I recently read the book, Crawfish Bottom: Recovering a Lost Kentucky Community by Douglas A. Boyd, portraying a "slum" neighborhood that was destroyed for and by urban renewal in my small city of Frankfort, Kentucky.
Crawfish Bottom, later known as "Craw" or "The Bottom," was a low-lying swampy area next to the Kentucky River. It was inhabited by both African-Americans (the majority) and whites. It often flooded. Craw included institutions, such as churches and a school, for most of the black community of Frankfort.
Craw had a rough reputation, though. It did include and had a history of murders, bootlegging, and prostitution. As a middle-class white girl growing up in Frankfort, Craw, for me, was a place to not go.
When the powers that be of Frankfort decided that it was time for Craw to be gone, urban renewal commenced to destroy the neighborhood and replace it with a monumental governmental project (boondoggle?). From 1958 through the 1960's, Craw was destroyed and replaced with a huge concrete complex that included space for retail shops, a state office building, and a hotel. It was lovely and impressive to see. (A flood wall was added to help make all this viable.)
Trouble was the residents of Craw were not really taken into account. There were public discussions, but they were not really listened to. Some who owned their homes did not want to sell them. The residents were given promises of much better housing, but the promises were not kept. A real community was broken up. Neighbors and friends were separated by the destruction. They had lived in a place where people knew each other and helped each other.
The irony of all this is that the Capital Plaza never really worked as a public space. Retail did not last very long in its set-aside spaces and the concrete was too hot in the summer to really work well for events. The hotel has worked rather well, but the Capital Tower state office building is deteriorating. Most of the plaza is now deteriorating, crumbling, and may be on the way out to be replaced by something else.
Soon after I read the book Crawfish Bottom, I heard public radio's On Being, present its program, "Evolving a City." (The website with audio, transcript, and more is here.) In that program, host Krista Tippett interviewed evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson. Wilson was the author of a book entitled, The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time, about his work with his own small city of Binghamton, New York.
In the book and interview Sloan described urban renewal in ways opposite from those used for Craw in my city. He especially spoke in terms of using and fostering "pro-social behavior." He even has 12 Steps to a Better Neighborhood.
I can relate all this to my American foreign policy concerns. I have been distressed by our empirical behavior and our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think of all the destruction we have caused and our killing and displacement of large swaths of population. I also think of our support of the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territories with its accompanying conflict. The Israelis displace the Palestinians, destroy their homes, and take their lands. (They kill them and incarcerate them, too, even children.)
Currently, in Japan there are high-level peace talks going on regarding Afghanistan. There is a representative of Pres. Harmid Kazai's government, there is even a representative of the Taliban, but it seems there may not be a woman present. Women need to be at the table. Lisa Savage, CODEPINK local coordinator for Maine, has a great article on the status of Afghan women and why they need to be there.
At CODEPINK.org, readers can learn about and take action regarding these foreign policy issues and concerns. While there, please also help prevent a future war with Iran.
It seems to me that the world is a neighborhood and we should look at it that way. Actually, it is a neighborhood of neighborhoods. I believe we need to take David Sloan Wilson's thinking into account. We certainly need a new way of thinking.
I also think CODEPINK's mission statement fits in very well:
CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end U.S. funded wars and occupations, to challenge militarism globally, and to redirect our resources into health care, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities.David Sloan Wilson's 12 Steps Toward a Better Neighborhood include this:
Ideally, a neighborhood group should include everyone in the neighborhood. If someone doesn’t want to participate, it should be their decision and not because they weren’t asked. Small steering committees might be necessary, but everyone should feel that they have an opportunity for input, as in a democracy.In this week of American independence, let us be thankful, but let us also do some thinking about our interdependence.
I Declare World Peace.
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