 Hello there, it's Thursday at noon. I know it is. Do you remember our Arrangement Thursdays at noon on CFUV Are you ready to get started? What do you have in mind? What I want to do now is called first-person plural You make it sound excessively attractive That's what I have in mind One of the reasons for keeping a diary is to be able to revisit it years later in 1995 from January to July Carl kept an official diary of activities He did as an intern working for the Tampa, Florida chapter of the US National Organization for Women the internship began with the goal of providing a high-level statistical analysis Comparing the status of women in Florida to the remaining 49 states and The rest of the world this turned out to be an ambitious project That was more worthy of a doctoral dissertation than an internship But the volumes of data and the lack of a cohesive source of data to use for comparisons Were not the only reasons that the scope of the original project narrowed what started out to be a research project That Tampa now could use but could never have afforded from a consultant ended up being a journey into the world of political Organization protest and burnout that shaped Carl's views of political action most especially the role that the media plays in Determining who gets heard and who does not in the year before this internship the now chapter went through a major upheaval With the ousting of the previous board of directors and favor of a group that was determined To connect the chapter to social justice issues that affected the lives of impoverished women The members who achieved this change in leadership were mostly poor themselves Carl's internship coincided with a period of time During which many of the members were discovering how difficult it was to put issues of poverty and social justice on popular agendas It was a time when the US Congress's newly elected Republican majority Was flexing its muscle with the so-called Contract with America the political rhetoric at both the federal and state level was backing poor women and men Into corners from which they could not return unlike the recent worldwide protests against the war in Iraq and against Globalization protests during this period were small and largely ignored by mainstream press The internet was young and no quote alternative media closed quote Existed beyond a few local newspapers here or there Today on first-person plural We are sharing excerpts from the seven-month diary in chronological order The diary in many ways speaks for itself as we follow the course of both intern and organization During a difficult period of transition away from social justice in Florida and in the United States Carl shares his experience his analyses and his insights and an episode we call working for women January 20th 1995 I've been in contact with Carolyn Waldron and Susie Shannon of the Tampa chapter of the national organization for women We have been trying both to develop the project idea and to determine its proper locus in the organizational structure It appears that the idea is sufficiently specific To warrant it's being included under the heading of welfare reform which Carolyn is in charge of in addition to her Responsibilities as president of the chapter Susie was supposed to be doing a research project of some sort for the group But she hasn't really shifted it out of first gear yet And it doesn't appear that she is poised to take advantage of my presence Carolyn brought me a handout on the contract with America Drafted by the Republicans in the federal Congress one possible project is to gauge the effect of some of the actions listed therein I have read the contract as well as an assortment of related documents Carolyn included with it Also a potential interest is the recent 25% cut in Florida state-funded programs I'm not yet sure of the scope of the cut. It could be welfare only or it could be all state programs January 27th 1995 Carolyn called me on Tuesday afternoon remind me of the economic justice committee meeting that evening an hour later She called back to tell me it was off none of the committee members were going to be available. I Will be in contact with Carolyn early next week to see if there are any organizational developments I'm beginning to wonder if I will be assuming significantly more autonomy on this project than I had anticipated There are experienced social workers and public administration professionals within the Tampa chapter of now But no one has expressed a specific preference as to the direction that project should take I have been preparing by doing some research on sociology of minorities and countercultures and the conventions employed in application of statistical technique to their study February 3rd 1995 I prepared a verbal presentation vis-a-vis the direction and extent of my progress to deliver at the Tampa now meeting last night The meeting ran long though and my report was postponed until the economic justice committee meeting on Monday February 13th By that time I will have had another week to do preliminary research and should be ready to begin data collection. I Anticipate that the committee will have some non-negotiable Suggestions regarding the design of the project. However, and until I know the extent of those suggestions. I will forego data collection February 10th 1995 I have not had time to do additional preparatory research this week I have however narrowed the initial scope of the project into research topics I will present both at the economic justice committee meeting Monday night and upon hearing the comments of the committee members Select one of the topics and begin data collection The first project is assessment of the effects of a $500 per child tax credit Similar to the one mentioned in the contract with America The second project is comparing the current standard of living in Florida to those in other nations The project is intended to serve as background information for assessment of the 25% budget cut applied to all state agencies effective this year Comparisons of the United States as a whole to other nations in such areas as infant mortality life expectancy adult literacy and the like are common February 17th 1995 This