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Conversations or Social Change, by Glenn Greenidge

 

Jay: Look around here. See any of  your construction going on here? I see fried chicken joints and check cashing places. Big construction with all that heavy bullet proof  glass. We have to participate in social change to change things.

 

I still got the construction job though. I could lose that. I say we go home.

 

You’ll pass some abandoned buildings…open windows…no roofs. Your company construct some new ones?

 

Walt: My phone. Bryan…say what? The bus system shut down already…hour ago? Before the car fire…what fire?

 

My justice degree taught me nothing happens without a struggle. Fraudulent mortgages practices…massive foreclosures. Change only happens when you stand up.

 

Walt: No one’s standing. Police are pushing kids who don’t know how to get home since schools are closed. They’re pushing them to the mall.

 

Wait Jay. Tyrone told me the mall was closed already.

 

If the police are calling in the guard, we’ll never be heard.

 

Jay: Maybe the camerawork is the difference. The fire could draw the camera. Until now, the protests were ignored.

 

That’s the American Dream? 

 

Jay: What needs to happen is a comprehensive dialogue between community leaders, youth, business owners, residents and elected officials.  

 

Walt: Sounds like just another conversation.

 

 

If you found this article helpful, contact Glenn at Glenn@FamersBlvd.Org.or Tom Pope at TomP47@aol.com

My Fictional Model — Kenya's Social Change 

 

by Tom Pope

Rumi ignored the threat of being arrested after he discovered the self-sustaining movement he started was declared to be unpatriotic.

 

The crowds moved to pry open the doors from the boards that closed the Free Trade Center. Wagons drew up from the street corners, filled with goods to trade. Even the British settlers dove to the building, wanting to save money instead of giving it to company stores.

 

Whistles and drums beat as marching feet sounded from around two corners. The treading of massed feet brought cries from those still around Rumi. They dropped some of their bags and started running into alleys. But from the alleys, other troops appeared, with rifles readied to send them back to the front of the Center.

 

However, one key to the change from a Baltimore scenario grew from the previous novel, where Rumi’s father had helped set up a concept in England that prompted a trade idea that sought cooperation between people. That change gave rise to the placement of Lawrence in Rumi’s time as the trade commissioner.

 

Lawrence aimed to help Rumi. He approached the crowds and the troops, asking key questions. Everyone heard from a British plantation owner who lost his land to more wealthy British people. Everyone saw Lawrence take some coins from his pocket and throw them on the ground. “That is how you were led — those coins came from the people here.”

 

The crowds saw Lawrence walk to a trooper. “Someone took the real money you made in the mines back home, Sean. They took your coins. Do you really want to take these people’s coins the same way?”

 

When the British officer ordered the troops to fire on the crowds, the soldiers lowered their guns. They didn’t listen.

 

Several items have to happen before those changes can grip a new Baltimore.

 

[1 A formal institution has to promote a concept that the public has rights beyond the profit interests of business.

[2 The role of Lawrence can not occur within the police department. Lawrence’s agency was independent of the military. The use of minorities within an oppressive system fails to allow the members to influence the larger police system and culture.

[3 A growth of self-sustaining within a community has to be developed to show resistance to the outside pressures.

[4 Language has to be used that shows the connection between the oppressed and the average military/police person.

[5 Language has to follow the money from the poorer communities to the wealthy ones.

 

 

PROMPT:

Design a character who has attracted you who comes up with a solution for a financial problem that occurs in your community. 

 

 

Would the approach work in your reality? What would hold back the chance for success?

 

If you found this helpful, please contact Tom at TomP47@aol.com

 

 

 

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