“If what you did yesterday still seems big today, your goals for tomorrow aren’t big enough.” — Fu Yu Ling, ca. 900 B.C.
Thanks to everyone for coming to help us mark the second anniversary of this catastrophe, which continues through today. Most of my pictures from the conference are at the Rising Tide Conference Flickr group – please don’t forget to post your pictures from anything RT-related to the group. I will post images from the work day tomorrow.
Seeing almost everyone in our two-year-old web of news and views and moderating a panel was nice, but I’ll admit to the work day at A. P. Tureaud Elementary School being a lot more satisfying. While Tim Ruppert’s, Matt McBride’s and Dave Zirin’s talks really educated me more about levees, pumps and the sports-industrial complex of America, I was convinced by the end of my own panel that doing something is a lot more interesting and rewarding than talking about doing something.
This is why at the end of the Making Civic Sexy panel, I asked if we are doing enough and we really have any effect on the things that need changing in New Orleans, as we step into bigger publicity shoes. The audience responded with a resounding YES (?!) and the example was pointed out of the Army Corps of Engineers standing down from Karen Gadbois. It was the last panel of the day and getting late, so I relented. This is what I didn’t say: Darling, hard-working, ball-busting Karen, for whom my love and respect is ceaseless, is only one person, and no other blogger or community activist associated with this bunch can ever say they’ve done as much. Enough is not being done and we have a long way to go. Where are the other Karens? How will they be made? (Update: Bart feels the same way I do on this)
No, we“re not getting what we want. We“re fighting for scraps. What we need is nothing short of a revolution. The important question we should be asking is, what do we want that revolution to look like.
Furthermore, although my panel was supposed to simply showcase and elicit support for Squandered Heritage, a Common Knowledge website, a mental health information nexus and activism in general, I will bet you a lot of people nitpick about the content or concepts brought up in the panel or its presentation, but not a one of them steps up to help these projects move forward in any considerable fashion. Maitri to pundits: Help or STFU. (Update: Pistolette, not a pundit, is excited by Common Knowledge’s proposed Citizen’s Guide to City Hall; I’d light a bigger fire under her rear if she weren’t preggers).
These thoughts had me regauging the worth of being a New Orleans blogger, so much that I couldn’t completely participate in the self-congratulation and pats on backs that took place at the NOYC bar after the conference (and also because I had to wake up early the next day to help paint a school). If we don’t move onward and upward and expect more of ourselves, who will? It really pains me as a scientist and technology planner to observe the lack and discouragement of an action plan and “where do we go from here”, “how do we get better organized” questions. We have arrived as a socio-political entity which can further instigate and effect change, yet I see us stopping short of walking through that door … and the topic changes to something lighter.
While discussing this with Ray at good ol’ Fahy’s last evening, he advised me not to beat myself up about it. Audience members got to meet Eban and Sarah Elise (I wish Laureen had been there), understand their needs, see and hear firsthand the extent of demolition shenanigans via Karen’s presentation and learn about the true meaning of leadership from Bart. If nothing else, people have faces to put with names and can get in touch to contribute later on, if they miraculously choose to do so. My job of being Vanna White … errr … Brown for these blogger activists and their projects was done. However, Ray also wrote this while liveblogging the conference:
Dangerblond asks “what can we as citizens do about corruption, other than vote?” Panelists stare blankly and then go back to making political predictions about who will run for what. I mean, I think that’s the crux of the issue and the point of the whole conference: taking action. But when asked about citizen action, the only response anybody has is “that’s hard, let’s talk about something else”.
Nothing in Ray’s aforementioned paragraph logically points towards the epiphany it generated, but so it goes. I realized that Rising Tide isn’t about “taking action.” Sure, all of the organizers put their hearts, souls and backs into making this conference happen — I took Friday off from work to get things together and help set up, was dazzled by Kim‘s energy and communications skills and have never before seen someone voluntarily work logistics like the tireless and idea-generating mominem — but Rising Tide is really a time to get people in the blogger community and our supporters together, shake hands, kiss-kiss, bring up the topics that trouble us and physically wave our arms at it instead of doing it on our blogs. It is an annual social and show to recognize ourselves. Nothing more, nothing less. Taking action is something we do elsewhere, inspite of being NOLA bloggers.