week I attended the economic justice subcommittee meeting on Monday night and the chapter meeting on Thursday night On Monday, I ran both of my project ideas by the subcommittee The Florida as independent nation idea drew raves with subcommittee members actively providing advice E.g. sharing knowledge of similar studies and proposing an emphasis on women's conditions and asking pertinent questions I will proceed with it and abandon the tax credit project on Thursday at the chapter meeting there was discussion of among several other projects a trip to Fort Lauderdale later this month to Congressman Shaw's office Shaw has been named the point man for federal welfare reform efforts by the president To establish for the press the organization's position on welfare reform I may be going on this trip depending on what the officer court decides Whether it will be realistic given the time and expense it would entail After the meeting adjourned I was put to work on assembling newsletters and other items to be mailed to chapter members They're responding enthusiastically after their initial hesitation to the idea of having my labor at their disposal for the semester It appears that there will be plenty of opportunities for me to establish my bonafide days as an entry-level activist as well as a statistical researcher and analyst February 24th 1995 Wednesday, I went to the government documents room in the usf Tampa campus library After almost two hours of researching I discovered something important unless I'm looking in entirely the wrong place The material in the government documents room is too voluminous to be of direct use There are simply too much verbiage and not enough guideposts The problem of poverty is apparently not new numerous congressional committee and subcommittee hearings were held on it in the 1970s, but not in the 1980s apparently With numerous persons testifying during each hearing There is so much hearsay and obvious bias present that the information is scarcely information at all It is more like a series of advertisements A scientific approach to the problem was apparently not acceptable Perhaps the need to treat diplomatically the egos of the interested parties was present March 3rd 1995 More time at the usf library this week The outlook for the project has improved I have assessed all the data sources available and begun to sift through the seemingly infinite amount of pertinent and almost pertinent information for the dense quantitative timely figures that I need I have poured over the titles and were available abstracts Of perhaps 10,000 books and magazine articles this week with very few of them Mirrored in closer examination The process has taken me longer than I expected What I am after is a basis for comparison Do conventional Read popular Indicators of standard of living and quality of life show that Florida is a good or bad place for women to live Relative to other states and relative to other countries None of the state employees in the Tampa chapter of now has expressed much interest in the project But part of the fault has been mine I have neglected to contact them outside of meetings and discuss matters with them Of course part of that is due to a sneaking suspicion on my part that they are up to their ears and work already between their real jobs And their now activities And that they need another project right now about as much as they need additional holes in their heads Spring break is this month. I may not be able to use the library while classes are suspended I will be able to stay busy though in between the material I have been perusing from other sources and the raffle tickets that the fundraising director apparently expects me to sell March 10th 1995 The Fort Lauderdale trip is on for tomorrow I spoke with carolin on the telephone today about it and I worked with patty who was also going on the trip On slogans for the signs we plan to carry around while demonstrating It is clear now that the contract with america is not going to be implemented in full But the local chapters in florida still consider the issues involved to be of sufficient import to merit an action of some sort Shaw remains the local political figure most associated with welfare reform efforts by the current congress Therefore the action has been scheduled for his district The action itself will be simple enough A group of now supporters and contingents from other groups Will pick it and several speakers will give statements on federal financial policy The most challenging part of the day for me will be my having to ride in a compact car with three other people all the way to Fort Lauderdale and back in one day And I should be grateful at one point it appeared that a car was not going to be available I was struck by the unfairness of the situation Several people who are for the most part poor wanting to protest discrimination against the poor but not able to afford a Decent vehicle to attend the demonstration I wonder what happened to the concept of the level playing field I also did some work on the research project this week. The overwhelming size of the government documents room alone Has made me realize that there is a great deal of material related to my topic and very little in the form I require It was time to take a step back and do a little planning. The first step was outlining what data sources there were Needless to say no comprehensive list of the data sources existed But I managed by pulling together several partial listings of online services compact disks And other services available at the library to list 51 sources that I will need to check March 17th 1995 The Fort Lauderdale demonstration was Saturday At first it had appeared that we would not be able to attend because we could not come up with enough roadworthy vehicles Among ourselves to transport everyone I found something inherently unfair about this a group of people wish to attend a demonstration to protest poverty But they are too poor to get there Eventually two people agreed to take their own cars and a third person who was not attending Lent the chapter her car for the day Tampa now had seven people including me make the trip We set up operations outside clay Shaw's office