Week 4

Week 4 / Week of February 1

 

Participation, Solidarity & Elections. If there’s one thing we can say about our 2020 elections, it’s that people participated. We may not like the way they did it, but participation, measured by voting, blogging, and the general “noise” level, was high. (As I write this, I am aware of recent stories in the news about non-participation as well… some argue that notvoting is a valid form of participation in a democracy – are they right? Why or why not?) 

 

This week’s chapter explores citizen participation. For many, that means voting in elections, but participation can take many, many more forms than just voting. The fact that state and local governments, and the organizations that support them, operate in such close proximity to us, means that we have opportunities to participate in numerous everyday ways. Petitioning for a speed bump on your street is a form of participation, but so is a well-intended conversation with a neighbor who you know is one of the speeders. A skilled community activist who really knows her community might spend a year having such conversations every time the opportunity arises, and at the end of the year, find that speed bumps are no longer needed. She has succeeded in raising awareness of the issue, meeting people where they are, and bringing real change to their behavior. Speeding is no longer a problem on the street. Without ever attending a formal meeting or filing a piece of paperwork, she has participated deeply in her local government by solving a problem that previously resulted in injuries to people and animals, required additional policing of the street, and divided neighbors against each other. 

 

Blog #6

Your Community Partner organization is probably, on some level, solving a perceived problem that exists at a state or local level. Service delivery relating to homelessness, food insecurity, academic progress, childcare, discrimination, job training, interview preparation, day worker safety, environmental problems, and so much more are all examples of functions that state or local governments might attempt to address, and community organizations are often the means by which they address them. What problem(s) is your CP trying to address? How can members of the community in which it operates help through their participation? In what ways does this serve an end of a local government entity? Use conversations with your CP if you can, along with the concepts outlined in your textbook to answer these questions. This will be the focus of your Blog entry #6.

 

Blog #7

To take a different view of participation, we turn to “Solidarity, Common Good and Participation” from a book called Living Justice. This chapter examines participation from the tradition of Catholic social thought. You don’t need to be Catholic to appreciate its nuanced discussion – do you agree with the author? Do you disagree? Why? How is the discussion of participation in this passage different from the one in your textbook? Do a close reading of the chapter, which I have forwarded by email and posted to the class website. “Close reading” means read the short passage at least 3 times and highlight / annotate in a different color each time. Each reading should be done on a different day. You can do this with highlighters on paper, or using a highlight feature in a viewer. Please snap an image of one highlighted and annotated page and embed it in this Blog #7 entry.

 

Extra Credit points for Blog #7: Add a reflection on the “close reading” method of reading the chapter 3 times with 3 different highlighters / annotation colors. How was it different to read the passage the second time? The third time? Did you notice different details or have different insights each time?

 

Finally, this is a special week on our campus – Foundresses Week – commemorating the formation of the order of nuns who founded our university, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, on February 2, 1804 in Amiens, France. From a core pair of just two women, Julie Billiart and Francoise Blin de Bourdon, the order grew into the multi-national order of Sisters that it is today. Although NDNU is experiencing trouble, Notre Dame schools elsewhere are still thriving. In Africa, the order of SND de Namur is growing, even as becoming a nun holds less appeal to young women in the US and Europe. These Sisters spend their entire lives dedicated to community and participation.