Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Much Ado

[lilbert (lilbert]

Well, all I can say to those of you that ask for specific times when nobody
replied, and complain about my strident tone is: you should see the off-list
replies to my rantings. There ARE people who are ignored, who are grateful I
speak up. And there ARE ALOT of frustrated people out there who are excluded
from cohousing strictly because of money. People like this drop from the
list like flies. I stick with it. And I maintain that it is necessary to
what I did yesterday. Change does not happen unless the disenfranchised are
not polite about it. I know that people on this list have difficulty seeing
themselves as members of an exclusive group, but cohousing is WAY more
exclusive than it needs to be. People are just TOO LAZY to assess themselves
honestly and do the work it takes to do anything but get it built as fast as
possible.

You can't imagine the difference it makes to your community to have income
diversity, unless you see it for yourself. There are cohousing communities
out there that look and feel like gated communities and I don't see much
difference at all, except that maybe people who live in gated communities
are at least honest with themselves about why they are there. I am
dissatisfied with the movement and will continue to agitate whenever I feel
it's necessary.


--
Liz Stevenson
Southside Park Cohousing
Sacramento, California

----------
>From: "Brian Baresch" <baresch [at] earthlink.net>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <cohousing-l [at] freedom2.mtn.org>
>Subject: Re: Much Ado
>Date: Tue, Oct 31, 2000, 11:32 PM
>

>>There have
>>been several times in our meetings that one of us has had the courage to
>>disagree when consensus was imminent, and we've made better, and DIFFERENT
>>decisions because of it.
>
> How was that disagreement expressed? Was it "You don't have the guts to do
> what I want"? Or was it more constructive?
>
> You may be able to "get people to THINK" by respectfully engaging their
> intellect. Insulting them or questioning their fortitude or integrity is a
> more problematic path.
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Brian Baresch
> Delaware Street Commons
> Lawrence, Kansas
> www.delaware-street.com
>
>