Maybe another reason people in New Orleans are happy?
"If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present." - Lao Tzu.
Essays, links and visuals highlighting an alternative, resilient place at the strategic crescent of one mighty river.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Welcome, finally.
In my piece of the movement, I work with small-scaled farmers and activists interested in supporting those producers by creating places for them to meet which, in their own time allows citizens to come to a shared understanding of food in their region. And lucky me, I get to do that while living in New Orleans, where true connections are commonplace.
However, since 2005 and the federal levee breaks, it has been demoralizing to meet some of those who have traveled here to "help" repair our region. Not only in the food part of the movement, although that has been troublesome as well since those sad days. Honestly, the entire region has been an experiment for others to make their mark and throw their ideas in the mix. Carpetbags full of promises and well-meaning, unspecified rhetoric.
At first, (people from away is what is meant by "they" and "them" here) came with hard work on their brain and very little judgement, probably because there was so much to do in those days. Everywhere you went, there were homes to clean and people to comfort so we accepted the tens of thousands of visitors coming each month. Ultimately most of them came, did amazing work and then went back. That seemed part of their typology; they were not looking for answers or a new place, as much as they believed in community and sharing. We appreciated them, we truly did. We found a few fellow citizens.
After the first wave, came the system people. These folks had answers they told us, and rattled off loads of ideas that could help us. Some came with money and others came with media access and others just came with energy. We gamely tried to go along with the ideas, to understand how they could work in an informal city like New Orleans in a region that has almost no political muscle or any expertise, having been exploited for its entire history.
Or they had completely thought through ideas or projects that didn't allow local interference and at the end, fell apart because of their stubbornness in accepting help or ideas from locals.
What I can say 5 years after those people started coming is: very little has been accomplished by them. Very few new ideas have stuck or been expanded. The new ideas that are still here were handed back to locals almost immediately after founding and honestly, are still struggling. Part of the issue was that the money and access went with those system people who came for a few years. It didn't stay and had no intention of staying here. Nor did they.
Or even worse, are those people who trade on the cultural strengths of our place and then come to believe they own them. That they can tell others about them or employ them to make money for themselves. They are the hardest to rid - we may suffer with some of these for a longer time, but at least it seems they are not multiplying anymore.
So it seems that wave is just about over. And now comes one that may be the one we had hoped for, and could merge with ours: the few who come to live here with us, like us.
Although we have known it for generations, New Orleans is a special place that takes special people to commit to. There is broken infrastructure surrounding us that allows us to use "lagalou" which Peter Berg explained in an earlier post on this site:
"The difference between lagalou and purely functional infrastructures is inestimable. Infrastructures are efficient but alienating and inner-directed, like the sound of a recorded voice instead of a real person. Lagalou is assimilating and outer- directed, always involving other people and their lives."
Read his whole piece if you have time:
http://neworleanscanthrive.blogspot.com/2006/09/lagalou.html
So lagalou is about people's own alternative methods that they create in order to work, live, play, travel and communicate. To have them or use them, you have to trust people. To do that, you have to believe in the people that you live among. To do that, you have to see the paralysis of relying on federal infrastructure.
Those coming now seem to believe more in lagalou, then in charity or in that federal infrastructure. They are quietly coming in and just showing up at regular things and meeting people everywhere. Taking the time to learn and listen, rather than preach and promise.
My friends Jean and Libby number among this group. One has visited 5 times in one year, the other 3 times. Both are living with appropriate scale and connections already, back in Vermont. Both are serving others in their work by facilitating connections and will continue to work like that for their entire life. And both are thinking of moving here.
I know they will add to our city because I watch how they move through it when they come. How they have made friends on their own and asked loads of questions so they can begin to understand the connections and how they work. How they travel mostly by foot and stay in the neighborhood that they want to spend time in for that visit, therefore learning about another small piece. And quite importantly, how they graciously accept offers of sharing from locals without throwing money or skepticism back at us. (And that is harder for people from away than it seems.)
I welcome them just as I welcomed people like George and Budd and how people welcomed me over 30 years ago. Because I know they are not here to extract or to impose, but to live and to share.
And maybe they will be part of the 3rd wave which keeps cresting over us for the next decade at least. And let's hope the others are over and have gone back out to the American sea.
