Re: Cohousing and local activism | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Rob Sandelin (robsanmicrosoft.com) | |
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 94 10:59 CDT |
David G Adams Asked about existing communities and local activism. The potential is very much there. The very same skills of communication, cooperation and meeting process which make us successful in cohousing tend to make us cohousers, leaders in other movements. Many of my community neighbors are involved in leadership positions in various activist causes. The caution to all this is that being a leader can paint you a certain color to other neighbors outside your community. I took a leadership role in a growth issue in a neighboring small town and we very effectively won that issue. Three years later my name is still cursed by some who would have profited and those same people talk ill of my community because of it. Sharingwood had nothing to do what so ever with this issue but because I live there, these people see all of Sharingwood as being a bunch of hippy environmentalists. (which is not all that inaccurate actually, except perhaps the hippy part.....) Another local environmental issue has come up (an airport) and immediately our local neighbors turned to us for help and leadership. Some of my neighbors are in the leadership in this issue and we have met many local community folks as part of that process, something which is a real positive aspect. (Some of the same people who call us hippy environmentalists now are giving us money and help.....funny how that works out) So, local activism is one of the best ways, for good or for ill, to get to know your neighbors in the larger community. Many people in our area know of Sharingwood through the works of members in the local schools, foodbank, literacy programs and senior programs. If we should ever have to deal with another land use hearing I think we could easily get a couple dozen local neighbors to speak well of us. Margaret Mead once said something like: "Never doubt that a small handful of dedicated, committed people can change the world, indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Rob Sandelin Sharingwood Cohousing.
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Re: Cohousing and local activism Rob Sandelin, August 19 1994
- Re: Cohousing and local activism Jeffrey O. Hobson, August 22 1994
- Re: Cohousing and local activism Mark Ottenberg, August 26 1994
- Re: Cohousing and local activism David Thomasson, August 26 1994
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