For months Roxanne has pleaded, “write it shorter.” No one has the time to read it. Sometimes, it takes awhile to sink in, but posts of 1,500 – 2,500 words are done, a commitment to no more than 650 words starts now. Today’s post? An upbeat note on…

Roxanne isn’t the only one to tell me to keep it brief, but I can be stubborn and it takes time to sink in. For many reasons, I need to be reined in. There is other work to be done and long posts can take 3-5 hours to develop, an hour for Roxanne to edit, and readers may just skim, missing what is most important. So going forward 650 words is the limit, the length of a typical Op-Ed. I will tinker with the format and welcome input, as always.

The last post focused on the lack of equity in Santa Fe and how the ongoing drum beat of negative political news may be withering our spirit. Today, I want to stress some renewed opportunities to get back in the game. To those of you who were once active but are now dispirited, and those who have been only armchair activists, clicking and signing petitions, here is an invitation to be part of something exciting. There is a reason that Taos United and activists from Gallup are coming to our Community Conversations for Equity training on June 10 — they see it as a way to build their skills in all forms of political communication: op-eds, letters to the editor, canvassing, social media, and conversation with friends. If you think political communication is important, why not understand what works and get practiced in effective techniques?

In Santa Fe we plan to use what we learn on June 10 in a campaign focused on community conversations through canvassing, town halls, social media, house parties, and other gatherings. These conversations will help us connect with our neighbors and friends, to engage in conversation about what is important to them and how we can achieve social and economic justice locally. How can we unite this City? How we can come together for conversation and address very local issues, to build community? How can we extend that work to create a more just city? How we can each find unique ways to contribute, to give back to our community? We will begin this effort after the training with a neighborhood canvassing launch meeting, but participants will be far more effective if they participate in the June 10 training where:

• Chainbreaker’s Tomás Rivera will set the tone and the target, presenting the overarching purpose of the training and the unfolding campaign: Equity in Santa Fe.
• Mark Diaz Truman (a community organizer from ABQ who was trained by Marshall Ganz, the principal strategist for César Chávez for 16 yrs. and then the strategist for the brilliant 2008 Obama campaign) will introduce the principles of effective community organizing, provide training in active listening and the use of effective communication skills designed to engage and form connection with your audience/listener.
• Katharine Clark, who studied under George Lakoff, will train us in the use of moral language and how to reframe issues so our messages can be heard by people who may not share our perspective.

At the end of the day, who we are as individuals and as a community is not what we believe or what we say, it is what we do. Let’s do this together. Santa Fe is supposed to be the City Different, but sadly it has become two cities, one of haves and one of have-nots. Let’s make Santa Fe truly different and work together to unify this city in justice and equity. Click here for more information and to RSVP.

In solidarity,

Paul & Roxanne (619 words)

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