Hi,
We The People are like hamsters on the wheel, running endlessly, but rarely if ever gaining ground.
Does the following scenario seem all too familiar to you?
Your city/county/state has scheduled a public hearing to ascertain public opinion on a proposed corporate development that will
dramatically impact the health, safety and welfare
of your human and other residents.
A single-issue advocacy group works tirelessly
to pack that public hearing with both impacted local residents and a variety of experts.
The overwhelming majority of those who speak at the public hearing, or who send in their written comments, are
strongly opposed to the project being approved.
The local government appears frozen, claiming that their hands are tied, that there's really nothing they can do to block the corporate project.
The government body that hosted the public hearing formally decides to approve the proposed corporate project.
The public responds with outrage.
The single issue advocacy group proceeds to organize one new action after another to resist the project moving forward, such as rallies, petitions, boycotts, and civil disobedience actions, even after it has been approved by the relevant government decision-makers,
hoping beyond hope that somehow one of these tactics will still manage to stop the project. Or at least delay it.
We almost never slow down sufficiently to get off this wheel, and to
take a long deep reflective breath together
. Imagine if We slowed our pace down enough to ask ourselves:
- Is this the most effective thing We could be doing to protect our community's health, safety and welfare?
- How can it be that in a democratic republic, We have so little say in how decisions are made where we live?
- Is it possible that We are not paying sufficient attention to the structures of law that make corporate project approvals inevitable, and sometimes even protected by the US Constitution?
- What might we do differently?
We The People have shrunken vision, even including most of our activist leaders. We put our primary focus towards how we can stop the latest corporate outrage, rather than
thinking and feeling and visioning spaciously towards what it is that we truly want for our communities.
When is the last time that you met in public space with other diverse members of the public, with the primary goal being an open and ongoing discussion on
what it is We The People yearn to create to make our communities more sustainable and more just
with each and every year? We don't give this our focused attention because We don't think what We want matters to those who make the decisions.
Most of us want genetically modified foods out of our grocery stores and our farm fields. But that's what we DON'T want.
What DO we want in our grocery stores and our fields? And how do we get there?
Many of us want to shut down our fossil fuel infrastructure that is rapidly destroying the climate that supports all life on Mother Earth. But that's what we DON'T want. What DO we want to replace it with?
And how do we realistically get there?
You can't get from here to there using conventional single-issue activism. Because our tactics and strategies are mostly taking place on a
playing field
that was designed and built by the corporate state. The corporatists set the rules, so they inevitably usually win.
Can We imagine a different kind of playing field with rules defined by We The People?
In such a scenario, We might actually get used to winning the future We so need and want.
The Community Rights movement is dreaming big. And we invite YOU to join us on this journey.
Our cities are drowning in overpriced housing that few of us can afford to rent or buy. So we're in the process of drafting a
locally enforceable Housing Bill of Rights.
YOUR community or county could pass this ordinance (local law).
We are witnessing wholesale species collapse at an alarming rate. So we're in the process of drafting a
locally enforceable Pollinator Bill of Rights
to start the ball rolling towards a new paradigm vision for long-term species survival. YOUR community or county could pass this ordinance.
Wireless communications and 5G internet services are now the norm. And yet their safety is increasingly being questioned. So we're in the process of drafting a
locally enforceable 5G Ban
. YOUR community or county could pass this ordinance.
The above ideas are just a drop in the bucket in terms of what our local communities could be doing to start boldly addressing the critical issues where YOU live.
We at Community Rights US are here to help YOU to think BIG.
To jump off the hamster wheel. We want to hear from YOU. We really do.
Yes, we're dreaming big. Please join us!