However, since 2005 and the federal levee breaks, it has been demoralizing to meet some of those who have traveled here to "help" repair our region. Not only in the food part of the movement, although that has been troublesome as well since those sad days. Honestly, the entire region has been an experiment for others to make their mark and throw their ideas in the mix. Carpetbags full of promises and well-meaning, unspecified rhetoric.
At first, (people from away is what is meant by "they" and "them" here) came with hard work on their brain and very little judgement, probably because there was so much to do in those days. Everywhere you went, there were homes to clean and people to comfort so we accepted the tens of thousands of visitors coming each month. Ultimately most of them came, did amazing work and then went back. That seemed part of their typology; they were not looking for answers or a new place, as much as they believed in community and sharing. We appreciated them, we truly did. We found a few fellow citizens.
After the first wave, came the system people. These folks had answers they told us, and rattled off loads of ideas that could help us. Some came with money and others came with media access and others just came with energy. We gamely tried to go along with the ideas, to understand how they could work in an informal city like New Orleans in a region that has almost no political muscle or any expertise, having been exploited for its entire history.
Or they had completely thought through ideas or projects that didn't allow local interference and at the end, fell apart because of their stubbornness in accepting help or ideas from locals.
What I can say 5 years after those people started coming is: very little has been accomplished by them. Very few new ideas have stuck or been expanded. The new ideas that are still here were handed back to locals almost immediately after founding and honestly, are still struggling. Part of the issue was that the money and access went with those system people who came for a few years. It didn't stay and had no intention of staying here. Nor did they.
Or even worse, are those people who trade on the cultural strengths of our place and then come to believe they own them. That they can tell others about them or employ them to make money for themselves. They are the hardest to rid - we may suffer with some of these for a longer time, but at least it seems they are not multiplying anymore.
So it seems that wave is just about over. And now comes one that may be the one we had hoped for, and could merge with ours: the few who come to live here with us, like us.
Although we have known it for generations, New Orleans is a special place that takes special people to commit to. There is broken infrastructure surrounding us that allows us to use "lagalou" which Peter Berg explained in an earlier post on this site:
"The difference between lagalou and purely functional infrastructures is inestimable. Infrastructures are efficient but alienating and inner-directed, like the sound of a recorded voice instead of a real person. Lagalou is assimilating and outer- directed, always involving other people and their lives."
Read his whole piece if you have time:
http://neworleanscanthrive.blogspot.com/2006/09/lagalou.html
So lagalou is about people's own alternative methods that they create in order to work, live, play, travel and communicate. To have them or use them, you have to trust people. To do that, you have to believe in the people that you live among. To do that, you have to see the paralysis of relying on federal infrastructure.
Those coming now seem to believe more in lagalou, then in charity or in that federal infrastructure. They are quietly coming in and just showing up at regular things and meeting people everywhere. Taking the time to learn and listen, rather than preach and promise.
My friends Jean and Libby number among this group. One has visited 5 times in one year, the other 3 times. Both are living with appropriate scale and connections already, back in Vermont. Both are serving others in their work by facilitating connections and will continue to work like that for their entire life. And both are thinking of moving here.
I know they will add to our city because I watch how they move through it when they come. How they have made friends on their own and asked loads of questions so they can begin to understand the connections and how they work. How they travel mostly by foot and stay in the neighborhood that they want to spend time in for that visit, therefore learning about another small piece. And quite importantly, how they graciously accept offers of sharing from locals without throwing money or skepticism back at us. (And that is harder for people from away than it seems.)
I welcome them just as I welcomed people like George and Budd and how people welcomed me over 30 years ago. Because I know they are not here to extract or to impose, but to live and to share.
And maybe they will be part of the 3rd wave which keeps cresting over us for the next decade at least. And let's hope the others are over and have gone back out to the American sea.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Choosing us over them
My back and forth with the produce folks at our shiny new food coop. It starts with the excerpt that the produce team wrote on their website recently:
Hey, so here's the jams with the produce department. Our goal is to make the department all Organic, local and affordable. I'm sure you can imagine there are some challenges to that. First thing is, how do we define "affordable" and affordable to who? Then there are issues with distribution and access to Organic produce. As of now, we can only get Organic produce delivered to us once a week and as far as getting Organic local produce, well that's a whole 'nother issue.
