Mon 4 Jun 2007
Carolina North Forum: Another Perspective
Posted by WillR under CarolinaNorth , Carrboro , ChapelHill , CitizenWill , Community , UNC[3] Comments
You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “Carolina North Forum: Another Perspective”.
“What? No Chamber of Commerce sustainability folks?”
Maybe, Will, you should ask the organizers who they invited to be “sponsors.” If you look closely, you can easily see the interlocking relationships. And note that Bernadette Pelissier is a member of the Foundation for a Sustainable Community’s CLC.
Rather than to create a division of our community by insinuation, it may be in all of our best interests to work together!
That’s what I get for being snarky.
I am familiar with the “interlocking” relationships. By happenstance, I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about how our small Town functions, the various groups/players/etc. promoting various agendas – good and bad – and, how, sometimes, coziness morphs into cliquishness.
Who is on what important sounding committee or a member of an inclusive sounding organization or who attended this or that function becomes more of a tool of exclusion than a strengthener of our democratic institutions.
The circles of influence run tight at times.
What’s more divisive than having your local folks wanting to promote positive change litmus tested and categorized into “ins and outs”? It’s easy to ignore the “outs”, isn’t it?
As far as the Foundation, aren’t you troubled by the growing divergence between what is said and what is done? You called out the H-S, even retired as a columnist, when their promotion didn’t match their product – can you see why folks, like myself, are concerned about the Chamber’s initiative?
Will, the issues that you raise are indeed issues, but not the one that your post calls up. Who was asked to sponsor is an empirical question, just as who said yes is.
In this community, who participates is less a function of intentional exclusion and more a case of who takes the initiative to participate. Sure, there are always barriers that need to be removed, but saying it is hard or inconvenient to vote so I won’t is a great indicator of the desire to participate here.
Why are so many boards and commissions spending so much time to find volunteers? Why do so many “grass root” and “representative organizations” all face the same labor shortage? Joining is not the same as working!
Therefore I disagree on the “tool of exclusion” observation because I think that for a variety of reasons, people lack the desire to participate. They don’t have your energy or staying power – or your tenacity, base of knowledge, and unbounded interest.
As one who is part of the Chamber’s initiative, I disagree with your take and I have heard little of the criticisms that you lodge. You tend to forget, it is a member based organization and doesn’t get to move at the speed that you might like.
Hence, as Plato asked, “who shall lead?” No vacuum lasts long so those who are the willing fill whatever void is out there. Thus, rail against the reasons why people have lost the desire to serve, work, and be involved.