The Paula Gordon Show |
COMMUNITY Capital | |||
A magic moment awaits America if it chooses to
invest in the people and places now being left behind, says community
builder and lawyer Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and president of PolicyLink.
America’s struggle to be strong and competitive, she reports, will
depend on bringing everyone along. She celebrates the community building,
alternative conversations and growing commitment to more equitable public
policy she finds bubbling up all across the country. |
Conversation 1 Angela Glover Blackwell describes for Paula
Gordon and Bill
Russell the excitement, public policy work. Our aspirations are constant
and most other things change constantly, she says, so politics is unavoidable. |
Conversation 2 Currently, money trumps participation, says Ms. Blackwell, with examples of how key participation is. California is America’s future, she believes, eager for the country to pay attention to how the state is dealing with profound changes in the nation’s demographics. She describes the legacy of California’s Proposition 13, certain its “super-majority” is undermining democracy. She outlines PolicyLink’s “four corners” -- the region, economy, technology and economy -- declaring them inseparable, insisting that every voice is important in a democracy. 11:45
secs
|
Conversation 3 Democracy has to be created every day and America has never perfected it, Ms. Blackwell observes. She details the impact of the country’s changing demographics, particularly people of color who are demanding they be included. To become great again, the United States -- a nation of immigrants -- must embrace its current immigrants and include their concerns in urban, health, workforce and all other public policies. She says Americans are running away from these challenges. She explains why it is imperative to confront race and the black-white experience in addressing the full range of challenges facing America. She offers a powerful vision for a future in which America might lead. 12:41
secs
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Conversation 4 Ms. Blackwell compares America’s Civil Rights movement for inclusion with the simultaneous movement for exclusion -- suburbanization. America has a magical moment available, she says, IF it invests in its people and places that are being left behind. She outlines stark alternatives to doing so. America’s leaders are lying and hiding the truth when they support sending jobs off-shore, Ms. Blackwell says, and expands. She celebrates the many alternative conversations now going on in America, eager for Americans to force their leaders to be more responsive. Pick what interests you, she says, but Do Something. Get informed and understand the interconnections required to integrate people-strategies with place-strategies. 12:51
secs
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Conversation 5 People are engaging in community building all across America, Ms. Blackwell reports. She gives examples of how community building embraces the complexity of people’s lives, allows people’s richness and assets to be part of solutions instead of defining people by the problems of being poor. She exposes America’s “bootstrap” myth, demonstrating how public policy consistently allowed earlier generations to succeed. Equity of education is essential, she says, convinced that what made America great was its public education system. 7:23
secs
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Conversation 6 We need a new generation of policies that achieve economic and social equity, says Ms. Blackwell. It will only happen, she insists, with a new generation of leaders. This leadership must include people of color who bring their experiences into the forefront as everyone debates the public policy issues of the day, she concludes. 3:57
secs
|
Acknowledgements Angela Glover Blackwell’s passion for community
and her willingness to do the work necessary to weave ideals and realities
together is exemplary. We thank her for including us in her always-full
schedule and eagerly cheer her on. |
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