Me and my Produce Team have been looking for farms to buy from for almost 2 months and though we've found some great ones, there just aren't that many in the Gulf South. Alot of farmers I've spoken with tell me that it's hard for them to buy what they need to become an Organic farm (like organic fertilizers, pest controls and such). On top of that, there are the fees and paperwork that come along with getting Organic certification.
So we're having to decide whether to buy Organic produce that's grown all over the US, shipped to North Carolina and then to us, or to buy local produce that may be grown using harmful chemicals. Tricky.
Then there's the affordability issue. We have to choose between Organic - which costs more - and local or conventional produce that's definitely grown using harmful chemicals, coated in petroleum based waxes and may be from a farm or company that exploits its workers but is less expensive than Organic. What would you choose; what's more affordable big picture; what's our responsibility as a co-op to our community? I honestly want your feedback because these are huge issues that will impact us all on many levels here at the NOFC.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>My first response to the above posting:
I just read the article by the produce manager about produce and the issues with local organic, which I find appalling in its ignorance of local food issues. I am a founding member of this food coop and have worked for a decade with the local farmers and now work with communities across the nation on establishing healthy local communities through vibrant public markets. I have spent hours upon hours connecting NOLA FC members to farmers and other food activists who have explained the food system over and over again to new coop organizers. The article was a painful reminder of how some activists can talk about the values of the new world they want, but cannot take the time to understand how it will work or to understand the barriers that exist in leaving the old one. I almost don't know where to begin with my disappointment in the lack of empathy about farming issues that are present here and what organic means, good and bad. This is exactly what I feared would happen to this all so shiny store- all hat and no cattle-organic or otherwise.
>>
>>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Her response to me:
>> Hi Dar, I don't believe we've met yet and I hope that next time you're here in the
coop you'll introduce yourself to me and maybe we can chat about this a little bit. Face to face communication is so much better for me. I have a hard time getting my tone across in written word. I just wanted you to know that I'm hearing your concerns and assure you that the message in my note in the e-letter was not about creating a new world and leaving the old one. I think I have some awareness of the many issues with the food system, but you are right in the fact that I'm ignorant to the specific issue here in New Orleans having only been here a couple months. And that was actually the message i was trying to send in my article. I want to learn from folks here and share what I've learned in my 11 years working in natural foods retail, on farms and with farmers/farmworkers.
So please come on in anytime and say hi and join us in January when we have our produce discussion.Hope to meet you soon,
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Me again:
we have not met and as much as I want to continue to give my time to the Food Coop to meet another generation of participants, I hope instead you spend your time to meet and sit and listen and travel to farmers and fishers and activists on the ground to see how this region is unique and requires some dedication and patience to understand.
When a 7 day a week grocery store gets support from its low income neighbors to open, it needs to be very sure what it is offering and that it can actually meet those promises. Healthy and affordable have been the chief words used by the NOFC with local a close third, and yet, it seems the research to make those a reality was simply not carried forward to the present day. In such a rush to open a shiny new store, it seems to me from your email and from my two shopping trips to the store that the first principle is being followed closely, but the second two are less
important. The work to build a food system is painstaking and often painful and as we know, any choice one makes requires giving something else up.
In this case, choosing to support and build a local food economy to get support from your neighbors means giving up is the talk that breezily says in an email to its shoppers "though we've found some great ones, there just aren't that many in the Gulf South"
If the written word is not your best way to communicate, then I suggest you hand those updates off to someone else pretty soon. Language like that will alienate the great farmers that I know are in the Gulf South and are waiting to see if the NOFC is worth investing their hard work in. And that you help all of us involved in growing part-time great farmers and fishers into full-time ones and work alongside us to help all of them recover the dignity and respect that they are owed.
I do wish you well. I hope you can take the time to do what others have done over the last 20 years - learn about and then help to remove the barriers to a fully functioning alternative food economy.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
and another attempt by me to be clear:
listen.
I know that last email came across with some arrogance and coldness (which will not surprise those who know me) and although my anger is still quite alive, I do want to help you understand.
