Archive for History
Walking and Chewing Gum Redux
Posted by: | CommentsEvolve or perish. We’ve spoken about walking and chewing gum before and it’s back again. On the heels of this weekend’s Netroots New York conference that spent a lot of time on Occupy Wall Street, Robert Cruickshank (formerly with the Courage Campaign) offers reflections on the Progressive and Occupy movements and thinks it is time for a course correction:
It was time for a correction anyway. What we have learned is that winning elections isn’t on its own enough to produce change. What’s needed is a clear policy agenda and a strong external movement that can help progressives in power implement that agenda – and stop others in power from implementing a bad one. That requires a movement in which electoral organizing is just one piece. In other words, the progressive movement needs to grow not only in numbers but in the diversity of what it does.
That isn’t what drives most Occupiers, however. Occupy is also a rebuke of organized politics. They’re in the streets because they believe it’s the only way change can be produced. What it has revealed is that distrust of government is now rampant on the left as well as the right … Occupy’s choice of tactics reflected their belief that anyone in government was either incapable of helping or was determined to break the protest. And Occupy has brought a new group of people into political activism. New voices are popping up online, new leaders are emerging, and they are much less interested in the more incremental changes that the progressive movement had unfortunately become accustomed to accepting.
You Know It’s Time For Another Occupy Thread
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An ordinance was advanced at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that would regulate camping and storage on public-owned property. I moved that the ordinance be referred to Asheville’s Public Safety Committee for some review, vetting, consideration, etc. That motion passed 5-2 with Councilman Davis and Mayor Bellamy opposed.
Also on Tuesday I became a member of the Public Safety Committee, along with Jan Davis. Cecil Bothwell is a continuing member and he accepted the role of Chair when asked by Mayor Bellamy to serve.
I want to ask for your thoughts as we think this through – How can we best protect the free speech and civil liberties of the people, ensure our public spaces are welcoming to all, maintain the priorities set by our precedent-setting 10 Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, and create just, enduring policy?
The Public Safety Committee will consider these issues at a special public meeting on January 3rd at 3:30. Thanks for any thoughts you can offer.
Catch the Spirirt
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Lt. John Pike pepper sprays his way through art history.
(image above courtesy of a friend)
Dr. Wesley Grant, Sr. Southside Center
Posted by: | CommentsApproving funding for this community center was among my first votes on City Council, and it’s deeply gratifying to see the doors open. The Grant Center will be a new community hub for residents of Southside neighborhood and the River Arts District. It symbolizes healthy renewal and a integration of vision across generations. Thanks to all of the partners who helped make it a reality. I hope you’ll come and celebrate with us.
City of Asheville press release:
The City of Asheville invites the public to the grand opening of the Dr. Wesley Grant, Sr. Southside Center, Asheville’s newest community center located at the former site of Livingston Street Park. Mayor Terry Bellamy will officiate the event on Thursday, October 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the center located at 285 Livingston Street at the corner of Livingston and Depot Street. The dedication ceremony begins at 5:30 followed by an open house until 7:30.
The Future They Feared
Posted by: | CommentsWe were sitting in a Waffle House in Staunton, Virginia discussing the state of the nation over breakfast. I had just read an Ed Kilgore column in Salon about the nationwide Republican war on voting rights, and the conservative debate over whether voting is even a right or not.
As I am standing in line to pay my tab, a African-American man in his forties slides into an occupied booth next to the register and sits opposite an older white man. They share a brief exchange about how his shift went. Two smiling, white waitresses come over to take his order and start a friendly argument over how he likes his toast. He is a regular.
“Toast, not grits?” remarks the older white man.
“It’s Filmore,” smiles one of the waitresses to the cook. “Burn it. He likes it burnt.”
“Dark, not burnt,” Filmore insists.
This is Virginia — the capitol of the Old South. Black man. Restaurant. Sharing a table with a white man. White women competing over who will wait on him.
It occurs to me that the prospect of the very everydayness of such a scene horrified many Virginians and others across America 50 years ago.
Some people need an “other” to fear or they don’t know who they they are themselves. It’s not just generational. It is a personality type. Many of the same types today fear poor people, gays, Muslims and Mexicans.
We are on our way to see the Gettysburg battlefield where two American armies slaughtered each other, where the Army of Northern Virginia lost its war over the right to deny rights to an entire class of “others,” and to hang onto a people’s irrational fear of the future I saw at a northern Virginia Waffle House.
(Cross-posted from Dirty Hippies.)
Troy Davis– From the (Prison) Ground
Posted by: | CommentsLocal blogger, gadfly and muckraker Jason Bugg traveled to Georgia Diagnostic Prison to bear witness to the Troy Davis execution, here’s an excerpt and a link to the entire story…
I’m not a journalist; I’m a guy who writes simple little things for this blog. Thanks to the readers of this blog, I went down to Jackson, Georgia yesterday to see what was happening at the vigil and protest for Troy Davis. I’ve never been close to anything like what I saw. I’ll do my best to add in names of people and try to recount things that they said, but what I’ve included here are my impressions, and should by no means be treated as authoritative.
You Belong At This Vigil
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s time to come out and stand together to call for equality for all people. Tonight at 7pm, Asheville will gather in Pack Square. Our state’s General Assembly reconvenes this week and will put forth legislation to hold a referendum to enshrine bigotry into our North Carolina Constitution. Whenever the rights of an oppressed minority are put to a vote of the majority that has historically oppressed them, America loses. For more details about the event, click Read More under this graphic.
Please spread the word to your social networks. If you believe in equality, you belong at this vigil. I hope to see all of you there.
Refuse To Be Helpless
Posted by: | CommentsThe following is a guest post from frequent commenter, TJ.
2,976. One number with many names.
46. One number – the years of a man’s life.
9/11. A number we will never forget. The day all the numbers came together to end.
Jonathan. One name among many. All unfinished lives.
Reviving The Fair
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The Burton Street Agricultural Fair has an excellent article by Rob Neufeld about its history and revival. The Fair will live again from 1-8pm on Sept. 24 at the Burton Street Community Center. This is a hard article to excerpt, so please go read the whole thing. One great piece of information is this:
Darin Waters, completing his Ph.D. thesis in history at UNC Chapel Hill, presents the talk “Uplifting the Race: E.W. Pearson and the Colored Agricultural Fair” at 7 p.m., Thursday 18 at West Asheville Library. Waters will be teaching at UNC Asheville this academic year. Call the library at 250-4750.
Over at BurtonStreet.org there’s a wealth of community history and contemporary community building. Excerpt:
In our (sometimes) quiet corner of West Asheville, the Burton Street Community is working hard to build our contemporary version of a self-reliant, sustainable and “home-made” community. And though we often romanticize this idea of “community” and “local self-reliance,” make no mistake—it’s hard work! We won’t always agree and sometimes we won’t like each other… though through it all, if we can hold on to the simple truth “we rise by lifting others” –Robert Green Ingersoll, we will weave a web of love and practical support that will continue to nourish us for generations!
We hope you’ll join us on our journey, as we host our 2nd Annual Revival of the Burton Street Agriculture Fair & Farmers’ Jubiliee! Saturday, September 24th at the Burton Street Community Center & Grounds.
Neufeld’s article on the history of the Fair notes that “Pearson’s fair, with the support of local politicians, became a “city affair…The whole city participated,”
That sounds like an excellent tradition to help bring back to life. If you’re a vendor, click here to apply to be a part of the event. I hope everyone will check out Darin Waters’ talk and the show up for the fair’s revival.
