Minneapolis 50th Celebration is taking up Bending History #2 this Saturday. Editor John Epps recommended JWM's 5th City Testimony in 1968 He said a Sacramento group had a really lively study of the paper. [Hello Sacramento -go global please and share your notes!] When I read the 22 paragraphs I was trying to figure out how to distinguish 20th C "dust" from 21st C gems - what's available for no longer/not yet creation To say it more simply is there anything that remains REVOLUTIONARY in JWM's testimony. You're welcome to your own views of course, my notes for the future are below. You can -for a day or 2 read the text here but BUY THE BOOK https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aYxp0CgFUM1k7dWnB_i9Pv_4KnVn-Ys2Apt5Lp7l... As I re-read my notes, I'm looking for MORE revolutionary, that handle Arab spring and 1% 99%. I don't think detachment is going to do much. Engaging might. See anything revolutionary? What? -- Steve Harrington Provocative Propositions for the next 50 years: 1 world's struggle to create a new social vehicle demanded by the scientific, secular and urban revolutions that define our age 2 Chicago's West Side three foundational problems image of self-depreciation inflicted upon the psyche; and the absence of local social structures human benefits which the modern world. People are deprived of any real means of participating in the decision-making processes 3 The primordial problem in the city is psychological or internal Every person and every people operate out of a primordial self-image. Practical action results from that image 4 The super city complex has destroyed older forms of local corporateness within its boundaries. Because suburbia still has such structures and the accompanying power it drains off the means of the good life that society at large creates. 5 This means that people have no sense of doing anything that will make any difference. This refers of course to arrangement of voting districts, to entrenched political machinery, to the power of crime combines -- all of which disenfranchise in a fashion city people. The state of powerlessness is. 6 We deal with people whose future is cut off and no amount of counter force -- which intensifies hopelessness -- can long secure them. 7 sophisticated benevolence, never penetrating to the real issues. 8 Chicago has developed a model of comprehensive community reformulation in Chicago's West Side. 9 Comprehensive reformulation begins with a carefully defined area, set apart by clear boundaries. This reduces the sense of chaos created by the seeming impossibility of the task. Geography curtails dissipation and duplication of effort. Geography makes possible a clearer picture of the maze of problems that paralyze the citizens. Unless the imagination of citizen is refurbished, nothing else can lastingly be altered for the black disadvantaged of the central city. 10 Piece-meal approaches never get at the real issues and cannot create the needed morale for action. Indeed they tend to cultivate the victim image. 11 the postures of the various age groups radically influence each other. If the elders are neglected they will unintentionally communicate their images of submissiveness to the young. 12 In creating a community large or small, a sense of commonness in mission must be created. Corporateness relative to task define community. and this is mediated through living symbols. These include songs, festivals from the geographical area 13 a practical solution must be reiterated frequently: "comprehensiveness" has both scope and depth and timeliness. For example, the first four-year experimental phase has both impact and penetration ensuing in an awakening and commitment of a core of the citizenry and they establish imaginal education forms, the social constructs, and the community organization. 14 imaginal education is the beginning. It is the crucial problem of local communities. Imaginal education involves first of all, de¬programming passive, disengaged, victim conversations for no possibility 15 Replacing victimology means that individuals and communities become proud of and engaged in a conversation for possibility in a new works of possibility. 16 imaginal education begins early in the crib and much later with senior citizens, with people beginning careers, with established adults and the cultural images that surround them. 17 Creating a new grassroots social contract means learning to handle hundreds of surface problem areas and organizng into 5 shared social processes of: economic, political, education, arts life style practices. 18 A shared grass roots social contract can yarn bring into being a web of local initiatives to deal with self-identified identified problems 19 A shared grassroots social contract brings community organization and structural access give to do something about unmet local needs- for example local health care access. 20 Developing community is the creative thrust of the city and impacts the total social vehicle. It is the force of social change operating from within the ordinary patterns of society that become extraordinary. 21 "Iron Men,"to use a specific community image that became a symbol and a statue in 5th City community, Chicago are local, often not very visible community leaders know the neighborhood and who disseminate crucial information about social and individual needs which are often by means of a simple online community webpage -- made available to the Guilds of the community for proper action 22 Over time an 'invisible collage" of neighbors grows. People sense after what it means to participate in a new social contract and the decisions and action that influence the destiny of their community. There is a living conversation for possibility in many local communities and diverse cultural expression. 23 There is a living on-going sense of positive accomplishment and active participation in living history. 24 community reformulation is in our opinion the only strategy for dealing with the tragedy and the promise of local communities in cities everywhere.