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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
Why? Working within the community at after-school programs, with gang-intervention programs, the library, half-way houses, shelters, prisons, community awareness programs, civic meetings, NGOs, churches, universities, environmental and conservation groups, etc etc not enough for y'all?
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Of course it's plenty but which one have you actually done? Are you saying you've worked in all of them? Or are these just "good ideas"?
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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
How is it more appropriate to work with political campaigns and vote than to actually work with the community?
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it's not an either/or thing, they operate at different levels
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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
Voting is a sham, plain and simple and that is my premise.
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so they don't vote in NGOs, civic metings, churches, conservation groups, etc? how do these groups make decisions?
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Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous
If folks ACTUALLY want to do something in their communities, there are plenty of ways do such, and working with political parties and political campaigns seems to me to have the least efficacy.
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even if you are only concerned with local politics, the political parties can create either a friendly or hostile environment for all of the local institutions you mentioned above. they can provide funding or withdraw it.
do you think the environment in halfway houses or prison programs change when you have shit like supermax prisons? do you think addicts should be lumped with violent criminals or sent to drug courts? and how does that affect the impacted communities?
Do you think the work of environmental groups is affected when pollution is encouraged by "pro-business" administrations?
Don't you realize that many of these people and groups are actually the "base" of these bigger parties?
Seriously man, there is a bigger picture at the national and international level and that can't fit our dreams 100%, but sometimes you have to take 60/40 over 40/60, yeah?
However, that happens at the local community level: the union organizers who decide to take a stance on foreign policy and splinter their membership. the health clinic that gets money for showing videos from CNN and pharmaceutical ads in the waiting room. the university that experiments with animals (ask PETA what they think about it). the NGO that misappropriates funds. the environmental group that misrepresents or outright falsifies data.
there is no purity at any level when you actually try to get things done in this planet. none. ideals belong in the fucking heavens of thought and imagination, and they remain a point in the compass, not an achievable destination. compromise is the rule of planet earth once you get more that 1 person involved. if you want to get things done you can't be all pure and holy-- besides, there will always be haters who disapprove no matter how hard you try-- just make sure you're one of the doers not one of the haters.
LAWS AND SAUSAGES