Which is in an office park and not in a government building as I had anticipated Along with about 50 other people from various now chapters in florida. I was entrusted with the operation of the pa Everyone marched around for about three hours carrying signs and repeating slogans Toward the end of the event We had speeches by two current welfare recipients to put the lie to the misconception that all such people are dishonorable malignant incompetence One speaker was a 3.9 student from usf and the other was a resident of a Tampa housing project Who is known for her selfless and energetic community service Rowan county now had asked Tampa now to take the lead in the action and show their relatively inexperienced members the ins and outs of political action Tampa now had complied assuming most of the responsibility for making things come off smoothly, which they did Passing cars hawked in support for the demonstration The media was there in force Thanks to some earlier press releases by now Announcing the event with several local television stations showing up to get footage of us and the associated press Sending a reporter who was to do a feature article on welfare reform Even the policeman assigned to the event said that he was there for our safety rather than to examine us for any signs of wrongdoing The event transpired seamlessly almost to the point of being mundane If this were one's first political demonstration, it was not mine One would get the impression that it was simple to arrange and execute such an action The now people involved seem to be unlike the left wing maniacs that the right has suggested they are Feminazis etc If anything, they seem too community oriented many of them financially shaky themselves But still willing to expend what limited resources they have To increase awareness of political and economic issues that would otherwise be glossed over or go misunderstood Far from being militant The general appearance of the group was that of the pta stopping off to touch base with each other And make a dent in their organizational workload between Saturday grocery shopping and picking up the kids at the roller rink Somehow irresponsible and criminal were not the terms that came to mind On Thursday the local chapter had its yearly elections Carolyn Waldron the chapter president and my de facto supervisor on the research project ran unopposed In fact, most of the races were unopposed with a shortage of candidates and a great many jobs to be filled The raffle drawing was held thursday night as well I never got around to selling the book of tickets I had been assigned but I did take on the herculean task of drawing the names of the winners I was not one of them Despite my wife and I purchasing six tickets Bonnie Boehm the unfortunate person placed in charge of the raffle Told me to consider the book of tickets I had at home to be dead meaning that I was not to sell them Now that the prices had been awarded another path to personal self-sufficiency blocked by compulsive honesty This internship is not lucrative I received no pay hence the term volunteer work And have not been reimbursed for my materials or job related expenses not that I expected to be March 24th 1995 Yesterday I used my home computer in modem to access the usf library computer system Hoping to further outline the information sources pertinent to my project available at usf It turned out to be more than I bargained for It became apparent to me that there were just too many data sources available for me to thoroughly research them all Even restricting my search to sources available at or through the usf Tampa library And through the internet access I have via the usf computer system I have accumulated more sources than I could exhaust in a decade I do not want this project to turn into a bibliography Especially one that it would take the rest of the millennium or until the millennium to complete First person plural Your source Pursuing sounds of sociological So gaseousness The police state is using its phallocentric organ the corporate media To control ordinary people like you and March 31st 1995 The economic justice committee held a meeting on tuesday It is clear now that the contract is not going to be passed into law except in a much amended form But there is still concern over the measures that have survived the first two months of the legislative session Well organized current information regarding the status of women and children is important to the committee Statistics on poverty are used often in the discussions But not maintained or made available by the committee or the local chapter in a comprehensive format My project will be helpful for a time but within a year of its completion It will begin to be inadequate Perhaps an mis director would be apropos Also discussed at the committee meeting was president clinton's visit to hillsboro community college thursday Clinton has remained silent throughout most of the goings on in congress This session and there is much speculation on how he will react to the portion of the contract that makes it to him In the form of bills needing his signature to be passed into law Most of the committee members were unable to attend clinton's appearance due to prior commitments But a few made time for the event April 7th 1995 The scope of the data sources continues to spiral upward As this is not to be a doctoral dissertation. I am going to revise my methodology I will speak with carillon and the rest of the economic justice committee about what they want from this report and follow their instructions It is possible that they will be satisfied with data from one or two sources Or that they will want me to omit the international perspective and convert it to the rest of the united states only While I was planning to do a more thorough report It is true that I am a contract worker of sorts and need to avoid spending my time on tasks My employer considers trivial There is no shortage of work to be done in tampa now And I might well be instructed to put the study to bed as quickly as possible so that I can get to work on other tasks April 14th 1995 The last week has been hectic for the local chapter Sunday there was an economic justice committee