We are living in an extraordinary time. The country has elected its first ever African-American President who is also our first community-organizer-in-chief. The country is experiencing an economic meltdown as serious as any since the Great Depression. States and cities are experiencing budget shortfalls, while families, workers and communities are hurting.
We know that the problems of Baltimore and cities like it can’t be solved without national action – and we may, for the first time in a very long time, have a real chance to get real help from the federal government. We have a President who has articulated a bold agenda for change, but has also indicated that he can’t achieve it alone – that he needs the power of organized citizens on a grand scale to surmount the entrenched interests that typically block change in the beltway. What if, in the finest tradition of community organizing, the citizens of Baltimore and citizens of cities around the country took the President up on his challenge?
Imagine if community leaders, elected officials, members of the faith community and others raised their voice for a new economic and urban agenda for the country? Such an agenda would include major public investment to create jobs, relief for distressed homeowners at risk of foreclosure, universal health care, aid to the unemployed and rebuilding a shredded safety net, and aid to cities and states to prevent them from making the recession worse by laying off workers and cutting back services.
Periods of major, transformative change are very rare in American history. They have come about because of three critical ingredients: major crises that force fundamental changes in how we approach problems; visionary leadership that is capable of change and growth, and can speak to the spirit of the times; and social movements that create pressure from below. Lincoln changed his position on abolition, largely in response to agitation by abolitionists like Frederick Douglas. FDR couldn’t have accomplished the New Deal without organizing by unions, the unemployed and the rural poor. LBJ was compelled to push through the Voting Rights Act only after the Selma march.
There is incredible energy at the grassroots today, and it needs to be harnessed to win major policy changes that put our economy back on track and lift up poor people, people of color and cities – all of which were suffering before this latest downturn and are most vulnerable now.
Baltimore has a fine civic infrastructure, including groups with great track records in community organizing such as Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD). What if all of Baltimore worked together with elected officials to develop and push for a national economic recovery package that would really deliver for cities? Our communities, our families, and our future depend on whether such efforts succeed or fail.
The time is now. History is in our hands.
I think this IS the time for such action at the local level. Thinking outside of our boxes is key – and relying on ideas that require coordination and cooperation at the local level (rather than mass levels of funding) will provide the biggest payoff, I think. What if we REALLY tried Edgar Cahn’s Time Dollar system in Baltimore’s neighbhorhoods? We CAN rise to the challenge of history!
Very timely and interesting comments. On Friday, November 28, 2008 [Black Friday] the NAACP Baltimore City Branch will be hosting a discussion regarding the economic situation in Baltimore City where there are very few black business in downtown Baltimore, the city needs to significantly increase the usage of qualified and deserved black business, the lack of black businesses in Lexington Market, Reisterstown Mall, Mondawmin Mall and various stips areas. The deplorable number of boarded up houses, many owned by the City and the urgent need for another Vocational School to train and employ youth and young adults, etc. Friday, November 28, 2008 – 11 am – 8 West 26th Street, Baltimore, Maryland. 410/366-3300 NAACP Baltimore City Branch Office – ‘Doc’ Cheatham, President.
That’s all very nice, and we should certainly all pull together, but it’s not clear from the above audacious idea, what we should be pulling toward. So I’m going to make my own suggestion.
The only way to get out of the deep hole the robber barons on Wall Street have dug us into is to create new wealth. This isn’t a rehash of what John McCain was saying during the campaign. His idea of creating new wealth was to give tax breaks to his wealthy friends. My idea is to create true wealth.
There are two ways to create wealth in what is essentially a closed system, the world and its resources. You either figure out ways to use the resources more efficiently, or you use resources that you hadn’t been using previously. I suggest we do both even though it’ll require a capital investment to do so.
1. Use resources efficiently:
a. Make public transportation cheaper and more convenient so that more people will use it. That will mean less fossil fuels burned, less traffic jams, less need to expand roadways.
b. Use video conferencing by computer rather than face to face meetings. Again, less burning of fossil fuels, less traffic.
c. More work from home if we provide inexpensive broadband so that people can work from home while maintaining a video presence at work.
2. Use resources that haven’t been previously used.
a. Solar panels on the unused rooftops of buildings and large houses.
b. Wind farms co-located with actual farms in windy areas of the state. You can still grow crops even if there’s a wind turbine overhead.
c. Use of geothermal energy for heating and cooling. The geothermal energy is there, beneath our feet. We won’t run out of it, and it won’t create carbon dioxide in our atmosphere.
Hello Deeppak, I think this could and would be a very powerful discussion if you have the true grassroot organization and persons involved. We have many of unsung heros in the communities. Many including myself that miss the major funding because we can’t or don’t have the time or manpower to put together a pretty and often inccurate proposal for you’ll. I would love to attend something like this and see how it can change things for the people that are and have been doing the work many only mention for years. Please keep me informed.
You have the power to revolutionize the entire homeless problem all across America. It takes someone with combined contacts working on a single goal. The taxpayers have paid for government buildings all across the U.S. and many of them sit empty. They have utilities, classrooms, many have kitchens and showers and everything needed for the homeless to live there while they take classes to be able to support themselves and stay off government assistance.
The government can move mountains when they want to. They can cut all red tape and give these buildings back to the people in a matter of a few months instead of tied up in red tape and licenses etc. for years.
Any refurbishing of buildings could be done by the homeless wanting to learn electrical, plumbing, and building trades while they live there. The unions can ask for volunteers to oversee the work. People from all walks of life can volunteer to teach classes including people from SCORE, non-profits, and various business’. They can teach all types of classes. Then as they graduate their 6 month course, they will have help in getting a job and a place to live.
The homeless are already being fed by donations, so to start out with, donations will be needed. How are they going to pay for overhead? The government has land that is not being used that could be used to teach husbandry and agriculture, which will not only feed those living there, and sell enough to cover overhead. Business students can handle all that.
This is all possible. Talk to your contacts and get the ball rolling so no homeless person will never have to spend another night on the streets. Crime will diminish, lives will be saved, people will have self-respect again. They will have purpose in life again and have a place to call home one day and a respectful full-time job. Thank you for listening Barb Henry