Conversations at small tables, we said, would revolve around these questions;<\/p>\n
- \n
- Was the election year a symptom of something fundamentally broken in U.S. politics, in our economy, in our basic social structures?<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \n
- Now that the election is over, what should concerned, engaged citizens and residents do?<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
My invitation to friends and to an email list I usually save to announce new blog additions \u00a0included the following reflections. Subsequent posts will report on what happened at Penny U.<\/p>\n
Figuring it out<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
November 12, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n
The ground shifted on election night and still seemed to be moving when I went out to walk on Wednesday morning. I saw others, alone and walking slowly, looking dazed. I imagined they were doing what I was \u2013 testing my balance, trying to understand what happened, and wanting to figure out what to do next.<\/p>\n
By the afternoon, I noticed conversations had begun, among neighbors, in the coffee shop, in ones and twos and small groups of friends, with strangers on the sidewalk. In fact, in the past three days I\u2019ve had more kind and open exchanges with strangers than I usually have in a month. And I\u2019m not the only one. For Aviva, my much-loved stepdaughter, it\u2019s the \u201crandom hugs\u201d that stand out. For Divina who cuts my hair, it\u2019s the warmer than usual greeting from the burley man behind the auto repair desk. I\u2019m reminded of the \u201cparadises built in hell,\u201d the communities that arise in disaster, that Rebecca Solnit writes about.<\/p>\n
While much more\u00a0is part of the mix\u00a0\u2013 anger, fear, anxiety, disorientation, the shock of realizing how much we don\u2019t know or understand \u2013 the need to connect is powerful. Beyond meeting this basic need, conversations I\u2019ve had have almost always been threaded through with a desire to figure out what to do next. What can I<\/em> do? What can we<\/em> do? Where do we go next?<\/p>\n
Penny U asks, what\u2019s next? what do you think?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
Many news stories and opinions, insightful and angry perspectives, background stories, proposals and demands, accusations, and aspirations can help but also overwhelm us. (I\u2019ve included a list of a few references and short quotes from a fairly random few that have come my way here<\/a>)<\/a>.\u00a0It can be hard to sort out what we ourselves think. Not all of us spend time on a stage, and most of us aren\u2019t the first to jump to the mic at a post-talk Q&A. But I\u2019m convinced we all have a lived wisdom that would be valuable if we share it. Acknowledging and engaging with our differences is valuable.<\/p>\n
Penny U gives us each a chance to try out our ideas in small groups. We\u2019ll ask someone at each small table to collect a few notes so some of the thoughts and ideas in these discussions can be gathered up and shared back to us later. I look forward to the task of pulling those ideas together.<\/p>\n
Our efforts are reinforced by this thought from Henry\u00a0Mintzberg, management writer and theorist:<\/p>\n
Radical renewal will have to begin here, in communities on the ground, with groups of people who exhibit the inclination, independence, and resourcefulness to tackle difficult problems head on.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Tuesday, November 15, 2016, a week after the election, Penny U (short for Penny University) hosted a community conversation at Town Hall Seattle titled, \u201cPost-election: What\u2019s Next?\u201d Congressman Jim McDermott joined Edward Wolcher and me, Penny U\u2019s co-organizers, to set the stage for a conversation that followed. Our aim was to bring people together…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-after-the-2016-election","category-penny-u"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7pXN0-nk","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1446"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1483,"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1446\/revisions\/1483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Now that the election is over, what should concerned, engaged citizens and residents do?<\/span><\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n