meeting A pastor from the first united church attended in hopes of building an anti-poverty coalition with us We hashed out our respective positions and agreed to proceed with the anti-poverty demonstration scheduled for april 21st I also brought up the necessity of narrowing the scope of my project and the consensus response Was that I should concentrate on the state-to-state comparisons and forget about the international data Tuesday I sorted through some of the paperwork that now members tend to get buried under Thursday I received an emergency call from carillon saying that the april 21st demonstration was off Everyone involved was overworked and there was a new threat in the form of a reporter from the weekly planet a local paper Planning to do a hatchet job on the chapter A meeting was scheduled for Tuesday to discuss damage control I agreed to call some of the committee members and informed them of the change in schedule A lack of funds and the overworked highly constrained state of the members are taking their toll on tampa now The sort of large-scale media blitz that richer organizations regularly carry out Is simply not fiscally possible for them to initiate Moreover many members are forced to conduct their membership related activities on the sly for fear that their employers will discover that They are in the organization and fire them april 21st 1995 The action that was to take place today has been moved to may The date is not certain yet, but it will be either the sixth to coincide with a similar demonstration in new york city or on mother's day Media coverage is the key element with there being some question of whether the press will be too busy taking pictures and videotapes Of more traditional mother's day activities to be bothered with a little thing like a substantive pro mother's political action Also at issue is the press line of the new york demonstration organizers While the new york demonstration is being endorsed by everyone from tom hayden to kasey casem We are not sure yet exactly what it has meant to support One of our members is in contact with the organizers and will contact them and get back to us with the information My tour of duty with tampa now has been extended through the summer or at least through july 31st I am looking forward to continuing my research on women's living conditions in florida and participating in the other activities That will take place under the aegis of the organization The organization is apparently very impressed with me as they have written me a glowing evaluation Including the statement quote. It is a joy to have someone as capable and committed as carl at our disposal close quote april 28th 1995 I have volunteered for slash been assigned to susie shannon's local coalition building effort In preparation for the may 6th multi organizational anti-contract with america march My object will be to contact a selection of organizations See how compatible their press line is with the one generally agreed upon by the organizations already involved And ask them if they would like to take part in the demonstration This is not a now project per se, but both national now and tampa now are endorsing and participating in the event It is beginning to look as if the inability of tampa now to get geared up for the proposed april 21st anti-poverty action was a blessing in disguise With the may 6th march sure to create more of an impact april 30th 1995 My initial objective in committing to work for the tampa chapter of the national organization for women this semester Was to begin work on a statistical research project for their benefit The project has progressed well with the final form to be an annotated bibliography with attachments and statistical analysis Where pertinent on the status of women in florida versus the status of women in the rest of the united states My most significant educational discovery this term has been my realization that it is impossible for many organizations To speak to the public directly There is much talk about free speech, but little of the practical nature of speech One who invokes the sanctity of free speech implies the right to be heard No one seriously considers a person standing in his living room talking to himself or writing in his diary about politics To be of any particular importance Political speech like speech in general is hampered in its effectiveness My restrictions placed on the number of people who may hear it which people and which viewpoints therefore have the right to be heard More important from a practical standpoint Who determines which people and which viewpoints have the right to be heard The answer to the latter question is easy the communications industry And the communications industry is not the most reliable or least biased of sources This bias and unreliability anathema from a scientific standpoint Are due in part to the industry's essential lack of responsibility to anyone except itself and its own interests Which are determined by various historical and political factors and can be observed only through a glass darkling What is clear is that the communications industry decides who will be heard For what period of time they will be heard and under what conditions they will be heard This contrasts sharply with the idyllic picture of a society in which anyone can say anything He likes and everyone will hear and consider immediately what he has to say that the term free speech invokes One is not necessarily the center of attention in the united states While with having 250 million other people to compete against for the honor And the battle for attention is conducted on the terms of those who control the airwaves and the print media A large percentage of the total airtime on united states radio and television And the total space in american newspapers Is for sale to those who can pay the communications industry the price for it Many political organizations do buy time on the air and perhaps now could if it were better funded However, such activity does little to foster reasoned even handed debate If only because the side with the most money is permitted to speak for a proportionately longer time The equal time law was revoked in the 1980s and in