Since I've been asked... Part One

This week has seen a) a heat-wave, b) the S.O.S. rally at the HWDSB headquarters at 100 Main Street West, c) a fair amount of commenting about the whole education situation, and d) protracted correspondence on my part with concerned residents. One in particular.

The emails back-and-forth with this tried-and-true Hamiltonian were initiated after Margaret Shkimba's article 'We can do better for our children' was published. Although my tack wasn't the same as my correspondent's. Theirs was more about 'ideas' and 'getting creative' in response to this 'crisis'. Mine was more about taking several steps back and taking a look at the bigger picture. Concentrating on what would be required to do something with the ideas and the creativity we might be able to come up with. 

My email-buddy eventually asked 'What do we need to do?' But before I relate my answer(s) to them, allow me to post here an online comment following on the heels of the protest yesterday at the –current– BOE headquarters:

"This can be redone with a little more notice. Plently more people will go when they realize the local government is going to sell the prime land that tax payers dollars have paid for to housing developers, which will actually de-value homes in the area. That's when people will actually care. And its so sad for the kids who will lose the ability to go outside and stare out over a field and think, or study. If I could actually put my emotions into proper words right now I would steamroll our 'board of education' with those words. I was not in attendance yesterday, and I should have been, because this needs to be stopped. Let's do this again. Full scale assult peaceful protest style. Let's make the city of hamilton know that we want the city to keep their prime land highschools for the kids, and not sell them off for further development of our residential infrastructure. The truly ironic part will be when a child has to take a bus to school wen he's living in a condo on old school grounds."

The comment is pretty typical of the frustration, the anger, the very emotional state that those-who-are-aware-and-energized are expressing. And it prompted me to email this to my friend:

 "...to me entirely the wrong approach...it will lead nowhere...reinforcing the feelings of helplessness, of abandonment, of increased impotency...resulting in (maybe) anger at the next election...but probably not. Not given our present landscape.  

"Choose your battles well."

At the heart of what I believe needs to be done, you won't find 'email your trustee, your councillor, your MPP, the Minister of Education...' You can do that. And it won't hurt. But to me, the fundamental task isn't to complain about what's happening. That's not owning the situation. In fact, when it's done as it usually is, it's preventing that ownership from taking place, because you've created a dynamic within which the roles remain the same, meaning the power structure doesn't change at all. Meaning you're probably not going to get what you crave...and more than likely are practically guaranteeing that down the road, you're not going to be getting what you crave at that point, either. 

Think of it this way (and please allow for shortcomings in my analogy): Imagine you're a customer in a community-owned co-op. Your money helped set up the store, you 'hired' the employees, the management that runs the place, etc. 

Now imagine you're told about a change in policy. Something that really, really doesn't sit well with you. For the sake of this analogy, let's suppose we're talking about reducing store hours to Monday-to-Friday, from 10-5, a complete departure from the easy-accessibility that had been the store's hallmark from the start. What do you do?

Talk to the management?

Complain to the management?

Protest on the sidewalk outside the co-op?

Um... You're an owner of this co-op. Doesn't this fact imply a dynamic beyond complaining? Beyond the creation of an 'Us vs Them' mentality? Beyond online keening or the production of zippily-sardonic posters?

Wouldn't you think that it would make more sense as an owner to a) develop a working understanding of why this change in policy has been invoked, b) step up and demand genuine commiseration, and c) become an actual participant in finding more equitable solutions? 

Presumably, this co-op has a Board, and it has regular stakeholder meetings. You'd think there'd be opportunities for consultation; such a massive change in policy shouldn't come from out of the blue.  So my analogy is a bit slippery here. However, the crux of my argument is –at least to me– solid: If as stakeholders we have sufficient concern about how our 'business' is being run, and if we're sincere in our concern and if we want more of a say in how things are run, doesn't it follow that we have to go beyond merely voting in this candidate or that candidate and then hoping for the best? That we might just have to...if we're not just getting off on our anger...'put up or shut' up and become active participants in our own governance?

Up next: What to do, what to do...

M Adrian Brassington