This interaction must take place at the community level, and work up; the momentum of top-down government trickles out before reaching the neighborhoods and school yards that would benefit from the inertia of large-scale politics.
To produce charge, to motivate change, and most importantly to mother positive changes in the community, gathering the voices of the suburbs and neighborhoods should be step one. And the changes don't have to be national to make an impact.
Consider these simple activities:
1) Promote local food networks:
Community gardens play an important role not only in controlling the cost of food, but also as a necessary component of conservation, partnership and cooperation. Considering the continual processes of urban sprawl, designating areas to be used for green space is the first step to ensuring natural habitats for local wildlife, creating space to plant new trees, and most vitally, making room to produce food for the community, which goes along way to ensure greater food security.
Cities across Canada have in recent years begun to grow their own community garden partnerships; the Toronto and Ottawa Community Garden Networks, for example. These networks play a useful role in the creation and city-wide expansion of areas designated to public gardens. Public gardens have also been useful in the restoration of run-down urban neighborhoods. By replacing abandon buildings, houses and vacant lots with productive gardens, they play a large role in shaping healthy gathering venues.
Above and beyond, however, community gardens foster good democratic values such as cooperation, participation and comradeship. The right to peaceful association is a right guaranteed to all Canadian citizens, creating space for peaceful assembly is up to us.
2) Get up and clean up!
Organizing highway and park cleanups is another useful tool for fostering and building participation in the democratic community. Canadians are fortunate to have such a large country with lots of space for everybody. Sometimes, though, our knowledge of this space allows us to forget that no matter how much space with think we have, it's important to use it wisely and treat it with respect.
Neighborhood-size cleanups are easy to organize. You can start by posting flyers in your community to get the word out fast; post them on lamp-posts, the local public library, grocery stores, liquor stores -- just be sure to ask the manager! Give a contact number for people to call for information. Once your message is out there, word-of-mouth is a useful tool to spread the idea around and build community involvement.
When I was in high school, our geography teacher organized a highway clean-up for the class. It was a great way to spend the day, outside, with friends -- after that, pitching in and doing our part for a greener globe was just a bonus.
For those living in apartment complexes, you can help by organizing building recycling days, where once a week, tenants go around and collect recyclable materials from participating apartments. Often times high-rise buildings have garbage shoots conveinatley located on each floor, while the recycle bin is down in the parking garage. More often than not, separating rubbish becomes an unlikely chore people are unwilling to do.
These exercises promote physical activity and play an important role in building community consciousness around a healthy environment.
3) Clearity for Charity
Getting physical exercise regularly promotes a healthy body. In times of stress, going for a workout can provide the clearity you seek, while putting problems in perspective. This too can be an opportunity to promote democratic values such as charity.
Why wait for the local Running Room race weekend, or M+M Meat Shop Charity BBQ, organize an event yourself. A simple community activity for example, would be a race-walk. It doesn't have to be long, only 5 or 10k, to be effective. Walking is something that almost everybody can do; it doesn't require expensive equipment, great physical strength or endurance; and most importantly, it doesn't limit the activity to a particular demographic. By using the same advertising message I previously mentioned, you could charge participants a small fee, and at the end of the day give the proceeds to a good cause in your community, like the Ottawa Mission, for example.
Group sporting activities are a great way to spread comradeship and sportsmanship around a community. Everybody goes at their own pace, everybody cheers for everybody, everybody crosses the finish line.
4) Volunteer
Almost everybody can say they're too busy to spend time volunteering. They have work, they have kids, they have soccer practice, band camp -- lots of reasons why they can't pitch in.
To working moms and dads; bring your kids! Participating in volunteering at a young age can be a useful tool to promote cultural sensitivity, compromise and understanding. Having your children volunteer on local political campaigns - handing out flyers, et-cetera - helps build the notion that it is their birthright to participate directly in their local, provincial and federal governments.
They will learn about the issues that will impact their futures; they will learn about the range of choices they have before them; they will learn how to achieve goals; they will learn to be passionate.
To the local jocks: bring your teammates! Sports teams are be effective at mobilizing change because, especially in small towns, they have a following. If you took a hockey team for example, and added all the people that come to their games, it wouldn't be long before you had a small army of helpers ready to clean up highways, hold bake sales, canvass for local political candidates. The energy of a team can also be inspiring.
These are just a few of the many examples that illustrate and emphasize the importance of community in democracy. If nobody knows what's good for the community, than those who live in it must make take the lead.
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