any case never applied to any political or human rights organization Other than the democratic party and the republican party Most people are with some justification suspicious of ideas in persons they have not previously heard of But the process by which one hears of things is not entirely free of prejudice Moreover the very industry in charge of mass communication is unlikely to circulate an admission of its bias Leaving the observer with little way of knowing that he is witnessing a fixed political fight Unless he spends a substantial amount of his spare time doing independent political research and analysis Tampa now has no advertising budget and no access to television broadcasting facilities Their exposure is limited to that which is granted to them by existing television stations and networks on their news programs Aside from the semi monthly local chapter meetings, which usually are confined by necessity to administrative matters And the monthly newsletter, which is produced only at a cost that is proportionately prohibitive There is no form in which one can hear what Tampa now and its members have to say Now is pursuing their political ends on nothing like a level playing field The game which consists for the most part of cultivating public opinion is virtually over before it begins With the opposition being much better funded and bound by few rules regarding their use of the funds The issue here is more epistemological than it is political If the now press line is the closer approximation of reality, will it make any difference? In the 1950s the soviet threat prompted much discussion in the west about what specifically Made the russian way of life unacceptable to more enlightened minds And one of the phrases that came up often was quote reality control close quote When the means of information exchange is marked by bias and even sold outright, there is reality control We have moved beyond Voltaire's contention that he who defines the terms wins the argument To a forum in which he who determines the facts wins the argument May 1st 1995 I reviewed the press packet for the may 6th rally that Susie Shannon gave me on Friday Now is pulling out all the stops to announce this march Both to the press and to other groups that might want to participate The list of persons and organizations that have already pledged support to the action is over 10 pages long and contains more than a few mainstream names I spoke with Susie by telephone today She has several people working on calling local organizations engaging their support for the action I will be assigned a certain number of them and given some more specific instructions on how to approach them May 8th 1995 The margin rally were Saturday and they were a success We drew 150 people locally We assembled at the county center in Tampa from 9 30 to 10 in the morning Did chance for half an hour Marched to the federal courthouse and set up the 90 minute speakers program that followed We are still uncertain how successful the national effort was The corresponding actions in new york and boston drew well But the turnouts in cleveland and atlanta were poor. I do not yet know what the turnout was like in other cities I saw myself on the television news saturday night Standing in the crowd of people assembled at the county center I doubt that I will enjoy much fame as a result though Because I was wearing dark sunglasses and a long sleeved black shirt due to my sensitivity to the effects of the sun That combined to make me virtually unrecognizable I may even have been on television before in connection with now related activities Although I do not know if I have The possibility exists that I will accumulate media exposure due to my role in now Something I consider but not appreciated until saturday night. The demonstration did not happen all by itself Susie shannon was in charge of assembling it and she was very busy My role was to call some local organizations and probe their willingness to support its general aims I had little success but did draw some amusing remarks from the contacts Amnesty international told me quote. We're not a political organization close quote The tampa bay friends of children and children's health care asked me quote. How did you get our number close quote? And the tampa bay gay men's chorus told me that quote david katon monitors us close quote Further interrogation yielded the clarification that david katon local religious right lobbyist Photocopies the chorus's requests for grants from the arts council to check for compliance with the legal prey requisites Other nonprofit status Today on first person plural Carl shares his experience his analyses and his insights in an episode we call working for women The more time that passes the more convinced i am the tampa now has little interest in my research project Despite my dramatic announcement last month that I was scaling back the project considerably from its original scope No one in the organization expressed concern about its progress I have the feeling that they are more in need of other types of work right now Which would explain why I wind up being drawn into so many other projects I had hoped to get the research project finished by this time But ultimately I am not working for myself and must delay building my professional resume when it conflicts with the goals of the organization I've had a few calls to action as a statistician But none of them would look as nice on a resume as the research project would have in its original incarnation May 15th 1995 Tina Engler an officer in tampa now had an article on her life published in the weekly plan this week The article about Tina was encouraging if only because it shows that the press is not completely written off economic justice issues Has not worth the effort to deal with The difference in information content and objectivity between academic style and newspaper style writing is beyond belief The mirror standards of documentation and even handedness are employed in the latter But the inequity of distribution of assets income and economic power in general is too great to be ignored indefinitely Especially as america increases its pace towards having 51 of its population Inadequately