Final Observing Democracy Entry - 4/7/2012

           Throughout the course of the semester, I have witnessed a Chicago Public School (CPS) board meeting, a Tamms Year Ten (TY10) organization meeting, campaigning for Lisa Hernandez for State Representative, and the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) hearing regarding Governor Quinn’s proposal to close Tamms Supermax prison. These have given me a taste of collectives’ structures at multiple levels, ranging from grassroots, district, city, and state organizations.  What I take away from this experience is in no way what I expected.

            The CPS board meeting was heated. Seventeen school turn-arounds, fade-outs, or closings were proposed to take place. As you can imagine, the affected communities were not going down without a fight. Parents, teachers, concerned community members, and students all presented their cases to unresponsive board. It appeared as if the board was simply going through the forced motions of “democracy” in order to appease the city. The unsympathetic, cold faces of the board watched as one by one the registered speakers’ two-minute time allotments ran out. Diane Ravitch points out in The Life and Death of the Great American School System how policy makers have to “think like the state” and not on a personal level in order to survive making hard, complicated decisions. This mind set was evident in every board member’s face as they blocked out the tears and cries from the affected community. I will be the first to admit that I don’t have the solution to the problems that plague these neighborhoods, but there seemed to be a impenetrable wall built up between the board members and the people. After the meeting, all 17 school proposals were passed, leaving these already struggling communities with a steeper incline to climb on their path of reconstruction.

            The meeting between TY10 and Adler students was filled with excitement. At the time I attended, Governor Quinn had just proposed the closing of Tamms Supermax prison in his budget plan. Although TY10’s platform for closing the facility had been mainly based on the human rights violations that were taking place behind its doors, closing it for any reason would be seen as a success. Now in its fourth year, TY10 has been fighting a seemly loosing battle. Although the organization never lost conviction in their position, the slow progress and extensive energy required was daunting. Once the shocking word came of Quinn’s proposal, and the possibility of closure became a reality, immediate action was required. TY10 had to keep the pressure on legislators by showing and growing support for their votes to close the prison. TY10 was committed to putting in long hours to lobby publicity and support for this cause. This meeting I attended was filled with planning of action, defining the steps required, and brainstorming ways of most effectively getting participants to join the fight for human rights.

            Door knocking for State Representative Lisa Hernandez was a blast. Starting in the morning, we (Hsieh, Darrel, and I) met at Lisa’s office in Cicero. After meeting and talking to Lisa herself, we were given a packet and sent on our way. In this packet was a map of the area we were to campaign and a list of addresses of democrats with their names and ages. Because of the large Spanish speaking community in Cicero, our pamphlets were written in both English and Spanish in order to include non-English speaking voters. I was surprised at the number of warm welcomes we received from people and the interesting conversations we had. Not only were we publicizing the approaching election, but we were also petitioning for signatures for Hernandez’s proposal stating if the value of your property decreases, the state would not be able to raise your property tax. People were very interested in telling us their stories about the struggles they were facing with this issue and how it has greatly impacted their lives. As a result, they were eager to sign the petition and welcomed a sign in their yard supporting Hernandez’s campaign.

            My final observation was of the COGFA hearing in Ullin, IL. Ullin is about six and a half hours away from Chicago and the meeting itself ran about three hours. A group of forty TY10 members went down together to show support for the closure against the strong turn out of AFSCME members opposed to the closings. The hearing itself was an interesting display of human ignorance to the complexities that surround crime, and of the inability to see the men at Tamms as human beings. The structure of the hearing was very similar to the CPS board meeting. This time I felt the board was slightly more interested in the speakers ( I did feel more interest was paid to the “professionals” who spoke over the community and family members. I see this being a result from whose opinion the board prioritizes and views as more legitimate). Ultimately, the process of the TY10 members coming together to organize and make this commute together is the closest display of true democracy I have seen all semester.     

            If we look at the etymology of the word “democracy” we find it stems from the late Latin word dēmokratia. The prefix being dēmos, meaning ‘the people’, and kratia meaning ‘power or rule.’ This definition, power of the people, was lost in regards to the CPS board meeting. This might also have something to do with the fact that the people do not elect the CPS board, which is top-down appointed. In the other three cases I observed and partook in, I was pleasantly surprised at the structure of interaction and the process of action. After the CPS board meeting, my hope in democracy dwindled, only to be reborn through my participation in TY10. Our country’s romanticized democracy claims may be a stretch when you dissect how it actually functions, but I am optimistic in our continued struggle towards this ideal.