[Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] idea garage sale?

[Stuart Levy]

On Sun, Jun 08, 2008 at 02:55:53PM -0500, Susan Parenti wrote:
> To the many people who have asked 'how did the idea garage sale go?'---from 
> my point of view, the idea garage sale went wonderfully, despite the horrid 
> weather.
>
> What was wonderful was that it 'took off' around 11am--enough people of 
> different backgrounds were there to talk to one another, with an idea 
> forming the point of departure, and with fairly lengthy and animated 
> conversations ensuing. People didn't just show up for ten minutes then 
> leave--rather, they seemed to stay for quite awhile.
>
> But, OK, this might be a description of a party or a class---so, what was 
> the 'garage idea sale' component?
>
> My answer will sound odd---I felt, metaphorically, that I was receiving 
> health care in the emergency room, rather than in a doctor's office--and 
> that was good. By that I mean, with someone's idea forming the basis of a 
> conversation, there were all sorts of treatments done to it by the variety 
> of the people, with lots of references to other things and events brought 
> in. 'Hear-say' was a significant contributor--many people would say, for 
> example, "I heard that the Orpeum is doing...", or "I heard the Park 
> District is basically closing down Crystal lake Park..." etc---and this was 
> important to hear.  I learned lots (and I'm a conceited sort of person who 
> likes claiming she knows everything already).
>
> Someone else may have thought the whole event stunk. OK.
>
> But from my experience, an idea garage sale seemed to address our barely 
> articulated need to talk with one another about ideas that 
> matter.


One guy at Nat'l Conf. for Media Reform, Harlan Johnson of
Rockford, IL, has been trying to realize a scheme that's
maybe analogous to the idea garage sale.  He calls it
"Come Together Rockford", as in

    http://cometogetherrockford.com/

Some excerpts:

    Gathering in small diverse groups in a thousand living rooms in Rockford,
    Illinois, each week, 10,000 people will share a light supper, sit down
    and watch Any Day Now.  We will then co-create the new TV show Come
    Together, participating in small group and community-wide dialogue
    using webcams. We�ll share micro-documentaries we made, iMovies
    created with camcorders and computers.  This entirely new: true reality
    television is interactive in a way never before conceived of.
    And for the first time ever: widespread voluntary social integration.
    Not just�desegregation.� Many of us will participate because we
    want fellowship with other Christians; paired churches.  Others
    will be seeking fellowship in secular or ecumenical gatherings.

   [...]

    Come Together will focus on helping us all learn dialogue rather than
    discussion which rhymes with concussion and percussion and has to
    do with who wins.  We'll learn new ways of communicating.  Everyone
    will see some of us progress from misunderstandings and conflict,
    learning how to really hear each other and to arrive at shared
    meanings, shared understandings.

He seemed to be saying that this is in his head so far -- he is
trying to get enough other like-minded people together to make this
cool idea begin to happen.