Campaign Message 7

                                                                    m.rosenzweig 2009

Community. 

Wow, besides jobs and families, is there anything more 

important than community? 

I grew up in Morris Cove.

 That community has changed,

 and changed and changed back in those seven decades 

since I trapped muskrats in the creek behind the airport there. 

New Auburn, during that time, has changed as well 

and is now in the process of resurrecting itself again.

Government must do everything in its power to help 

communities be the place 

where residents can nurture their children 

and enjoy this fleeting world we find ourselves in.

In fact, our communities continue to be quite good. 

Look around the world and you will quickly see 

a lot of communities that we would all be thankful 

not to be a resident of.

There are two things, however, where this world of ours 

might be improved. 

At first glance, they may seem in conflict.

I never felt unsafe as a kid even when crossing the runway 

while walking my trap line before school each morning. 

Today there is a climate of fear that adversely affects us all. 

It is very complicated and I don’t think it is possible 

to make it go away from above. 

It is, however, possible, I think, to assuage its impact 

from the bottom up.

One of the things that has been happening is that communities 

have been forced to reduce the budget bottom line. 

This is a hateful process. 

It turns good people against each other and undermines 

the capacity of people to feel safe.

It does not take much of a world view to see that we have 

a superior public safety component 

as do the communities to our north and east 

along the IAT. 

Unfortunately, as we cut back resources from public safety, 

they tend to come from the protection side 

of the two major functions of that government component. 

Not only does this leave us feeling a bit less safe, 

it makes the job of enforcement less safe as well.

This is another area where I think it would be wise 

to transition resources from the federal government 

to the state and local governments. 

Unarmed, uniformed folks who get to know me 

as a community resident 

have some idea of my potential as a threat. 

I, too, gain some comfort from their smile 

as I see them on the street.

The other piece is a bit more difficult to appreciate 

and may initially seem in conflict with feeling more safe.

 Audre Lorde, a black woman, very clever with words, 

urges us to think differently about diversity. 

“Difference must not be merely tolerated", she says, 

"but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between 

which our creativity can spark like a dialectic.”

Maybe, with more protectors on the streets, 

we can feel a little more comfortable with the diversity 

that has evolved with our more globally defined community.

Audre suggests, “Difference is that raw and powerful connection 

from which our personal power is formed.” 

What that means is that diversity is one of the ingredients 

that enable the actuality of full potential 

both for individuals and for the communities we live in.

                                                                                                m.rosenzweig  2009