Posted: 24 September 2010; Updated:
A superb irony!
Of all the questions that Geoff Rodgers, one of six county council candidates, could have picked at random from the box of 40 or so submitted and qualified questions from town people at the September 12 LAGRI forum in Fuller Lodge, it was mine:
How can our community harness the potential creative energy in those who are currently marginalized, dismissed or ignored by other citizens and institutions of this community? [This ignored potential creative energy manifests itself in many ways, including low morale, high suicide rate, anti-establishment rage, conflict between government and citizen groups, etc.]
Not only did Geoff not know the question beforehand, he didn’t know who submitted it, which was me, a personal friend and former employee when he was the LA Schools transportation supervisor several years ago! [His remarks can be viewed on the Pac 8 video of the forum at 56:19 minutes into the program.]
His answer could not have been more to the point in acknowledging the importance of the question. "County councilors are citizens first", he said, "and public servants second." And he would surely be open to concerns from those who have been dismissed, marginalized, ignored or otherwise discounted.
This synchronicity bodes well for the deep democracy process we propose to introduce at the next regular LAGRI planning meeting on October 3.