It’s been a busy week at “Rock City,” as I’ve focused on tasks made more urgent by my absence on election day: easy work and a lot of it. The business launched an advertising campaign on local radio, and I’ve been delighted by the influx of new visitors. I’m listening more to NPR and less to AM radio. What little I have heard on Jim Leach’s WMAY morning show has come as a surprise. Two years ago, hearing a left-winger disparage a right-winger was as common as seeing a hawk making lazy circles over a Wal-Mart store. Now they all seem to hate McCain. “Entertainment radio” seems to be dogs from both parties eating the entrails of November 4th’s outcome. (yawn). As Walt Whitman wrote in Leaves of Grass, “I have no mockings or arguments” left in me. But unlike Whitman who continued, “I witness and wait.” I witness and build!
Now is the time for cultivating grass roots. Mine go deep into my home streets and The Vinegar Hill Neighborhood Association I have served as President, Secretary, board member and newsletter editor for most of its 11 years since Alderman Roderick Nunn founded it. My frustration over Alderman Sam Cahnman who, not once this year sent me his monthly contribution as requested (by deadline and in a Word attachment; not real complicated here) and the hassles of waiting for other contributions from officers (names available on request) who take their commitments to the newsletter the way dime store Santas assume responsibilities for promises to children in department store theatricals. The meetings where all elements abound but LEADERSHIP have captured me like a criminal in a police lineup. I want to be absent from the head table, but I cannot leave because the head table is where I wanted to be last December. I was used to the view there. Not any more. I’ll run for a board seat, and if I’m not elected, I will help as a dues paying member/volunteer when and where I can.
For the record, the leadership away from association meetings has been the best I’ve witinessed or contributed in 11 years.
Some years ago I discovered that when folks seem unwilling to run for election as officers, for instance, the only way to bring new blood into the mix is to step back, to not run for election as an officer. It worked before, and I hope it will work in the December VHNA elections.
Anyone who pays attention to City Council meetings knows these gatherings are not “love fests,” and that’s okay. But every member has the best interests of his or her ward residents in mind, and occasionally, the best interests of Springfield, which is even better. Some issues are CITY issues: for example the future of Springfield High School.
Our neighborhood association is hobbled not by residents with divergent passions, but by residents who have no interest in the success of our territory and city; who have no passion at all. This is why grass roots BUILDING is so necessary for the future of our neighborhoods, for our city, for our nation.
Apathy is the most insidious threat to our future. The cure to apathy waits not in words unleashed morning talk radio but by shoes on the ground: picking up the bottles and litter encountered during walks in the park or to the bus stop. The cure waits not in angry promises hurled against those coming out of the election with better vote counts; the cure waits in your getting involved with your neighborhood associations. Will you face disharmony from your involvement? More than likely, yes. But if Edwards and Simpson can speak to each other, your effort will be a breeze.
I wrote a poem that concluded “It’s easier to learn how to shoot the airpolane down/ Than it is to learn how to fly.” Flying is an essential task for modern American society. It has its risks: you’re a target too often; there’s the risk of an untimely and rapid descent, but the view of the world, of our own neighborhoods is essential for progress and the benefit of everyone. I hope you will fly. Your takeoff awaits your presence at the grass roots. Be there and begin.
Live long . . . . . and proper.
