On July 23rd, four out of the remaining five Solano Peace and Justice Coalition steering committee, submitted their resignations. They had valiantly struggled to keep the Solano Peace and Justice Coalition on life support for the last few years. What does this mean for the Solano County peace community? It essentially means that there will no longer be a central group or leadership or hierarchy taking responsibility for planning and organizing peace events and actions.
COALITION: An alliance, especially a temporary one, of people, factions, parties, or nations. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved July 21, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/coalition
Initially we did have a "coalition" of factions and parties coming together in response to 9/11 and the Bush Administrations rush to war. Those "parties" included Green's and Democrats. I think that the coalition really started falling apart during the 2004 election although I know others cite other conflicts that hastened the coalition's decline.
After the election season of 2004, as the "coalition" numbers decreased dramatically, it evolved from it's initial form, into a "steering committee." I don't know if it was due to that change in structure or maybe it was happening for a while by then and inevitable, but I think many individuals began to see activities pertaining to peace as the steering committee's responsibility and that somehow the steering committee absolved them as individuals to take any personal responsibility for planning activities, events and actions, (the exceptions being the work of those continuing the Benicia and Vacaville vigils). Otherwise, for many others, it just seemed easier to stay home and let the "steering committee" do the work. It also seemed like the steering committee became the easy scapegoat when activities, events and actions were not planned or if a plan was not successful. The community just didn't seem to want to support regularly scheduled business meetings regardless of where they were held, the day they were held or the time they were held. Maybe they had become obsolete anyway with the internet facilitating communication. After all, the vigils didn't require business meetings. The VCAT community access television show didn't require business meetings. For the most part, by this time, all that is required is an email address to put an event or action together or to keep up to date with what is going on. Central planning committees and coalitions have possibly become less critical in the age of networks? Regardless, the business meetings consistently had low turnout which became frustrationg, demoralizing, and depressing to those that struggled to continue them. All kinds of reasons were discussed and solutions put forth but nothing changed
NETWORK: an association of individuals having a common interest, formed to provide mutual assistance, helpful information. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved July 21, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/NETWORK
A network is an association of individuals. The key word is "individuals." They may have a common interest to provide MUTUAL assistance but there is not a centralized committee to do all the work of planning and organizing (and then ultimately scapegoat if things don't go well). There is no parental group that takes responsibility for doing all the planning, reminding and cajoling, or absolving individuals in the community of personal responsibility.. There is no centralized group that makes the decisions- individuals make the decisions. There is no "power structure" from whom anyone needs to ask permission or seek approval. Individuals get together for a common interest and to provide mutual assistance and work on projects but a network does not need regularly scheduled meetings. A network needs a way to distribute "helpful information." The website will continue to serve that purpose until at least October if the community wants to utilize it. The mailing list serves that purpose too along with the personal mailing lists of others and mailings will continue until at least October if the community wants to utilize it. VCAT also serves the purpose of distributing "helpful information" if anyone wants to utilize that and progressive community access television programs will continue if individuals want to take responsibility for it and contribute their own time to that effort. Nobody else is going to do it for you. If people want to get together for a common interest, no problem, emails and telephones facilitate that. If a few people want to get together for a "meeting" to discuss issues or just to socialize, they can schedule one and invite others and post their meeting on the bulletin board. There is no one that needs to "sanction" or "approve" such meetings. If a few people are interested in doing a project, they don't need anyone to "sanction" it or "approve" it. This website is only here to facilitate communication- between individuals- not between any committee and individuals.
If you want to work on community access television videos, give me a call or email me and we will try to put something together. If you, the community, does not support the VCAT video project, then there probably won't be progressive videos on community access television expressing YOUR ideas. Don't complain then that the media is all one sided because YOU do have the ability to create media yourself that expresses YOUR opinion and perspective. If you don't take advantage of that ability, then you really shouldn't complain about there not being more progressive viewpoints on television! You just have to be willing to take responsibility yourself for doing that rather than leaving it to others.
If you want to work on a 9/11 memorial project, post your interest on the bulletin board. If people want to get together to work on something like that, they can get together any place and any time at THEIR CONVENIENCE. There are no excuses. There is no centralized committee to do it for you or scapegoat if it doesn't get done in the way you think it should be done. It is up to individuals to make peace happen. It is up to YOU. No one else will do it for you. No one else can be blamed if something isn't happening the way you think it should be happening. The website and mailing list will support the efforts of individuals that want to do something for peace, including anyone that wants to have discussion meetings. Please post to bulletin board directly. You do NOT need to send me an email and ask permission to post ANYTHING. I am not here to edit your posts or give permission or approval. The bulletin board is open to the community. Take responsibility for posting there directly.
If you live in Solano county and like to write and want to express your progressive viewpoints and ideas on a regular basis to the community, please take personal responsbility and write a blog column for the website at www.solanopeaceandjustice.org. Your opinions will be identified clearly as YOUR opinions and perspective and the only restriction will be that you not make any negative personal remarks about other progressive individuals in the Solano County peace community. Maybe you want to regularly write about your perspective on the war or the environment or politicians or debates or the vigils or progressive movies, other websites, books, beliefs or whatever. Maybe you will want to get a discusson group together and will want to write about that.
I encourage everyone to sign up with Moveon.org and when they are coordinating vigils or actions, take personal responsibility and sign up and then post it on the bulletin board so others can join you. Sign up with BraveNewFilms.org and when they release a new film and are looking for places to show it, take responsibilty for peace and sign up and post it on the bulletin board and let others know about it. When the next election comes up, participate in home phonebanking and make a difference. Go to the Benicia vigil on Thursdays between 4pm and 6pm. Go to the Vacaville vigil on Saturday mornings. Write letters to your senators and congressperson. Call me and do a community access television segment for VCAT. Regardless, find some way to PARTICIPATE! There are a LOT of things that individuals in a network can accomplish by taking personal responsibility. You don't need a centralized planning committee to do it for you.