"Cursed. Fresno is cursed. Everytime it tries to do something beautiful, something bad happens."
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about his frustrations over the city's failings and that was his reaction. I don't agree with him; a lot of beautiful things have been done here but it does seem to take an eternity to make things happen.
Still, there are great people doing amazing things in this nation and Debra Schweiger Berg has collected them into a book called "The Power of One: The Unsung Everyday Heroes Rescuing America's Cities."
This is not about government's great projects or big businesses taking on a cause. It's about a businessman and a minister who teamed up to create an anti-poverty idea that's now helping people succeed in 27 cities.
It's a lawyer who has trained over 10,000 volunteers to track down criminals using the Internet.
It was a radio listener who initiated the Amber Alert child rescue plan that is credited with saving more than 200 lives.
This book is a vitamin shot of optimism. If you have a passion for a cause in Fresno, you may be The One who changes things. She calls these people citizen inventors and entrepreneurs.
Berg is director of the National Institute for Civic Enterprise in Grand Island, Fla. The Web site is www.NiCEnetwork.org. You can also look at www.powerone.org.
If one reads history, not the standard Pilgrims stories but local histories from anywhere in the United States, you will find all major public works came from individuals. When people settled in an area they built churches, canals, roads, schools, parks, libraries, etc. They saw a need and found a way to make it happen. There was more sense of pride in their community. They were part of a whole and worked to make their community a better place. I think, for the most part, this feeling of community is gone. We expect our government to handle it all. They can’t and won’t. Who better than the citizens knows what their community needs? Government needs to go back to being a tool and not a savior. Voters complain that government does not represent the needs of the people any more but we let them get that way.
I was fortunate to live small town history. I , too, subscribe to the mantra "Who
better than the citizens knows what their community needs." (Kim Tanksley.)
I know that citizen's involvement can shape the city because I was there, for
about 50 years. One brief case file: Three of the five City Council members
wanted to privatize the city's Public Works Refuse Collection. I could not see that
something should be fixed that did not fixing. I was able to rally the citizens, and
after some months of back and forth, came the evening of reckoning (so to speak)
The Council Chamber had standing room only, and a speaker had to be taken to
the vestibule for those out of the chamber to hear. In the end the major said:
"Well Isabell, are you going to cast my vote as well?" But he smiled. The Council
voted 4:1 not to privatize and to keep Public Works public. It was a great evening
for the citizens who got involved. To me personally, the greatest satisfaction came
when one of the Public Works employees came to me and said: "Mrs. Lawson, to
us you are a living legend.." It was worth the hard work, the money I spent for copies of the Senate Investigating Committee**transcripts for distribution, it was worth the many times I had to stand at the lectern to testify against the privatization, and the cost for the copies of my prepared testimony to pass to everyone in Council Chamber. And that evening of the vote against the privatization was our night, the many citizens who were there and had rallied, had testified, did what had to be done.
City governments do not turn to the delusion of being saviors. They turn self-directed; to be for the sake of being when the citizenry is not there to instruct them.
Today the citizens complain that things are being crammed down their throats.
But their interests stop at their own picket fence. That is not making city history.
The next block is not even there to speak for their neighbors.
[**The firm the Council majority had wanted to hire to do the refuse collection had been investigated for racketeering.]
I knew I liked you Isabell and you've proven my hunch right. You coined the problem clearly where my words were lacking. "...their interests stop at their own picket fence."
To be liked? I guess I blew it on the Palin item.
Sorry!
My appreciation of people is not determined by whether they agree with me or not. Even with Palin you bring up some interesting thoughts. I much prefer someone with a little bit of a bite than a "yes man" chameleon any day.