fed clothed housed and medically attended to by un standards Perhaps such an eventuality would provide an appropriate focus for my research project or what is left of it I could find out what the un standards are for various social indicators And see how the separate states measure up to them I will speak to the now officers again about including international data Because I think the international perspective will be illuminating Weekly planet should have an article next week about tampa now Carol and waldrin expects it will be sympathetic Weekly planet is widely perceived as a more reliable source of local news than the tampa tribune and the st. Petersburg Times If only because the planet is unafraid to conclude that a wealthy person is a scam artist If the fact supports such a conclusion and unafraid to publish that conclusion once it has been reached How the article treats tampa now will have a lot to do with what direction the organization takes for the rest of the year May 22, 1995 The national people's campaign the organization of organizations under whose banner was arranged the national anti-contract on america march and rally on may 6th Is having a conference in new york city the weekend of june 3rd Susie shannon was our liaison with the mpc for the may 6th action and has been asked to run for national office in the npc tampa now has been interested in coalition building for some time wanting to establish communication Among different human rights groups as a means to the end of effective political action Tina engler the quote poster girl for single motherhood close quote as carolyn culcer is also going I do not know if enough money can be raised to send them and I don't know what they will accomplish by attending But the mpc is doing serious coalition building and some effort needs to be made to connect with them Wendy jones the new vp of membership has informed the chapter that there are 278 regular members of the chapter The times ran a monumentally irresponsible column by paul wilburt in february In which he dismissed tampa now as politically irrelevant gaining attention only because the media continues to pay it He echoed gertrude stein's comment made by her about oakland california to the effect of quote There's no there there close quote It would be fun to send all 278 members of this non-existent organization over to the little wise guys house at four o'clock in the morning To serenade him in esperanto or some similar project May 29th 1995 My now work this week consisted of reading chapters one to three in handbook and research and evaluation By isek and michael according to isek and michael quote a comment error made by graduate students is to carry out A hurried review of the literature in order to get started on the research project This usually results in overlooking previous studies containing ideas that would have improved the students project close quote That has also been my experience So often the researcher contents himself with reinventing the wheel Neither knowing nor caring if his analysis is time or cost efficient in comparison with passive research of existing literature on the topic Academia is supposed to build upon previous results But often the aim of the researcher seems to be to get as many articles published as possible regardless of how redundant they are At the same time, I believe that academic and scientific research is an easy target for criticism at the hands of compulsive naysayers And consider such criticism to be unproductive and unrevealing June 5th 1995 The weekly planted article on tampon now came out last week It was pretty disorganized The author completely missed the point of the organization's voting out margaret zeller last year The attitude the author projected was that the two-thirds of the members who thought margaret was a snotty rich Self-aggrandizing jaguar driving sheltered crooked spoiled rotten overgrown daddy's girl This is a mild characterization of how the current board feels about her Had no business voting her out of office just because she had completely lost touch with the goals of the organization That one must support one snotty rich self-aggrandizing jaguar driving sheltered crooked spoiled rotten overgrown daddy's girl at all times And in all situations a courtesy apparently not extended to those of us who do not only $40,000 car or have the approval of margaret zeller's immediate circle of friends It was odd to see a normally hard-bitten paper grovel serve freely before wealth and power And express shock that anyone else might not find it appropriate to do so Catherine rail an assistant state attorney for hillsborough county was a guest speaker at the chapter meeting last week She is setting up a domestic violence task force in hillsborough county She claimed that every third person in her office has been a domestic violence victim during her tenure at her current position She observed with this taste the common conception that it's still okay to beat people up as long as they're related to you Susceptibility to domestic violence was an indicator of quality of life for women The vast majority of cases are men on woman of which I had not thought June 12 1995 Most research projects have a clearly defined objective long before a researcher or group of researchers are hired to work on them I am in the reposition of being an intellectual contract laborer who has been allowed some leeway in deciding what to research The major disadvantage to having this freedom has been having to justify my efforts more closely than I would have had to Had I been assigned a pre-designated topic The question why are you doing this is never really answerable I fear that once I have completed the project people who had nothing to say about it when their criticisms could have had some productive effect Will expound at great length upon what they would have done if they had been running things Work is always easier in the hypothetical and in the first person It is becoming apparent that the project is going to be more of a social science effort and less of a statistical effort than I Would have liked at the outset of the project. I envisioned analyzing a single definitive data set using highly advanced