Hudson River Walkway-I want to thank David Rocco for his outstanding work in helping to make this wonderful public park happen and for his keen awareness and sensitivity and efforts to include some minority folks in the process. I would note that in my experience I have often offered access to grants etc...to Clear water admin and board to pursue similar outreach up and down the river to recruit members from low income riverfront communities and sadly they always turned down the opportunity over and over again to make any effort that I am aware of to do so.... This is not a knock on the hardworking decent staff but a sound and honest critique of the leadership and a public call to change this pattern and make radical changes in creating a more reflective diverse staff, board, crew, etc... Finally I am not against efforts of all kinds to work for change but rather debating the merits of one approach or another which i think is a positive process instead of blessing the status quo to easily who have had 40 years to make changes to address the problems of not having created a huge grassroots membership/rainbow coalition. John Brown had the belief that slavery would only end thru armed revolt while William Lloyd Garrison felt it had to be non violent revolution....Frederick Douglas had another approach to change as did Lucretia Mott...Some worked thru the system for two hundred years in one way or another hoping to end slavery others like Nat Turner tried to change things more rapadily....Fidel (a good friend of Petes by they way and Che) did not work threw the corrupt US and Mafia backed system in Cuba but also led an armed peoples uprising to turn Cuba over to the masses and throw out the hoodlums who were looting the peoples resources and throwing a few crumbs out the door from their hotels, villas and casinos and sugar plantations.... The debate worth having here is what Petes vision was and how he modeled social change work? Did Pete work threw local politics (yes in a limited way in the days he supported Henry Wallace) or was he a long time member of the Communist Party who called for the workers to throw out the 1% and create a socialist USA run for the benefit of the 99%? Did Pete work only with white folks or did he envision a movement that would include everyone even rich white folks now and then, but solidly led by the rank and file? let us have this debate in a civil manner and see where it goes? I am all for what I believe is Petes vision for Clear water which I am certain is far more broad that John Ms...Pete saw that nuclear war and power were part of the concern to protect the watershed of the Hudson Valley...he also saw that the eco injustices impacting low income residents forced to drink polluted and have their children breath dirty air,etc... He saw that environmental concerns would include also the quality of health care, recreational options (like river pools and sailing and small boat access), green food options and farmers markets, affordable housing for all, etc.....
Posted on: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 16:22:21 +0000
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