But my feeling is (from my own many years in community organizing, retail design and management) that the energy already emanating from the NOFC is one of hurry hurry and impatience over the barriers that prevent the store from doing all that it WANTS to to.
But just because you want something to be, doesn't make it so. And the lack of empathy and education in that email told me that you have already CHOSEN corporate organic over sustainable local as the defining trait, even though any quick research in the region would have told you that organic here has some history and yes some promise and that local isn't found on a website for stores to easily do their buying.
and wherever you are from (and I don't necessarily mean that as a finger pointing, because I also came here from somewhere else back then too) wherever you are from may have a very different regional food system, where the organic and local are not that different and farms can be found in areas that you can easily drive to from your urban city and the farming extension agents are progressive etc.and farmers selling to stores is a well trod path that makes them a living and maybe even some of these farmers are in the urban area.
That may be the case there. I get that. But when you seem to bring that with you without edit and when you talk about local when you are really talking about corporate organic, it troubles and angers me and others.
And some of my anger comes from the fact that those barriers have been there and were communicated to those involved in planning. That is expressly why a new large storefront seem foolhardy to some of us and why we wanted to build long term buying clubs and small pop up storefronts to begin. And if some go ahead and build a full-sized storefront, then that means adding barriers to the NOFC's success to achieve the values of local and sustainable; you are adding barriers, not the farmers who you will keep puzzling over and telling the members that we just can't find them, not understanding that maybe your own scale and process is what is keeping the full-time ones away and the part-time ones from selling at all at a wholesale price.
and so, thanks for inviting me to your store to talk about produce, but there is not a person in this city that can properly do that for you at a meeting. There is not a shortcut to adding the NOFC to the EARLY work that has been done in the region on growing regional food. It will require some patience and sensitivity and that at this point in NOFC history is all I and others are looking for.
Hey, so here's the jams with the produce department. Our goal is to make the department all Organic, local and affordable. I'm sure you can imagine there are some challenges to that. First thing is, how do we define "affordable" and affordable to who? Then there are issues with distribution and access to Organic produce. As of now, we can only get Organic produce delivered to us once a week and as far as getting Organic local produce, well that's a whole 'nother issue.
Me and my Produce Team have been looking for farms to buy from for almost 2 months and though we've found some great ones, there just aren't that many in the Gulf South. Alot of farmers I've spoken with tell me that it's hard for them to buy what they need to become an Organic farm (like organic fertilizers, pest controls and such). On top of that, there are the fees and paperwork that come along with getting Organic certification.
So we're having to decide whether to buy Organic produce that's grown all over the US, shipped to North Carolina and then to us, or to buy local produce that may be grown using harmful chemicals. Tricky.
Then there's the affordability issue. We have to choose between Organic - which costs more - and local or conventional produce that's definitely grown using harmful chemicals, coated in petroleum based waxes and may be from a farm or company that exploits its workers but is less expensive than Organic. What would you choose; what's more affordable big picture; what's our responsibility as a co-op to our community? I honestly want your feedback because these are huge issues that will impact us all on many levels here at the NOFC.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>>My first response to the above posting:
I just read the article by the produce manager about produce and the issues with local organic, which I find appalling in its ignorance of local food issues. I am a founding member of this food coop and have worked for a decade with the local farmers and now work with communities across the nation on establishing healthy local communities through vibrant public markets. I have spent hours upon hours connecting NOLA FC members to farmers and other food activists who have explained the food system over and over again to new coop organizers. The article was a painful reminder of how some activists can talk about the values of the new world they want, but cannot take the time to understand how it will work or to understand the barriers that exist in leaving the old one. I almost don't know where to begin with my disappointment in the lack of empathy about farming issues that are present here and what organic means, good and bad. This is exactly what I feared would happen to this all so shiny store- all hat and no cattle-organic or otherwise.
>>
>>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Her response to me:
>> Hi Dar, I don't believe we've met yet and I hope that next time you're here in the
coop you'll introduce yourself to me and maybe we can chat about this a little bit. Face to face communication is so much better for me. I have a hard time getting my tone across in written word. I just wanted you to know that I'm hearing your concerns and assure you that the message in my note in the e-letter was not about creating a new world and leaving the old one. I think I have some awareness of the many issues with the food system, but you are right in the fact that I'm ignorant to the specific issue here in New Orleans having only been here a couple months. And that was actually the message i was trying to send in my article. I want to learn from folks here and share what I've learned in my 11 years working in natural foods retail, on farms and with farmers/farmworkers.
