Use those scant 3 minutes
by Margaret SmithJuly 22nd, 2007 at 05:33:35
Over here on the North Oregon Coast, the way mega-companies get through any untidy community-concern roadblock is to use a very large bulldozer, both literal and figurative. Sure, community hearings are arranged. But then the hearings may have been done without letting the media know about them (a technical oversight). One hears about the hearings after the fact. Or the hearings may be held in a room much too small for the amount of concerned citizens who show up; the overflow must leave — fire regulations, you know. Even when a citizen is allowed to speak up in one of the hearings, a 3-minute time limit might be imposed. A fellow Astorian came up with a good way to use those scant 3 minutes. Invite your friends who share your concerns to
- band together,
- carpool to the hearing,
- step up to the mike one by one and
- read an original, 3-minute poem.
July 22nd, 2007 at 6:19 am
Excellent thoughts, Margaret. Folks could even sing their 3-minutes worth!
July 29th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Maybe we need a revolution in citizen response to this long-favorite tactic of the “public process” mafia –
How about this: next time you have a public meeting, figure out who is the most articulate, best speaker, and have that person sign up to speak, and then have a bunch of people sign up to speak immediately following. When the first person’s time is up, they stop, and the officials call the next person, who says “I yield my time to X” and X resumes. And it just continues until X is completely done.
Or, if they won’t let you do that, how about everybody puts together a bullet list of points to be made and examples, and the first speaker in the group leaves it on the podium; each speaker marks where they left off, and the next speaker picks up again, saying “Continuing from the previous speaker.”
July 30th, 2007 at 4:51 am
Speaking of bulldozers and concerned citizens speaking out to a heedless government (not ours this time), you can read my comments about a highway bulldozing going on at the foot of the hill of one of the world’s most sacred and historical sites: Tara in Ireland. See my blog http://www.margaretarts.com (July 29). Internationals can sign this petition– http://www.petitiononline.com/hilltara –to reroute the highway around the ancient site, so spread the word.