An open space for global conversation
Our discussions here often came back to the idea that change happens person by person..at diningroom tables and in local forums where discussion includes and seeks all comers..beyond party and ideology.
So one morning about 2 months ago I decided I should start living that insteda of talking baout it and I have been doing only that ever since. Mostly by becoming involved in key legsilative issues or other issues which highlight the grip corporate america has on our electorate and on our lives.. Mostly via blogs at all Maine's major newspapers but also via networking with all kinds of advocacy groups and individuals and legislators all over Maine.
What's interesting is that principles and ideals we agreed on early on here resonate with people. They enliven and awkaen and re energize people. Blogs which had been rank opinion are now merging as crowd sourced analysis annd discernment. More and more we trying to discern..we trying to find some common ground in important principles and values that transcend party and ideology, are finding one another and influencing thinking
I also have to report that Miane. my beloved Maine, Maine of my ancestors back to the 1700's, is definitely 100% owned by big corppraions..they own our legislature, they write all our bills, they and their lobbyists have far more access day by day than "we the people" to our legislative committees.
I have begun publicly calling it the "bananaism" of Mane and referring to Maine as a "kleptocracy" and a "corporatocracy"
and it is
it really is.
So we each and evry one needed backour "dining room tables" .
Best to all
Lindsay
Hey Lindsay! Thanks for touching base. Good to hear that you're connecting on the ground and around the dining room table. We still hold to that vision, and to the idea of using OC.org as a way to connect up lots of those f2f conversations as well. Our Connect 2012 initiative aims to do that, among other things. Would you like to be interviewed as part of it? I could hook you up with Jon Denn, who has been doing a number of our C2012 interviews and with whom I think you would enjoy connecting. He has a project called www.aGreater.us that might interest you as well.
The corporatocracy is indeed a scary thing. Keep fighting the good fight!
Cheers,
Ben
Hello Ben..glad to talk to Jon.and you and others about what I am seeing and learning."on the streets" and "around my table" Jitendra too because what I am seeing is almost mystical..
Here at Occupy Cafe, back when, I was lobbying for "naming" and "holding up" specific real world events so people would "get" what is happening. That is a main part of my work these past few months...and I have been focusing on issues that are about corporate control in our every day lives in real world events. I started with an attempt by Connoco Phlips to put a huge LPG terminal in a tiny Maine town and folk involved in that involved me with a few active legsilative issues..mostly Bills originating from ALEC (ALEC has infiltrated Maine.)
I decided up front that in addition to speaking to the merit of the bill in a normal professional way, it was importannt to call these ALEC bills out so I started naming and pointing to ALEC in my testimony and using words like "ashamed", "embarrassed" "disappointed"..I started naming what was happening in the plainest language..a bill where the governornor attempted to have all documents of his office protected as "working papers" in explaining the legal tradition of "working paper" in my tetsimonny I chose to use "sausage fcatory" instead of "deliberative process" with intention. I called out the process and named the players in a bill that would have deregeulated metal mining in in Maine's northern wilderness that was written by corporate lobbyists with no opportunity fo rpublic input and based completely on lies.. I named names.
The pattern of Maine's complete ownership by private mostly out of state corporate interests was clear immediately so at the newspaper blogs I write at every day here in Maine I started to name what I saw.."the bananaism of Maine".."kelptocracy", "corporatocracy"..when bloggers would write that will change next election I would call on action now by the "we the people". I developed a big press list and legislators list and share factual informtion related to legsilative issues . I don't avoid tea party folk or peope who use outrageous rhetoric..I try to engage them and find common grournd..I talk about "the common wisdom". I enage with a large network of activists and organizations.including .the ACLU, the Bar Association, the Maine Planners Association.
All of us working together have turned back lots of the ALEC legislation..more of us now name it and name who wrote it . For eample , we just fought off a regulatry takings bill written by a lobbyist for among others the Nestle Corp. More and more people are naming that in addition to sound commentray on the bill istelf..
Our Governor a tea party puppet for ALEC & equivalent has vetoed 16 bills in a row many with bi partisan support insisting that every bill reflect his ideology ( iei ALEC's ideology). Finally, the legislature rose up and over rode.a veto. There has been a showing of strength and support from "we the people"..our legislators know we will support them and want them to stand up.
And the mystical part is words start appearing from many voices..the words "ashamed" and "embarrassed" are appearing..we are all being "given" the same words to use. It feels like working from our place inn our own way all of us are connecting to some common current that is right there immediately around us supporting us, helping us.
Watch for Maine to start making national news for "taking it back"..for having zero tolerance for corporate control of our electoral and legislative process..I think it is beginning to happen.
I think the immediacy of actual issues that must be deided in a short time frame is an excellent cuciblefor accessing and revelaling and more deeply exploring a lot of the ideas we talk about here..using those ideas gives a lens on each issue thatcreates a small shift n how others see it and talk about it and understand it.
We have talked here about what is next..this is next I think..taking these ideas out not to talkabout he ideas but to use them as tools in our civic engagement..
hadn't seen this but interestinglythis is also about the importance of naming and holding up
http://www.thenation.com/blog/167269/dont-just-pressure-alecs-corpo...
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