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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!ames!elroy!cit-vax!jerbil
From: jerbil@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (Stainless Steel Gerbil [Joe Beckenbach])
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures,misc.misc
Subject: Re: want E. St. Louis contacts (LONG)
Summary: Further information
Message-ID: <10244@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Date: 4 Apr 89 03:39:06 GMT
References: <10232@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu>
Reply-To: jerbil@cit-vax.UUCP (Stainless Steel Gerbil [Joe Beckenbach])
Followup-To: comp.society.futures
Distribution: usa
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 51


	In my article <10232@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> I tried for contacts
with East St. Louis residents, attempting to get some information through
to them about Ocean Arks International, specifically to solve a problem
reported by the _LA_Times_ (1 April 1989, section I, page 26).
	The address is (in case someone has gotten close to sending the
information previously posted):
	Ocean Arks International, 10 Shanks Pond Road, Falmouth MA 02540


	I have gotten two responses so far;  the first was a pat on the
back and a wishing of luck.  The second, from Columbia, MO, pointed out 
a few things which I should have been clearer on:

1- This is not a call to pour money into East St. Louis.  It is very clear
	that the most appropriate funding source, the State of Illinois,
	has refused to supply such money;  federal grants might still be
	available, but I have absolutely no experience, nor right to go
	off and help them in that way.

2- The author of the second e-mail message paints a very bleak picture
	for East St. Louis.  I do not deny that with the City in arrears,
	unable to provide basic services and protection, that things are
	seriously wrong.  However, I am not one to sit idly by without
	offering a possible solution which can probably be implemented with
	a modicum of funding, on site, and with relatively little fuss--
	assuming that a grassroots organization is allowed to provide itself
	with services that the City is unable and/or unwilling to provide.
	[Regarding police forces, this can border on vigilantism- or citizen
	patrol and arrest.  The area is gray, but deaths are black and white.]

3- He also said something to the effect of 'try pushing your idea elsewhere,
	where it could catch on and benefit more people'.  I question that
	assumption that nothing can be done once the decay has hit the core,
	except to let it die and watch what comes of it.  My attitude is
	more one of 'see if the process can be reversed, else ease the pain
	of transition on those involved, and help cultivate a better 
	foundation for what comes next'.  In my private reply to him, I
	also mentioned that ideas can be planted while expecting that they
	will die--  no idea, or plant, or anything else, spread and flourished
	by picking only perfect conditions and staying there.


	By the way, my view is more idealistic and probably slightly wronger
than his.  I admit that.  But there's still a chance to help, so I'm offering
what I can.

-- 
Joe Beckenbach			   |	How can we dream 
jerbil@csvax.caltech.edu	   |	if the table is bare
Caltech 256-80, Pasadena CA 91125  |	and the water opaque and brown?