[Street] Media Strategy: Reframing the Picture of OB
Linda Jenkins
lindajenkins177 at yahoo.com
Sat Nov 26 16:17:23 EST 2011
I think we really need a way to help people form into "pods" or "action groups" or some other named small-group, both on-line & face-to-face, for the purpose of sharing & processing information & supporting each other in next steps, whatever they might be. These wouldn't be true affinity groups because they won't arise out of long-standing friendships.
Linda
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 26, 2011, at 9:38 AM, Aria Littlhous <aria at littlhous.net> wrote:
> Could there be something on the website that allows "visitors" to become "allies"...like a function for forming affinity groups that then attend demonstrations? Can we integrate the values of dissent and participation into this vision? And, unless your intention is to invite zombies (fine with me) please check your definition of spiritualism, vs spirituality.
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> On Sat, Nov 26, 2011 at 8:54 AM, Bruce Ehrlich <occupybruce at gmail.com> wrote:
> In anticipation of Sunday's media strategy summit, I submit the below idea for consideration. It's my attempt to reframe Occupy Boston not as an intrusion into the city but as an intrinsic part of the Boston experience. -- Bruce
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> REFRAMING THE PICTURE OF OCCUPY BOSTON
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> A Proposal for Long-Term Occupation
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> The people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government and to reform, alter, or totally change the same when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it. -- Samuel Adams
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> The [Rose Kennedy Greenway] shall be treated as a public park and as a traditional open public forum without limiting the right of free speech – M.G.L Chapter 306
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> The Conservancy works to ensure that the Greenway is a thriving and welcoming public amenity that is open to all. -- Guiding Principles for use of the Rose Kennedy Greenway
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> The Freedom Trail celebrates the history of Boston’s early revolutionary era. But our nation’s founders, including Samuel Adams, understood that the protection of our liberties and freedoms would be an ongoing process. Occupy Boston fills the need, in 2011, for a new movement of Americans to reclaim their democracy.
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> Situated within the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Occupy Boston also realizes the original vision of the Greenway, which was to include a series of civic buildings such as a botanical Garden Under Glass, a Boston history museum, and a cultural center. While those earlier plans have floundered, Occupy Boston has succeed in creating a new kind of civic space that brings vibrant activity to the Greenway and serves as contemporary manifestation of Boston’s revolutionary spirit.
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> Visitors can travel to Plimoth Plantation or Sturbridge Village to see how history was lived in early America. Occupy Boston has become a new destination for families, unions, churches and school groups, who are eager to learn how Americans are still creating their history and how to participate in it.
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> Yet all of this is at risk because the City of Boston has resisted attempts by Occupy Boston to bring more durable structures and other needed health and safety improvements to the site.
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> Occupy Boston strives to create an improved facility, one that would enhance the health and safety of the resident occupiers, provide an improved experience for visitors to the site, and better meet the needs of nearby businesses, workers and residents. This would require the installation of winter tents, semi-permanent structures, and some minor infrastructure improvements (primarily electricity, water and waste systems). The City of Boston has routinely allowed similar improvements for entertainment and sporting events such as Peter Pan, the Enchanted Village, and The Boston Marathon. Occupy Boston, an organized expression of public participation in American democracy, deserves no less. Occupy Boston has already most of the funding that would be required to finance the proposed improvements.
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> Occupy Boston’s Garden of Democracy consists primarily of a tent city that houses the key functions of this new political movement, including: food, information, general assembly, media, medical, library, logistics, spiritualism, and housing. A greenhouse that will be constructed on the site of the current garden will extend the growing season year round and serve as an educational center for sustainable food production – Dewey Square will finally have a Garden Under Glass.
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> New structures containing the above activities will enable Occupy Boston to better accommodate the needs of visitors and schoolchildren, while enhancing the day-to-day functioning of the site for its primary political purposes. Visitors will: gain hands-on experience in the use of new social media to communicate social and political ideas; be able to connect and communicate directly with other occupations and social movements around the nation and the globe; observe and participate in the horizontal democracy of the General Assembly, a contemporary analogue of the traditional New England town meeting; and have an opportunity to spend several night as an occupier in one of the tents set-aside for overnight visitors.
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> Occupy Boston's Garden of Democracy is an innovative making history experience where visitors are encouraged to envision the future of America -- There's nothing quite like it!
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> Media components
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> Occupy Boston website: add a Visitors Page link to the top banner on the home page.
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> Informational articles and advertisements for publications targeted to church, labor, civic, and educational groups.
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> Letters-to-the editor of the Globe, Herald, and community papers that describe the positive experience of visiting Occupy Boston.
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> Op-ed articles supporting Occupy Boston written by sympathetic civic leaders and opinion makers.
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> Outreach/Visitor brochures distributed to church and schools groups, unions, etc., inviting these groups to visit the Occupy Boston and otherwise participate in the movement.
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> Visitor guides to be distributed at the Info Tent.
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> Occupy Boston Teachers Guide – a bibliography and collection of materials about the financial crisis, economic inequality, the influence of money in politics, the 99% movement in the United States, and how to get involved.
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> --
> 'A coalition is not a family. It's not where you feel comfortable or where you go to see people you like; it's where your boundaries are tested. It's where you get work done." Barbara Smith, African American feminist
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