|
August 26, 2004
My emphasis on communitarian politics within a liberal society is designed to highlight the community activism component that is often premised on contesting the actions of the state to defend local communities.
The local example of community activism is one of a local community in the Riverland section of the Murray-Darling Basin protecting their old growth habitat from the salt interception schemes being built by the state to protect local irrigators. Here people are organizing themselves into a formation that stands between the state and the individual.
This community activism has three aspects. It forges civic bonds, brings politics down to its human level, and that is able to resist the various pressures bought to bear on the local region by state authorities.
What is not happening is tha the political structures are not changing to allow communities to be more self-regulating and self-governing. Nor is there much encouragement from local and state authorities to enable individuals to become citizens who participate in the decison making. That remains firmly centralized in the state.
|
I am a member of the AMOS Project,we are an affiliate of The Gamaliel Foundation, Gamaliel is a network of 50 grassroots organizations in 18 states. the foundation works in virtually every major metropolitn area within the Midwest, Northeast,western New York, Pennsylvania, California, and South Africa.
The Amos project, is in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. We are a group of congregations, Christians and Jews. We are working to include all of the faith traditions. We are committed to living out our faith through public action. We take our name from the Hebrew Prophet AMOS who said " Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an overflowing stream. AMOS 5:24. We constantly work to build relationships with our public officials and hold them accountable. We are working in the areas of Transportation, Civil Rights, in particular immigrants rights. Housing, Minority inclusion, in the Building trades industry, as our Cincinnati Public Schools Billion Dollar Master Plan moves forward to rebuild the schools over the next 10 years. In Northern Kentucky we are working to test all children for lead blood poisoning and treat them so that they may grow healthy and succeed in school. Also to treat all adults arrested with addictions instead of incarerating them in our already overcrowded jails. This is the agenda that was presented to the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky region, September 30, 2004. We have only just begun.