methodologically valid quantitative techniques and creating Brilliant yet subtle models of what was really going on in the world around me to be used for decades to come by all really responsible academics Such an ambition was I thought reasonable given the time constraint facing me The non-academic portion of my work for now has been very highly regarded by my superiors No one has opinion counts has any significant bones to pick and I am happy that despite the considerable loss and scope of the research project The other aspects of activism have gone so well for me June 19th, 1995 Judy Hill of the Tampa Tribune wrote a reasonably even-handed article on Tina Engler recently To absolutely nobody's surprise but Tina's there was a resulting deluge of hate mail to the Tribune Lecturing Tina on having dared to bring into the world a less than physically perfect baby And then having compounded her error by daring to go to college At the regular meeting of tampa now on thursday several members volunteered to write letters to the Tribune in defensive Tina It continues to amaze me that many persons who have strong opinions on what is wrong with the world country or neighborhood Feel no desire to back up their assertions with rigorous argument let alone substantive documentation To condemn single mothers for creating children that cannot support at first And then to disparage them further when they attempt to gain the means to support their children Is to me the height of sloppy mental activity A little consistency would be nice I begin to wonder if the only people who write letters to the editor are idiots who cannot find other outlets for their impulses Susie shannon reported on her trip to the national people's campaign conference in new york city She said the Tampa now and an organization from georgia were the only organizations from the deep south that sent any representatives at all Whether this was due to the geographical remoteness of the conference or a lack of southern sympathy for the issues involved remains uncertain June 26 1995 Last thursday carolyn walden called me to let me know that there would be a congressional subcommittee meeting regarding religious issues at jefferson high school in tampa the next day The meeting turned out to be a florida state house of representative subcommittee meeting on a proposed amendment to the u.s. Constitution clarifying the scope of religious freedom By the florida state house was doing conducting hearings on a federal issue was beyond me, but i paid attention on the west The subcommittee was chaired by charles canady of lakeland There were nine witnesses if that is in fact the term to my knowledge No one for tampa now appeared as a witness if they did it was not in the capacity of an official spokesperson for the chapter The apparent rationale for lending our support to the cross organizational anti amendment forces Was that the amendment while cosmetically a bulwark of religious freedom covered no issues not already covered by the first amendment And therefore served no purpose except as an intimidation ploy by the christian rite Tampa now is not big on intimidation ploys by the christian rite July 3 1995 One aspect of tampa now that strikes me as unusual is its lack of social activity Even getting anyone to go out for a hamburger after a meeting is like pulling teeth I believe that the old maxima about all work and no play and its effect on jack must apply to jill as well When a student from us after off by one of the meetings to announce that she and some of her friends were starting a now chapter on the usf campus She mentioned among their upcoming activities a social plan for the coming sunday I remember laughing inwardly at the low subjective probability i placed on tampa now ever having a quote social close quote But a large part of this apparent anti social tendency must be attributed to lack of money members are for the most part destitute A restaurant expedition would likely be an unconscionable expense for these members More expensive planned activities would be less acceptable still july 10 1995 At the regular chapter meeting thursday carlin waldrin conducted a workshop on dealing with the press Representatives from several local organizations were in attendance tampa now's methodology and philosophy vis-a-vis press contact has influenced the direction of its political efforts And a closer look at it provides insight into the organization quote going public closed quote Is not always done by choice the media often stereotypes certain organizations and fosters misconceptions about them in order to counteract these Errors and prevent additional ones an organization may have little option other than to issue press releases and other public statements An organization might also go public when there is potential gain on an issue And is forced to go public when asked about its objectives or its methods Repetition of organizational positions on key issues is important The cognitive process is such that in order for any one aspect of organizational policy to be identified with a group It must be heard different times in different places Moreover the more the public knows about different issues addressed by the organization The better it is for the organization's goals public statement of chapter policy has to be uniform Now has a quote single spokesperson closed quote role that allows control over uniformity of policy and record July 17th 1995 there was an executive board meeting tonight. Caroline Waldron is quitting the organization Her reasons were personal and will not be repeated here. The executive board has had a high attrition rate this year In addition to carolins resignation roger coffee died last month while in turkey Several officers have neglected to come to meetings or have disappeared entirely As such the organization is left with more vacancies at present than it can fill I find this ironic considering the bitter battle that the current officers waged in 1994 To unseat the presiding board Admittedly with all the political and economic concerns that now embraces it seems inevitable that some decentralization should occur At the meeting tonight I suggested that some of these seats on the