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Our Sustainable Informational Occupy is now 24 consecutive weeks strong. We are two events short of half our goal of 52 consecutive weeks (1 year). This week was uneventful in that we did not have any of our neighbors park and come out to talk to us as has been happening on a weekly basis. We got mostly thumbs up from passing cars as well as a few fingers from the less than understanding neighbors. That gave us a lot of time to have in depth conversations among each other.
As it turns out I think it was a blessing as one of our friends (Daniel [first name only]) of the movement gave me a frank assessment as to what we are really doing at that corner and what we hope to accomplish. She is not a fan of the occupy activist model and is more comfortable with and feels the community organizer model is more effective. She also believes our model tends to impose our own ideology first as opposed to listening first. Inasmuch as our ideology and hers overlap more so than not, she believes in a much more organizational approach.
I could not disagree with anything she said. In fact I took her words as a catalyst to modify our approach in communication and invited her to speak to other groups many of us are involved with where that model is definitely more appropriate. It is important to note that absent the Occupy Wall Street model, the national conversation and narrative would have remained on budget balancing and austerity. If that narrative had turned into action our economy could have seen the same decline many European countries have experienced for attempting austerity during a recession.
Ultimately I think we all agreed that each model has its place and particular strengths at the right time in the appropriate venue. Good communication between those with different approaches to attain the same goal is important. We must always be receptive to entertain different approaches and be prepared to modify those that prove to be ineffective.
Dr. Theis weekly commentary includes a very important event that his Center Of Civic Engagement at Kingwood College is sponsoring. David Cobb, executive director of Move To Amend will be the featured speaker on Tuesday June 5th. You can find more information here. Professor Davis’ commentary on the election in Wisconsin and Mexico should be listened to.
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