Self-Sufficiency and Strategies

 

Outside support, like having a governor and a senator attend one of your functions, can be a plus or a minus; a plus because they give credibility, represent the outside larger community, and are involved in large scale enterprises which affect everyone, and because no neighborhood is an island. Your goals must be clear and your strategy and tactics consistent with your ethics. It depends on whether they came as window dressing for personal ego and PR or to offer you sincere support. It can be a minus because we were approaching the edge of the cliff that falls into the slavery by government dependency. The expectation is that if an official came to your party, they would answer the telephone next time you called; and maybe get to understand a little better your issues hearing them from you. Their expectation is that you and others will vote for them. Their participation will only be helpful to you if they help you steer towards self-sufficiency and not towards dependency on them. That is how you know whom to vote for.

As in war, tactics, strategy, and clear goals are necessary when organizing. The main goal is to reach self-sufficiency. The main enemy is corruption, because corruption is the foundation of the forces that prevent impartiality, equality, and equity.

 

The enemy is in the forces that prevent equality and equity. Equity as defined by justice according to natural law or rights. Specifically, freedom from bias or favoritism, not ending in equality. The failure of modern interpretation of equity is that it assumes that the goal is to end with equality, and in doing so, violates justice. It is not the same to say equal rights as equal results.

 

An important part, 50%, in reaching goals is to know how to protect your gains from enemies from within, not your personal enemies but the enemies of the goal itself. Sometimes they are the same, but not always. Beware when reaching your goals, you could be your worst enemy. Have you ever heard the expression “shooting yourself on the foot”? I did that a lot. You can also be your own enemy when you refuse to see the enemy from within.

I’m getting ahead of myself. Here is a list of projects we got done over the next few years. Part of the strategy was that none of them were handouts. They all include Family, Pride, and Hands. They all have that one thing in common: to motivate people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. If someone tells you there is not such a thing as people pulling themselves up by the bootstraps, turn your back and walk away from them. Your strategy cannot include self-defeating pronouncements. Notice the key difference in approach: A loser will tell you that you are dependent on others to achieve your goals. A winner will tell you it is up to you to know and choose who and how others can assist you in getting to where you want to go.

When reaching for assistance, look for hidden agendas, protect the ethics of the individual action, and keep a clear mind your agenda on sharing self-sufficiency for you and others[xv].

 

Steps we took for successful strategies for who provided assistance. A ‘yes’ implies awareness that hidden agendas could exist, a ‘no’ where none was perceived. Not all hidden agendas are bad, but uncover them, so you can deal with them.

 

• Office space, donated. By private individual. Yes.
• Tool Library. By a private Grant from California, and membership. No.
• Creative Teen Power, YWCA. Modified agenda for TBA. Yes, mine.
• Neighborhood Master Plan. By the Planning Department with public input. At the end, no.
• National Register of Historic Places. By Federal Acceptance. Chris Delaporte. No.
• Adobero Yard. Public Grant turned into private sector. Monsignor Geno Baroni. No.
• Parquesito Del Tiradito. By Atlanta Richfield Private Grant. City donated land, Governor Bruce Babbitt. Agendas? Yes and No.
• Change on National Building Codes to accept Sun Dry Adobe. Federal funding at both ends. Yes.
• La Pilita as Office Space. At no cost by City? No.
• Centro Historico. Space donation of a warehouse for large activities. Yes.
• Neighborhood Watch Program. By Police input. No.
• Housing Rehab. CDBG Federal Funding. Local crew. No.
• Self Help Housing. Private Banking Loans supported by CDBG Federal Seeds funding. Local families. Mo Udall at ground-breaking. No.
• Inner City Neighborhood Coalition as sub-recipient. Community Organizing. Lots of hidden agendas.
• Greater Tucson Neighborhood Coalition. Community Organizing. Hidden agendas? Yes. Here the wealthy foothill areas also got together to make sure the freeways didn’t go through them. They beat us at the end by turning a planning effort into a political action group for their political purposes.