Seriously, if I say that typing in this box is social work / civic activism or encourages me to do good work in my community, I’d be a big, fat liar. Even as much as broaching the subject to bloggers of increased involvement in actual work, and taking a closer look at our raison d’etre, will go over like a lead balloon, and I don’t recommend to anyone to bring it up in a conference forum any more. This is especially sad considering that audience members fell asleep in their chairs for every panel except for the politics one and Zirin’s talk (two people by me were snoring as vital scientific charts and trends on levees and pumps were flashed on the screen), and politics and the sports complex are two things we really have no effect on. For as dangerblond said to Deborah Langhoff when Langhoff asked me for more politics panels at the next Rising Tide, “Well, we don’t really do anything in that arena.”
Speaking of dangerblond and “arena,” I am so glad Jay Arena was kicked out by the great blonde madame. I’m all for free speech and freedom of opinion, any opinion, but at least have the common decency to read our blogs before accusing us as a group of something that only exists in your own mind. Arena greeted a lot of us using our first names, even correctly pronouncing mine (another ?!), so it only behooves him to read us properly before foaming at the mouth about public housing.
Again, my sincere thanks to those who continue to help and promote our city. It is for you that I write.
P.S. Where was Jeanette Maier?
That’s not how I recall the moment on the politics panel. Here’s what I posted at Moldy City:
“Ray must have been typing when the panelists replied to the “what can citizens do about corruption.” We essentially said that they need to keep the public pressure up, vote more wisely inb the future and call the feebs if they know anything. We didn’t reply with blank stares.”
Again, what can we do in politics other than vote? And what’s a feeb?
Well, in my own private way, I’ve generated several maps for squandered heritage to use. Perhaps if you had 3 toddlers, you may understand the limited amount of time that is actually at my disposal, but nyahhhh.
As for self-congratulation, I’m sorry if my dismantling the PA system got in the way of one of your video interviews after the sessions. Mea Culpa.
I also think that people fell asleep during Matt’s presentation because it was technically poorly done, and they simply couldn’t hear the man. So it goes.
Feebs are the FBI.
I agree with Peter, there were many responses to the question. I just don’t think you were satisfied with them because you perhaps already had an answer and didn’t hear it?
Tasking a group of people who already were taking the time to attend a conference in addition to the time each of them devote to their blogs on a weekly basis is not exactly the best way of approaching the subject of what more we can do. it sounds like an accusation of “you’re not doing enough.”
Here is perhaps a better way of phrasing the same thing that doesn’t put the group in a position that they are mailing it in on civic activism.
“We should all be proud of the efforts we put forth this year. I’d like to take the time to ask the audience what should be the next step we as a group could take toward achieving the goal of a better South Louisiana.”
That may have moved the conversation forward instead of eliciting the awkwardness that I have to admit I felt in the last few moments. Particularly after my comments were met with a dismissive “Aaaanyway…”
Ashley,
– Karen has a daughter and had cancer, and she’s done so much with her limited time. We all have limited time. One of the questions of the panel was how to get people to feel like contributing when overwhelmed by SO much else in their lives, like all of my panelists. Feel free not to take posts on my blog as directed solely towards you.
Even your hero, Greg Peters, thinks that for a group of activists, we didn’t DO much at RT.
– I’m sorry that they asked me and not you. So it goes.
– I, too, was unhappy with the audio quality of the McBride talk and was hesitant to do it, but was “volunteered” to test the webcast up until and including the morning of the conference.
Varg,
First and foremost, the “Aaaanyway” comment was not directed at you at all. It was my way of admitting my own feeling of awkwardness at the end of the panel, given that I felt we weren’t accomplishing anything by talking any more. So, my sincere apologies – I’m sure that came across as patronizing.
I don’t feel like I’m doing enough, either, civic-wise. Or that I’m doing a lot but it just doesn’t punch through to anything else.
People kept emailing me personally telling me that a step towards a better Louisiana was to build this uberblog, and the concept has been beaten to death since the beginning of the NOLA bloggers. But I brought it up anyway because people told/asked me to. It’s what the audience wanted.
I feel we cannot do it given that individual bloggers will not be edited. In fact, over lunch with a journalist friend recently, she informed me that most people, especially journalists and bloggers, are especially loathe to give up their ego and turf. Mark Folse and I had this same discussion at the end of RT1 and RT2 and came up with the same feeling as my friend.
Humid Beings is a news and views aggregator and would need original content and research, not just our blog opinions, to be a “nola.com killer” A delicate balance between individual space and voice and collective space and voice is required. Ideas?
