this part of the plan is that it is very time consuming. Instead of team building, you may be more likely to see are a few motivated individuals who are leading a group of loosely connected people rather than a strong collective of shared, interconnected actions and responsibilities. Unfortunately, when those few individuals are burned out there may be no one to take their place and the learning curve is so high that those who do take over can not pick up where things were left off.In addition to team building, there also needs to be personal reflection. While assessing how teams are doing while making coordinated actions for change, each team member needs to also be reflecting on:

1. Motives
2. Individual actions (what did they actually DO...this might differ from what others believed this person has contributed)
3. Attitudes, and responses to how other people have behaved during group actions

Reflecting on your individual role may help soothe differences that have arisen over ego and help keep a person in sight of how what he/she wants and believes is best may or may not be in line with the team or the network of teams' mission may be.

Keeping track of what you want and why you want it as well as how you act and why you acted that way may help keep people involved as they reaffirm their presence in a group and as they develop working relationships that are based on participating and being connected to others!

I wonder how people improve their teaming relationships in other forums besides teaching or public activism. I wonder how we improve our teaming in our lives as family members as well as in the work world.

Do people want to change?

Do people want to improve conditions, or are they only interested in promoting their vision of the world?

I think that is the main question that needs to be addressed is HOW to help improve individuals' capacity to team together and work toward any collective goal.

James Webb visits Arlington Meet Up: a report

James Webb paid a visit to the Arlingtonians/Alexandria for Democracy Meet Up on Monday March 12, 2006.

The event was held at Attila’s near the Courthouse metro. James Webb spoke to the crowd of almost 60 people from 7:30 to 8:00, or slightly after, being very open to further questions and discussion on topics. As I have stated in an earlier blog, I will say again that I was impressed with Webb's position on health care as a right for every citizen. The audience asked questions regarding health care, education, the war in Iraq, the development of U.S. infrastructure, and anti-discrimination acts to protect gays and lesbians.

Webb is a very open and friendly speaker, he listened to each comment and often gave brief personal examples to illustrate his points. Webb began the discussion by talking about himself as being "born fighting" and having been raised from his childhood breakfast table with instructions on how to motivate people--how to be a leader.

The nuances of providing each citizen with health care, developing infrastructure, and for helping local schools to improve education--because he sees it as a local issue--will hopefully continue to be teased out as his campaign progresses. It seems clear that he supports individual rights, personal choice, equal economic opportunity, and diplomacy. We look forward to hearing his ideas on these and more in the future.

Go to the following sites for more on James Webb:
http://www.oursenate.com/

http://www.webbforsenate.com/


For a much more indepth report and analysis of James Webb at the Arlington Meetup please read this entry at Daily Kos:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/13/22362/0256

According to a poll on this site 57% or 15 pollsers DO NOT find Webb to be progressive, but believe he is good enough for Virginia.
With more effort in developing his message, I believe Webb can refine his progressive image and activate a grassroots campaign.

TIPS: the Meeting Hall

When entering into a public meeting, we must monitor one another to ensure civil discussion. We be there to think of solutions and not to just poke holes in the honest attempts made by others. I arrived at the following tips after reflecting on the DFA meet-up I co-hosted last night:

1. LISTEN, then SPEAK
It can be so hard to listen when we can not stand what the other person is saying, but without listening we will never REALLY know what that other person believes, wants, and will do!

2. BE REFLECTIVE!
Sometimes, just sometimes, its YOU. You are the key to your own frustration. To be frustrated, to recognize that and to hold on to it, while yet being able to understand that you are the one allowing yourself to be FRUSTRATED may motivate you enough to understand that it is not the other person's believes or behavior. Once you embrace the belief that you control your emotions you may become productive in taking action that may channel your frustration into more positive directions--don't just bitch about the way things are, start coming up with a list on the steps needs to CHANGE things!

3. BE HELPFUL!
Criticizing without offering suggestions is not only negative, it is regressive. We need to move toward action, we can not blame one another endlessly and take personal insult with each new idea that is different and perhaps even better than our own suggestion.

