call 911, then pick an issue

12/3/07

howdy folks. it's been a while, but things are moving along. had a relatively leisurely week last week, and even had a good time at friday training. alicia had her baby, so the world needs to make room for cassidy james.

part of my placement is to give presentations to various community groups, 90 over the period of the internship. last month, i had a few presentations in different settings that gave me some idea about the degrees of difference in pockets of society.

my first round of presentations was at cass street school for the students. i went from classroom to classroom and talked to the kids about fire safety while the teachers hushed them (some even outright yelled). the kids were attentive, mostly interested despite having been told this a number of times, and over all fairly polite for five through ten year olds. they called me "miss ricks" and it made me grossly aware of my slow aging, the widening gap between between their playground freedom and my daily imprisonment to the office, shackled in place by a knotted-up phone cord.

the next presentation i want to reflect on was one i did at aurora adult day center. please know that i am blatantly ignorant about the living conditions of the elderly other than in ways displayed on such quality programming as "oprah" or even "the gilmore girls." going to the center was a little sad for me. it wasn't dirty or ugly or anything, but there was this overwhelming sense of gloom everywhere. the adults seemed lonely, some demented and confused; a few were doing art projects that would undoubtedly be thrown away within a matter of hours. these folks were very glad to be ushered into a room with me, but not so inclined to hear what i had to say. i found myself struggling as a young person trying to pass along knowledge to people who were a half century older than me or better. what could i possibly say to them that they hadn't already heard? here, i experienced the joy of being a mere space filler, a social gathering where the senior folks cajoled one another, even hooted and hollered a bit. i may as well have been speaking to myself.

my final presentation was at a local crime analysis meeting at the district 6 police station. this part, in fact, has absolutely nothing to do with my presentations, but more to do with increasing paranoia in the general population. there were a collection of angry citizens (most of whom were also much older than myself, and 3000% more likely to call the police than i am) as well as a few aldermen and assorted police types. for about 45 minutes, the officers discussed the lack of safety on the south side, and why people needed to call the police CONSTANTLY. someone in your backyard? call 911. are there a few kids milling around? 911. are you tired of those pesky renters? call 911. silly me, i thought 911 was an emergency response thing.

ok, friday training. i thought friday training went pretty well. granted, dave informed me that the cute guy from the beginning of year trolley ride was initially supposed to do this community organizing training, but the fellow (i think his name was steve*, so for all intensive purposes from now on, i will refer to him as such) who did it was pretty interesting to me.

he began the session by pointing out that he was NOT a community organizer. no, in fact he was a professor ( but you know what they say, those who can't...) but in my opinion, i felt he had the theory dead-on. starting by covering very bluntly what organizing was not (activism, mobilizing, and other half-baked intentions), he told us that everyone is not meant to be an organizer. he said that people were addressing insurmountable problems instead of focusing on tacklable issues. while giving examples, steve sort of cut sharply at particular jobs and organization missions, essentially saying they weren't important because they weren't getting anything done. people were offended at this, in spite of complaining about not making a change at their organization. it brought up arthur's previous point about the non-profits: shouldn't they exist to put themselves out of business?

so, that is basically where i'm at with that, with the exception of TSP. more on that later. congrats alicia.


*turns out his name is in fact aaron schutz. all apologies.