Diving in....

I attend one of those progressive churches that is active in the community. I think it's great. Anyway, I recently joined the "Public Policy Ministry" that serves to educate the congregation on the issues that affect the members and the church.

I am pretty excited about it so far (after one meeting). After discussing an upcoming workshop on the new Medicare prescription drug program, we moved to other topics that we want to discuss in the next few months. The biggest one was identifying an Urban Agenda for 2008 and beyond.

I am beyond psyched about this topic and the direction that programming around it can go. Basically our focus would be on working with other churches and civic groups to create talking points and issue pages for the 2008 election. This is key because:

The urban population historically does not vote. Maybe it's because they don't feel their issues are addressed. Or maybe because they don't know the issues. If it's the former, we are seeking to force politicans to address these topics. For fear of being forced to a particular policy statement, candidates will avoid a topic if its not brought up. The needs of urban communities should not be ignored. Whether its education, transportation, gentrification, housing, healthcare - or anything else - a set of needs and issues must be created as a starting point for dialogue with candidates. Second, if the lack of voting is occuring because voters do not know the issues, by identifying target areas, we will be able to educate them on how voting affects their lives and how a particular candidate (of either party - this is a church) can help or harm them

Politicians don't make policy statements to this community. Candidates so often just use "gimmicks" (for lack of a better term) when reaching out to urban (black, white, hispanic, asian or otherwise) communities. So often, they take the easy route of speaking in generalities and in statements about how the the voters are being wronged - without any commitment towards improving the situation. A classic example would be Sen. Hilary Clinton's MLK Day comments at a black church in Harlem, where she said:

"[Capitol Hill] has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about. It has been run in a way so that nobody with a contrary view has had a chance to present legislation, to make an argument, to be heard...We have a culture of corruption, we have cronyism, we have incompetence...I predict to you that this administration will go down in history as one of the worst that has ever governed our country...[apologizing to the victims of Hurricane Katrina] on behalf of a government that left you behind, that turned its back on you"

So what are you going to do about it Hilary? While I haven't read the full body of her speech, there has been little commentary on if she had anything constructive to say. Where is the policy? She is a powerful senator and a leader in her party, but did not take that opportunity (in an election year) to show how she wants to improve the culture of Washington to be more inclusive. Turning back to addressing the needs of the urban population, our goals with this project will be to force candidates to make policy statements - that they will be held to after the election.

Everyone talks about Urban issues. In cities - everyone has a voice about urban issues. There are tons of talking heads with opinions on improving things for citizens of America's cities. But no one does anything. There are the churches like mine and the civic groups, but for the most part, it's talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. Foum after forum after forum. Or there are these big pushes to do something that barely scratches the surface. Our hope is that we won't just talk - but also be able to develop some prescriptive plans for the policy and action needs that we discover.

So - that's my new focus. If anyone has advice or pointers on where to find some solid research to get us started. Or advice on moving forward with this project.

I'm so glad on having a place to channel my energy besides complaining like the rest of the blogosphere. Yay!