Kansas wheatfield
To: no-list@yahoogroups.com
From: Dennis Budd <nitewing@ku.edu>
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2003 23:19:36 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: [no-list] our scope
It's really quite something to be the owner of a list you can barely keep on top of. I've been "out of the loop" for a good part of the last three weeks, and have been a day or two behind for most of the last week. There's been no way I could contribute.
This list is to discuss issues of national organizing. I said this last fall, and I will say it again. What I consider "issues of national organizing" are
* *b r o a d* *. Organizing specific campaigns is beyond the scope of this list and will only detract from our focus .. but responding to issues and "alerts" is something that we as a community have done and will continue to do. It could be considered "organizing", but as long as these don't become a major focus of the list I will continue to consider them to be part of our business.The discussion of issues and "consciousness", i.e., what are we about, that has been going on here the last three or so weeks is exactly what needs to be happening right now. Just reading it has helped me keep my sanity while dealing with some brutal local issues. Coming to what are the bases on which we can get together (along with what the process needs to be) is the start. I don't think we're there yet. My feeling.
The discussion has been just a few people .. I'm not sure why, but for myself I've been totally overwhelmed by the volume of posting here the last few weeks. I've got too many balls in the air right now. Perhaps I'm not alone? There are a number of busy people on this list. Perhaps I'm not the only one who's left with no time or energy to respond. I'm sure there are persons who are intimidated enough by the eloquence being expressed here to feel that they have nothing to contribute
<wrong>. I do know that people are not leaving in droves; I suspect that the majority of our list membership finds what is being said to be relevant. Perhaps adding their ideas is more than they are up to right now.(BTW, I'm not necessarily suggesting scaling back the volume .. I think we need to find our own level on this, but we should be aware of the varying effects it will have on our members.)
I too am in this to pursue a path of unity, if we can come to such a path. I remember a previous national organizing effort where "unity" was held to be important .. but there was no process to come to any such unity, it was in essence a "unity" shoved down people's throats. When the process finally split wide open, the split was bitter. That is not the way I want it to work this time. I do not want bitter splits institutionalized in the name of "unity". If it turns out that there are no basic principles on which everyone can come together, I don't want a process that has killed any potential unity and good will between those who do come together under different principles.
It is my sense that there are principles on which we can come together, but it remains to be seen whether there is any principled way that we can bridge those points on which we differ. My sense is simply that, my sense, not a detailed analysis of what can happen.
When Andrew made the statement, "What I didn't say was, 'We (whoever that is!) have decided that using the NO-LIST as a springboard for mass organizing is forbidden.'", I don't know what he means by "springboard for mass organizing". If we are successful, that is exactly what will happen. We don't want to be the entity that does the mass organizing, or that forms the national organization, but we will have been the springboard.
On the issue of a "specialized organization", I would say that discussion of the details of forming a separate org around the issues that Tina/Sue/Jim have proposed is out of line on this list. But discussion of the need for such an organization, the issues around which such an organization would form, and how it might fit in with the "clients" movement in general, are very much within the bounds of this list. They are inseparable from the issue of "what are we about"in a larger sense. That is my opinion. I am not setting it forth as list policy, but as listowner, I think it should count for something.
I'm leaving town tomorrow morning for the Kansas Recovery conference in Wichita, and expect to be totally off-line until Monday. Once again, I'll have the opportunity to fall a week behind. That's life.
My lack of participation here doesn't mean I don't care. Far from it.
Dennis