Collected thoughts on community Building

Collected thoughts on community Building

Jul 12, 2021

Hope is the byword of this year. Change that we can build together. Far too many seek to profit from making us afraid. That makes me sad. Leadership is about uplifting, not putting down. Anyone who seeks to make you afraid about the future is purposefully banking on that fear to parlay it into unquestioning subservience to their vision, to blinker you and shut you away from what can be. They belittle those who ask why their path is the right one. They fear those who look for alternative options. Fear of a dystopian future is the tool of those who seek to rule, not lead.

Leadership is a team effort, a good leader lifts up the community around them, builds up the community while guiding, nurturing, and listening. A good leader isn’t afraid to ask questions when they aren’t sure. A good leader isn’t afraid to learn and to be wrong. I see far too many people in our community and others who are far too sure of themselves. Confidence is a paradox, it can be the bread of a wise leader nourishing their vision giving them the push they need to implement it. On the flip side it can be a drug, some of the worst leaders in history were so sure in their vision that they ignored glaring warning signs.

Our volunteer work is in striving to bring the community together, they want to divide and cow. I think the goal needs to try to bring people together. Right now a lot of these issues are being used to divide. In a community as diverse as ours we can't afford to be divided. Many of the people who claim to want to fix these problems are knowingly making it worse for personal gain. We can't have one size fits all conversations in a community as big as ours. There needs to be more nuance. Many leaders in the community are trying to strip nuance from the debate. There are definitely fractures within any group.

Diverse communities are being treated as monoliths. No one has the right to say they are your voice if you don't want them to. I never claimed to be a voice for anyone but myself. Some of those who have attacked me have said, I can't talk about certain issues because I don't have the right background. That is wrong and bigoted. I have worked hard to earn trust in the community. They have no ground to stand on and seek the platforms of others to harness for their purposes.

I feel like some people are just using blunt force to check boxes. That is a shame. There are infinite shapes of diversity. I think a lot of the discourse is going in a fragmentary direction. We need to prioritize what brings us together, not just what makes us different

We can and must celebrate differences while acknowledging common dreams.

I think everyone wants a way out of the current dysfunction. The people who have attacked me (I am not one of those people who names names and tries to dox) want us to stay divided. Instead of prioritizing this or that, we need a holistic approach. No one can be truly safe until everyone else feels safe. Everyone is selectively addressing issues, and that needs to end or things will get worse.

I digress, we do not have the luxury of knowing which type of leader we are in our personal lives or in the community. We just hope that we have what it takes and proceed with humility knowing that maybe, just maybe we are building a better world for ourselves and future generations.


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