image by abraaten

We had another house meeting here in Stockbridge, MA last week. This one was organized by Obama’s administration to help people familiarize themselves with the economic stimulus package. Twenty people came. We watched a brief video by Governor Tim Kaine answering some questions submitted by e-mails about the plan and then went through a brief overview of the main parts/ largest items on it, which was a lot more informative.

I have to say, I was a bit cynical at first about what the purpose of this meeting could be and what difference it would make. But the experience taught me a lot about the power of community organizing. There was a strong sense of empowerment as people who otherwise do not know much about each other took the responsibility to inform themselves, to decipher what this Economic Recovery plan means, and how we can educate and stimulate ourselves to participate in a new order of community and business development.

President Obama is trying to create this sense of community and possibility in the nation and with politicians in Washington, and we discovered our own choice and power to use our resources, especially money, in ways that break the habit of contraction and fear in the face of this present crisis. We talked about simple things we can do to participate, like using the proposed tax savings to hire someone to work on a household project where otherwise, given this dire climate, we might be too worried and insecure to think about spending the money. Instead of complaining about the tax breaks that supposedly won’t help much, we realized that it was up to each of us to spend our tax savings with the biggest leverage we could think of—for example investing in greener technology or appliances that will help us save money in the future.

That way, we can even help shape tomorrow’s economy by supporting products and businesses that contribute the most to the whole and to the future. All it takes is doing it together.

We exchanged our stories and ideas to create and expand on how we can support other people’s livelihood and economic recovery: For example creating exchanges of labor (as in ‘time bank’) and promissory notes between customers and local businesses, to give the business some breathing room without incurring high interest loans or debt. 

Discussing the plan in this house meeting format also helped us to get more clear about the various streams of money and incentives this recovery package is funding and promoting, which we can plug into, as homeowners for example.

I think we all came away with the positive sense of how important it is to take responsibility for actively supporting President Obama and to support and engage with each other in order to forge this new way into the future, a new way for this country to function economically and socially, and to begin breaking the boundaries of habit and thought in order for new ideas and our collective vision to flourish.