Cohousing-L Mailing List: Discrimination

[Rob Sandelin (floriferous]

Ah yes, discrimination is not a pleasant thing, although I would make an
argument that most people are in denial about it.  And it is sooo
politically incorrect.  It was an interesting episode within my communities
history, nobody thought twice about it, or seemed to feel particularly bad
about it. They all seemed very pleased in fact that they had "saved" the
community from these people who were described with all kinds of negative
adjectives. (I never actually even saw them) It happened again, a few years
later, when an extremely evangelical religious person wanted to buy a home
and make a group religious home out it. Woooohoooo it sure hit the fan then.
Even the Unitarians were in a snit.

It just goes to show, that at least in our case, people have attitudes about
certain things  which determine how they react to visitors and prospective
members. This would NEVER happen on ethnic lines because of the huge
political incorrectness that would  ensue, (and I don't think we have any
true racists here anyway), but conservative religious people are, at least
in my community, fair game to be dumped upon. George Bush is not a popular
guy around here. In fact, his presidency has spurred more political action
(protests, letters, work groups) than anything else that has happened in my
time here. I have never  seen such distaste of a politician.

There is a quiet duplicity on my part in some ways.  I have never brought
either of these instances of discrimination up (they are old news now,
happened years ago-and I was not around the neighborhood when either
happened) nor do I think I would if it happened again. I would probably just
withdrawal or stand by and let the bad mouthing happen. I prefer living with
people whose ideology is similar enough to mine that we can coexist.  Rush
Limbaugh supporters need not inquire at Sharingwood. This is simply being
honest about our group politics and values. We are a liberal bunch, full of
anti-war posters, granola  eating, organic growing, exhippy, earthmamma,
free thinking, liberals. We are not exclusively those ways, but collectively
it describes the politics of the group. I am not in the least concerned
about it. I like living with people like this. If I want political
arguments, I know where I can find them.

Am I a bad person because I don't want to live with evangelical conservative
religious people? I don't think so, but you might.

Rob Sandelin
Sky Valley Environments  <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous [at] msn.com


-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org
[mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org]On Behalf Of Greg Dunn
Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2003 3:42 PM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: RE: [C-L]_Encouraging Multigenerational Community: select



But her concern was that something didn't feel quite right about it, and
I agree.  Even though, generally speaking, I fall out on the political
left (especially these days), I've known some quite wonderful people
from the other side of the political fence. The experience of that has
been enough to convince me that there is a legitimate "conservative"
argument to be made on many issues, and that it is sometimes made by
people of very good will indeed.

You're lucky when you meet someone with a viewpoint quite different from
your own who is nonetheless willing to meet you halfway, hear your point
of view, and make a reasoned case for theirs.  Maybe you're even luckier
if you meet someone with a viewpoint quite different from your own who
is nonetheless willing to be a good neighbor in spite of your
differences, whether articulated or not.  If someone is attracted to
cohousing, maybe they already have the essential quality you need in a
neighbor, regardless of their politics (or religion, or skin color, or
ethnicity, or sexual orientation, yadda yadda yadda).

Greg Dunn



-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org
[mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org] On Behalf Of Rob Sandelin
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 6:17 PM
To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
Subject: RE: [C-L]_Encouraging Multigenerational Community: select



I think the word Sheila was referring to was discrimination. Racism is
based on race. This discrimination was based on political preference.

Rob Sandelin
Sky Valley Environments  <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists Floriferous [at] msn.com


-----Original Message-----
From: cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org
[mailto:cohousing-l-admin [at] cohousing.org]On Behalf Of Fred H Olson
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 5:33 AM
To: -cohousing-L mailing list
Cc: sbraun
Subject: RE: [C-L]_Encouraging Multigenerational Community: select



sbraun <sbraun [at] gmavt.net>
is the author of the message below.
It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager
<fholson [at] cohousing.org>
because the message included HTML ;      PLEASE do not post HTML, see
   http://csf.colorado.edu/cohousing/2001/msg01672.html
--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------

Rob wrote:

<<I have seen this kind of thing once in my own group, where somebody
shows an interest and they don't fit in at all. They are simply not
invited back and their contact information is not kept. For example, to
several peoples astonishment, a fairly loud, and conservative couple,
who made several conservative political comments and commentaries on a
visit, actually inquired later about houses for sale. They were spurned
and at dinner one night there was much trash talk about them, how we
didn't want those kind of people, etc. Sheesh.
>>

Could someone please explain to me how this is different from racism?
I'm sure there is a difference, but I can't see it.

Sheila
Champlain Valley Cohousing
www.champlainvalleycohousing.org

<excessive quotes deleted. Fred>

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