Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Campaign signs and worthy causes

[Mary English (Mary.English]

     Our community had the go round on using the community name in support of 
causes twice in the last year.  One was local politics and one national.  It 
seems to be easy for people to think that, of course, everyone in the community 
must agree with their views on "XYZ".  When it came up for discussion and 
consensus vote in our community, I brought up two things that stood out clearly 
to me.  
     First was a page in the Cohousing book on a Scandinavian group that was 
having trouble reselling units because of the politically polarized nature of 
the community.  The other was a comment by one of our own former community 
members.  She was moving to be closer to her family and grandchildren after her 
retirement.  I reminded her about a Cohousing community near her family.  Her 
response was that she had already gone to see it, but that they were too 
politically activist for her.     
     The theory is that one does not block unless they believe it will damage 
or harm the community.  I did vote to block because I do believe that 
presenting the community as the group that supports "XYZ" can cause great harm 
to the group by limiting diversity, and possibly in the long run might push out 
members that can not support the majority's political or religious beliefs. 
     We allow signs in front of the individual units supporting whatever they 
want, but do not allow them on the common house lawn or entryways to the 
community.  We had more than one member very unhappy with my 
"unreasonableness", but I feel that the community will be better served by 
individual activism then by a 'community position'.   
     

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