"What might heal if we trade social media debates for real life civic participation?"
That question has been posed by Brandon Taylor, in an article that you might be able to read online. Just click this link to read it (if possible paywall protections permit that, of course).
Online, Taylor's article appears under the following headline: "Can We Trade Our Social Media Wars For Something Better?" The hardcopy version of Taylor's article is titled, "The Politics of Presence."
I am consistently urging those who might read one or more of my blog postings to "Find Some Friends," and then get together with those friends, in "real life," on a regular, in-person basis. Why get together? Well, "civic participation" describes what I think such small groups should be focusing on. Margaret Mead's injunction - again, often mentioned in these blog postings of mine - point out their civic and political power.
In terms of my own experience, I am not infrequently stopped on the street by someone who tells me how much they have appreciated all that I have done for Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz County, and often mention how I "Saved Lighthouse Field."
Well, just to be clear, I did work on that effort, and played an important role, but it was the members of The Save Lighthouse Point Association and voters in the City of Santa Cruz who really "Saved Lighthouse Field."
The Save Lighthouse Point Association, which numbered about twenty-five or so, met in person on a regular basis, and worked together to reverse the unanimous decisions of both the local City Council and the Board of Supervisors, who wanted to turn this jewel-like field on our coast into a massive development that was proposed to include a high-rise hotel, a huge covention center, a shopping center about the same size as the Rancho Del Mar Shopping Center in Aptos, high-rise condo apartments for the wealthy, and seven acres of blacktopped parking.
That was the proposed project, and "everyone" (all the electeds, the Chamber of Commerce, the unions, and other civic groups, absolutely supported this). "Everyone" supported it except for "everyone else," comprised of the vast majority of the citizens of the City of Santa Cruz. Citizen action saved Lighthouse Field.
Other, later efforts, after I was elected to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors, similarly demonstrated that small groups of people can change the world (just what Margaret Mead always claimed).
Take it from Brandon Taylor. Or, take it from me. There is nothing more satisfying, more "fun," than getting together, regularly, and in person, with friends and neighbors, and deciding to change the world, and then working to do just that.
And.... (and I know you know this) the world really does need changing. Now more than ever! At the local level, and at the state, and at the national level, and it's not going to happen if we wait around for someone else - including our elected officials - to do it!
