June 18, 2009
Freedom and Broadway
The ability to speak out, to “petition for redress of grievances,” as the 1st Amendment says – helps us with challenges to democracy down the line, in areas far away from our speaker’s corners. Keep public space public – don’t assume that stopping crime must also involve a shutdown of our basic freedoms. Just the opposite effect takes place. If freedom of expression is curtailed in public, then it is more likely that we will have more crimes like slush funds in the city council, like lobbyist pay-offs in Albany, and most damaging of all – the control of our institutions by billionaires. They have made our democracy a source of cynicism and laughter.
Open up the parks and squares, the streets and sidewalks. Stop the record-pace “stop and frisk” harassment of people of color. Our neighborhoods are healthy, better for children and for families, when citizens are not afraid of tickets and fines, of stops and intimidation. When we are silenced, then the landlords and developers know they can pressure us. In silence, the epidemic of evictions and foreclosures continues, the small shops and local manufacturing harassed by a bully market. If we lose our strong American voice, we will lose our city! We stay free because we can shout together, out in the open air, “Freedom!”
Comments
A response from a Peace worker
Thanks for this writing. I like it (especially “bully market”). I think it’s a very solid argument to make, that free speech is a main tool for the prevention of conflict, because communication lies at the heart of resolving and transforming conflict. So more freedom=more communication=more peace=safer and better neighborhoods seems like basic algebra to me.
You only need to be careful not to be perceived, while delivering this or any other speech or written statement, as using it to destabilize the established order. Even though you may want to do that, and even though reshuffling is always in order, in order to create a higher order (repetitiousness intended), framing it as a revolution will excite some and alienate many. You don’t need me to tell you this, and you certainly have more data from the field to determine the effects of the campaign so far.
I would just try to walk the fine line of unthreatening change that is always reserved for us peaceworkers by focusing on the vision you have rather than the process to get there. In other words, present an alternative that is positive and creative in the real sense, rather than focusing on what you are going to change. So talk more about how freedom allows for healthy, safe neighborhoods, rather than how limits on freedom produce crime and violence. You want to be a healing force, not a reactionary one. And you need to make your argument well, because people tend to (fallaciously) balance freedom and security on opposite ends of the scale.
Of course, giving people more freedom means putting trust in them. (And some will counter that you shouldn’t.) Make it a process of giving people more of a voice in their neighborhoods on issues that matter to them, civic organizing, even use the big-money concept that says, “you know best how to spend your resources,” except that those resources don’t have to be $, they can be creativity, time, dreams of a better community. Empower people to envision a new reality they can build together, that they can own and claim. I think that especially in a big city like NYC, the feeling of powerlessness vis-à-vis crime, tourists, business interests, etc. can be overwhelming. But the neighborhood is not a big city, and you can make change there. And if you can give people freedom with little direction, you may be able to deflect the criticism of big-government that is so often aimed at liberals.
Let me know your thoughts.
Hope you’re ridin’ high on the waves of the Holy Hudson, with your pulpit.
Peace,
Oliver
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