4. REALIZE THERE IS A PROCESS
Democratic process, while annoying at time, is there so that we the people do not exist at the whims of our leaders. Telling our leaders to make a change is not enough to make it happen. Laws will need to be reformed. What will it take to make a law reformed? Find out and help, don't just keep complaining.These are just a few tips for constructive conversation to change.

****
Last night I helped to organize a meeting for Arlington/Alexandria Democracy, a Democracy for America Meet-up.
At last night's meeting we had James Webb who is running for the honor to be a Senator for Virginia.
We also invited Linda Lindberg, Arlington County General Registrar of Voters, and Annie Connole, a voting machine technician.

I was expecting people to be passionate on the topics, but I was not expecting people to be hostile towards Linda and Annie. (I will write about my impression of James Webb in another entry. For now I will say that I was very impressed with his firm stand on Health care and his belief that it should be a right for every American to receive health care no matter their economic standing. The nuances of what this means in terms of quality and access as well as HEALTH INSSURANCE will be flushed out in the coming months.)

Voting reform will not change overnight. When it changes it will probably be through a long and time-consuming process of meetings and trouble-shooting!
Even if our guests were able to convince Linda and Annie that the machines were not trustworthiness, the process of putting that change into place would take time and effort. Linda and Annie would need allies and supporters to help get them materials, to make arguments, and, most importantly to file paperwork. A few people began the segment on voting machines by telling Linda that she had been "blathering away and not saying anything." I felt like she was instantly put on the offensive.

I was really hoping we would be able to ask Linda questions on how to address those worrisome glitches with the machines as well as the questionable processes-like not printing out each image of the vote during a recount.

I worry that in such public meetings people feel that the best way to make their point is to assert their dominance. While this might leave them feeling powerful, it does not lend itself to constructive dialogue for change.

We need to be critical FRIENDS, to work together, and to itemize the steps we need to take in order to convince officials like Linda that changes need to be made and the we need to HANG IN THERE with her to make sure the hard questions of HOW to make the change are addressed! According to the League of Women Voters in Arlington, one of the best strategies for quality assurance is to be certain that Voter Officials are trained and that there is sufficient oversight of maintain procedures!

When looking for solutions the League believes that: "Many of the risks inherent in the use of any system can be substantially reduced by improving management practices such as personnel training and by instituting rigorous administrative procedures." (Safeguarding Your Vote, K. L. Ceballos, The National Voter, October 2004.) http://www.capaccess.org/league/

While many people believe that there are too many places for things to go wrong and for crackers to mess up the voting machines, there is STILL the valid point that Linda and Annie made, which is that VOTERS NEED TO BE EDUCATED! People need to know WHERE the TO GO TO VOTE! People need to know WHEN TO VOTE! People also need to know more about CANDIDATES AND ISSUES so that when they do vote, they MAKE INFORMED VOTES!

There are no easy answers, there are no quick fixes. We need to be respectful of one another! We need to work together!

How Do We Change the World? Chalk4Peace

How do we change the world we see everyday?











Do we change it by drawing onto it the vision that pleases us most?

I watched a little girl and her father draw this sidewalk masterpiece at John Aaron's Chalk for Peace Center during Clarendon Days Oct. 2005.You may not be able to see it here, but the little girl drew the planet earth with people standing all along the outer circle of it, and people standing inside, people all around.

I wondered if this was a vision of the connected-ness of all people. We are one. What I do influences others.While we may be encouraged to believe that we are alone and that we must live to serve our own interests, this way of being will eventually be impeded by an awareness that what others do impacts me and therefore what I do impacts others. While caught in a perception of self as isolated and alone we may long for the connections we can make with friends, family, animals, plants.....chalk on pavement....we make a mark on the world and feel confident we can make change and that it will be harmonious to others as well.

If we are to be happy, we need to begin with out perception of connectedness. If we are to expect our society to serve the PUBLIC GOOD and maintain an equilibrium between the actions of people so that no one infringes on the another person's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness then each of us has a responsibility to engage in democratic processes. To vote, to be attentive to policy, to encourage DEBATE and DIALOGUE, to pick up the chalk and express out own will and to encourage others to do the same: this is how we change the world!?
This, and a little more....