So please come on in anytime and say hi and join us in January when we have our produce discussion.Hope to meet you soon,
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Me again:
we have not met and as much as I want to continue to give my time to the Food Coop to meet another generation of participants, I hope instead you spend your time to meet and sit and listen and travel to farmers and fishers and activists on the ground to see how this region is unique and requires some dedication and patience to understand.
When a 7 day a week grocery store gets support from its low income neighbors to open, it needs to be very sure what it is offering and that it can actually meet those promises. Healthy and affordable have been the chief words used by the NOFC with local a close third, and yet, it seems the research to make those a reality was simply not carried forward to the present day. In such a rush to open a shiny new store, it seems to me from your email and from my two shopping trips to the store that the first principle is being followed closely, but the second two are less
important. The work to build a food system is painstaking and often painful and as we know, any choice one makes requires giving something else up.
In this case, choosing to support and build a local food economy to get support from your neighbors means giving up is the talk that breezily says in an email to its shoppers "though we've found some great ones, there just aren't that many in the Gulf South"
If the written word is not your best way to communicate, then I suggest you hand those updates off to someone else pretty soon. Language like that will alienate the great farmers that I know are in the Gulf South and are waiting to see if the NOFC is worth investing their hard work in. And that you help all of us involved in growing part-time great farmers and fishers into full-time ones and work alongside us to help all of them recover the dignity and respect that they are owed.
I do wish you well. I hope you can take the time to do what others have done over the last 20 years - learn about and then help to remove the barriers to a fully functioning alternative food economy.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
and another attempt by me to be clear:
listen.
I know that last email came across with some arrogance and coldness (which will not surprise those who know me) and although my anger is still quite alive, I do want to help you understand.
But my feeling is (from my own many years in community organizing, retail design and management) that the energy already emanating from the NOFC is one of hurry hurry and impatience over the barriers that prevent the store from doing all that it WANTS to to.
But just because you want something to be, doesn't make it so. And the lack of empathy and education in that email told me that you have already CHOSEN corporate organic over sustainable local as the defining trait, even though any quick research in the region would have told you that organic here has some history and yes some promise and that local isn't found on a website for stores to easily do their buying.
and wherever you are from (and I don't necessarily mean that as a finger pointing, because I also came here from somewhere else back then too) wherever you are from may have a very different regional food system, where the organic and local are not that different and farms can be found in areas that you can easily drive to from your urban city and the farming extension agents are progressive etc.and farmers selling to stores is a well trod path that makes them a living and maybe even some of these farmers are in the urban area.
That may be the case there. I get that. But when you seem to bring that with you without edit and when you talk about local when you are really talking about corporate organic, it troubles and angers me and others.
And some of my anger comes from the fact that those barriers have been there and were communicated to those involved in planning. That is expressly why a new large storefront seem foolhardy to some of us and why we wanted to build long term buying clubs and small pop up storefronts to begin. And if some go ahead and build a full-sized storefront, then that means adding barriers to the NOFC's success to achieve the values of local and sustainable; you are adding barriers, not the farmers who you will keep puzzling over and telling the members that we just can't find them, not understanding that maybe your own scale and process is what is keeping the full-time ones away and the part-time ones from selling at all at a wholesale price.
and so, thanks for inviting me to your store to talk about produce, but there is not a person in this city that can properly do that for you at a meeting. There is not a shortcut to adding the NOFC to the EARLY work that has been done in the region on growing regional food. It will require some patience and sensitivity and that at this point in NOFC history is all I and others are looking for.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
The Empathic Civilization
Posted once again since it's such a great video. I hope you can take the time to watch and then share.
Friday, December 09, 2011
Overpass-over and out? Or Overhyped?
The Lens reported today that the long-delayed study of whether to dismantle the overpass running above Claiborne has begun. The article gives citizen input that is both positive and negative to the plan.