Varg: “Tasking a group of people who already were taking the time to attend a conference in addition to the time each of them devote to their blogs on a weekly basis is not exactly the best way of approaching the subject of what more we can do. it sounds like an accusation of “you’re not doing enough.—
Yep…
(I’ve got to turn off that feature that pingbacks my posts…)
For what it’s worth, I too have a hard time getting people to paint buildings for free.
Bloggers like to sit at computers. They need their cages rattled to do more, because there are limits to internet activism. Not many people like their cages rattled, even when it is necessary.
Painting the school is definitely more useful than pondering why there isn’t enough money to pay a crew to paint the school, which I did while I ate lunch and drove back to Houston. I hope you got all the painting done.
It was wonderful seeing you and being here for the conference. You did a great job.
I’m glad you brought the “are we doing enough” question back. I was also shocked that everyone said yes. I stand in your corner.
We’ve definitely got our foot in the door. Now we just have to use a crow bar to pry the rest open.
The question is, what is the crow bar? The FBI? Mainstream Media picking up on what we report? Replacing the Times-Pick-Your-Nose with a paper that will actually be a watchdog? Supporting Cerasoli (sp?)?
Perhaps I was just a little overtaken by the nervous energy of having to talk in front of a group of people – overtaken to the extent that I couldn’t sense the tension in the room. As a participant in Maitri’s panel, I have to say that I felt it was a valuable contribution to the program. I am always so humbled by the help of talented, already over-burdened people like Bart and Ashley, and I found it pretty inspiring to talk about the ways that using online media can actually change policy.
Silly me.
Bloggers “have no effect on politics”?
That’s an interesting belief.
That’s an interesting belief.
No effect in that we have no candidate to run based on our bipartisan (or, at the least, shouldn’t be affected by party affiliation) social-civic beliefs, and can do nothing more than vote responsibly like all other citizens. “More politics” as per Deborah Langhoff’s request would really push RT into the realm of punditry, more in the direction of just talking about it. Again, there is a difference between politics and policy.
And, of course, by “bloggers” I don’t mean you per se, who has personally blown the diapers off the Vitter situation.
Maitri, I agree that Rising Tide isn’t about taking action — it’s about building community. But that’s a prerequisite to taking action, and nothing to sneeze at.
I thought your final question was very important, and a very good note on which to end the conference. Too bad we didn’t have time to let that note ring.
For what it’s worth, I think that whatever we do, it will never be “enough.” But that’s not really the question I remember. I thought you asked, are we getting the results we want? In any event, that’s the question I chose to hear!
I think we can recognize that there are many valid approaches to the problems that confront us. For some people, blogging is the whole of their activism, either because they have too many other commitments or because they’ve developed their blog in to an all-consuming and powerful force in its own right. For others, blogging is a mere adjunct to activism. Or vice versa.
In the weeks ahead, I hope we can have some more substantial dialog on this question. Thanks for raising it.
Bart, I totally agree that building community and celebrating that community at Rising Tide is important. However, there needs to be a connection between the construction of this community, the tremendous work done by some of its members (hence, the showcase of four of you) and how to grow it beyond what we have now, and I was hoping for the civic panel to be that connection. We have every responsibility to expect more of ourselves.
What are we a community of? That was a part of my line of questioning.
Re: “enough” – It was “Are we doing enough?” as in are we doing sufficient work to get the results we want? Is this pace ok? Do we have to step things up?
In some ways, I wish the panel had been kept as a breakout session, in which all RT participants could have contributed to projects then and there, as opposed to me hoping and praying that someone will contact Eban to work with him on the mental health information site. Jeffrey and Pistolette were struck by Sarah Elise’s work and I hope they put in some of their time to help. We could really use the intelligence of these two. Another hindsight wish is that we had allotted more time for people to chat in the hallway, which is where, like you said, some important connections and ideas come to life.
Thanks for participating online and IRL. You are an inspiration to me and countless others!
I’m organizing a coworking session at the Bayou Coffee House on Saturday. This was inspired as follow through on the Road Home Unconference and the Making Civic Sexy panel at Rising Tide 2.
http://thinknola.com/post/weekend-coworking-at-bayou-coffee-house/
I thought the panel was a highlight. It was very entertaining. I look forward to working with Dr. Walters to create a solid mental heath resources section of the New Orleans Wiki.
I’d also like to find a way to gather up all our rebuttals to the why rebuild crowd that we fielded over the last few days and put them in a reference section, so we can respond to that sentiment quickly and accurately.