[freelotus]

this article reminded me, when i first read it, about a passage in a book i'd been skimming a week (or few) before. meant to go back to the store and try to reread it, but apparently an age will pass before i remember to do that while actually in the store. so, possibly a tangent, but i'll post what i can recall here anyway.

the book is going public: an organizer's guide to citizen action by michael gecan.

he wrote about educated people & students of previous civil rights struggles believing (being taught) that merit counts for everything when trying to improve society and fight injustice. that the most meritorious person or argument will win the day.

so, if you are well versed on your topic and have a calm, reasonable, organized approach, and make it to the right people, (and if you are in the right), then you will win.

they also believe the corollary, that if you don't succeed, it's because your presentation wasn't perfect (must do better next time), or you lost your temper or it was bad timing or something.

but the world doesn't really move on merit.

i can't remember the full list of what he said was more important, but boldness was part of it. and having the numbers to help out, and some well-placed connections.

he gave examples of successful organising he'd been part of.... one was a neighborhood where all the grocery stores were selling expired goods &/or constantly out of stock, so people had to travel out of their way to get decent food and supplies or suffer. they'd appealed to ALL the logical channels. pretty much no one cared to help except one agency and they didn't have staff or funding to tackle it anytime in the next year or two.

so, they formed these little citizen teams, to go around and 'inspect' the stores themselves. buying rotted food as evidence. noting empty shelves, expirations dates, dust & dirt, temperatures in broken freezers and refrigerators. they took pictures, i believe. they made their own forms & checklists, so everyone was using the same standards. they told the local police what they were doing & why, pre-empting the shop owners calling the cops on them. (sometimes a cop car would park outside while the inspection was taking place, lending their presence.) and then they threatened to give all their accumulated inspections data to the press.

and it worked.

they finally shamed the shop owners into doing better. without shutting them down or suing or passing new laws, etc.

he wrote something like.... when the agencies in place are not responsive or doing their jobs correctly, sometimes you have to band together and form your own, new agency. (obviously, they didn't incorporate or register a legal entity; just got bold enough to do the job properly themselves.)

i thought it was very interesting, considering the state of most institutions and agencies these days. apparently, worldwide. and it was real world action, not just bad reviews posted online. (i don't recall what year they did this though.)

anyone else read this book? maybe the entire book, and with better recall than i have? lol