The first conversation I had about this ended in an online argument with someone that I would have assumed would have welcomed the concrete to come down. Her beef was that it was a waste of money in a city desperate to cover its costs already. My argument is that it is federal money devoted to transportation studies (and would not have come our way to say, fix our sewers) and that other similar cities that have went ahead and taken down these federal leviathons, have benefited from renewed community at the human level.
Add to that increasing the commuter's time on our city streets will lead to more street level services offered in an area that needs small businesses and I'm more than for it, I will argue with any of you, anytime on the subject. Try me.
On the OTHER hand, it is quite likely that the city will screw up this study and therefore also muck up the teardown or repairs, depending on the result of the study. But, that's the banana republic we live in, fellow citizens...
The Lens
The first conversation I had about this ended in an online argument with someone that I would have assumed would have welcomed the concrete to come down. Her beef was that it was a waste of money in a city desperate to cover its costs already. My argument is that it is federal money devoted to transportation studies (and would not have come our way to say, fix our sewers) and that other similar cities that have went ahead and taken down these federal leviathons, have benefited from renewed community at the human level.
Add to that increasing the commuter's time on our city streets will lead to more street level services offered in an area that needs small businesses and I'm more than for it, I will argue with any of you, anytime on the subject. Try me.
On the OTHER hand, it is quite likely that the city will screw up this study and therefore also muck up the teardown or repairs, depending on the result of the study. But, that's the banana republic we live in, fellow citizens...
The Lens
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Homeless family in housing protest hoping to avoid ’a predicament’
Showing how Occupy's visibility can expand this revolution:
Homeless family in housing protest hoping to avoid ’a predicament’
Homeless family in housing protest hoping to avoid ’a predicament’
Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Monday, December 05, 2011
To thrive, it's got to have oysters
take a look at this video and back this project if it appeals to you:
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Charity Hospital reminder
Roberta Brandes Gratz, writer, critic and regional supporter has written many articles clarifying the battle for New Orleans between citizens and bureaucrats. This article on Charity Hospital was written in the spring for The Nation and should be spread widely, as the destruction of lower MidCity continues in defiance of what the citizens want-the reopening of the existing Charity Hospital on Tulane Ave.
Instead of reopening the solid street level structure, a money making scheme for developers (as Gratz points out about the new development) as "the design of the complex calls for closing all the streets, erasing the street grid and minimizing pedestrian access, all adding up to a fortress-like campus. Only about one-third of the new LSU site is needed for the hospital complex; the rest is for six city blocks of suburban-style surface parking, temporary green space and future speculative development by LSU, which will compete with existing commercial space in the core, much of which is already vacant."
We're not done yet folks. Let's remind ourselves and our officials that we still need a hospital and the one that already exists will do just fine.
The Nation
Instead of reopening the solid street level structure, a money making scheme for developers (as Gratz points out about the new development) as "the design of the complex calls for closing all the streets, erasing the street grid and minimizing pedestrian access, all adding up to a fortress-like campus. Only about one-third of the new LSU site is needed for the hospital complex; the rest is for six city blocks of suburban-style surface parking, temporary green space and future speculative development by LSU, which will compete with existing commercial space in the core, much of which is already vacant."
We're not done yet folks. Let's remind ourselves and our officials that we still need a hospital and the one that already exists will do just fine.
The Nation
Friday, December 02, 2011
December 2 "Bodies Upon the Gears" Savio Speech Anniversary
Said at Berkeley during the Free Speech Movement 47 years ago. I wish it wasn't still true...
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"Savio's moral clarity, his eloquence, and his democratic style of leadership inspired thousands of fellow Berkeley students to protest university regulations which severely limited political speech and activity on campus. The non-violent campaign culminated in the largest mass arrest in American history, drew widespread faculty support, and resulted in a revision of university rules to permit political speech and organising. This significant advance for student freedom rapidly spread to countless other colleges and universities across the country.Savio
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"Savio's moral clarity, his eloquence, and his democratic style of leadership inspired thousands of fellow Berkeley students to protest university regulations which severely limited political speech and activity on campus. The non-violent campaign culminated in the largest mass arrest in American history, drew widespread faculty support, and resulted in a revision of university rules to permit political speech and organising. This significant advance for student freedom rapidly spread to countless other colleges and universities across the country.Savio
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