board be eliminated in order to achieve greater efficiency and unity of command The consensus response was that the issues connected to the board seats were too important to the chapter to be symbolically dismissed in such a manner July 24th 1995 The chapter meeting on july 20th was somewhat uneventful The weather conditions were terrible as a result of which only four people were in attendance The lack of a single candidate for president was discussed Apparently the job had taken a great deal of carolins time and effort and no one especially wanted to sacrifice additional time and effort in the proportions required Whether a president is required by national now or the local chapter's charter. I do not know But the news of carolins resignation is still fresh and someone in the organization will likely submit to being drafted The worst-case scenario is that the executive board will be forced to run the local chapter until the next regular elections Which are only eight months away july 28th 1995 Unlike most political organizations now operates largely on a grassroots level Organizational structure is from the bottom up With local members electing the executive boards for the local chapters and decisions regarding the local chapter's activities left up to them for the most part As such tampa now is essentially a self-contained human rights group The summer term saw the death of my quantitative sociology research project idea I was determined to do an academic journal quality paper on a social justice topic pertinent to now's activities However, I found myself caught up in the other concerns of the local chapter And the research paper became Deprioritized in the views of my formal and informal supervisors on the project Worse yet, it appears from the circumstantial evidence that I was the last person involved to figure this out I uncovered some information vis-a-vis women's treatment in florida that I related in one form or another to the executive board of tampa now The term started off dramatically with the May march and rally in conjunction with the national people's campaign Several local organizations and local branches of national organizations Showed up to take part in the festivities and it appeared that a summer of effective coalition building was underway However, the project seemed to use up all the local chapter's time and energy And that of most of the other participating organizations as well And no further inter-organizational actions took place except for the press conference before the quote religious freedom amendment closed quote subcommittee hearing While the summer was so uneventful compared to the spring is uncertain But it has been observed that summer is not a time of high productivity in most industries Reasons for this include the weather, the high rates of worker absenteeism And the conditioning of americans as children to regard summer as quote time off closed quote Certainly the first to apply to tampa now Frequent storms and occasional flooding Combined with 90 degree temperatures To make travel and outdoor activity difficult and to reduce stamina and attendance at the regular meetings on the first and third Thursday of each month was low except when a special event was scheduled Perhaps the lowland activity was in accordance with the norm rather than a departure from it A discrepancy between the television and the print media and their treatment of tampa now became evident to me this term The print media was atrociously irresponsible in its stories about now Even the here to force semi responsible weekly planet Managed to get in an article that essentially criticized now for having the presidency of the organization be an elective office The television media by comparison bent over backwards to be even handed news cameras appeared at all the political actions and the station subsequently broadcasting coverage of the actions Stated tampa now's position on the issues while resisting whatever urges they had to add cutesy dismissive comments afterwards In fairness to the print media They did publish some in-depth stories on tina engler the welfare mother who is trying to raise a child while going to college Both the planet and the tampa tribune published stories on tina this term The resulting rush of hostile scatterbrained letters calling for tina's scalp Only went to show that stupid people should not be given access to postage stamps The summer term was a bad one as far as officer attrition went With two executive board members moving out of town One resigning to pursue other projects one dying and several not showing up either in body or in mind If rank and file members were not always present at political actions in the numbers desired They were even more conspicuously absent when the time came to fill executive board vacancies Or that this was a result of the aforementioned floods and heatwaves typical of summer in central florida is uncertain But it is at least equally likely that the organization has spent its time and energy too liberally over the past six months And now needs a recuperation period to avoid mass burnout How tampa now will progress in the future is uncertain despite attacks by the local print media Membership rolls are still full and the current shortage of executive board candidates will be alleviated within nine months With the worst-case scenario being that the current vacancies remain until the next regular elections in march Most of what can be done by outside factions within the limits of the law has been done already And it has had only limited effect on business as usual within the chapter Tampa now has passed its first real challenges to its survival and has survived You have been listening to first person plural because how people get along with each other still matters First person plural is a show created for community radio by carl wilkerson and dr. Patty thomas to examine social and organizational issues Music for first person plural is performed Composed and produced by carl wilkerson except where noted For more information about first person plural dr. Patty thomas or carl wilkerson Visit our website www.culturalconstructioncompany.com or email us at fpp at culturalconstructioncompany.com