I received a comment on a post...

...and wouldn't ya know it; when I tried to publish it, it vanished into the ether. 

The comment was on this post, and was as follows: 

WRCU2Mar 21, 2012 04:05 AM

I cautiously agree; So what do you propose we do to "change the structure of society?" I believe that once a society reaches a critical mass of unemployed, disenfranchised citizens, societal change takes on a life of its own. What do you believe needs to be done for the masses to peacefully regain power and avoid condition critical? How would you coax people out of their comfort zone now when they won't realize they were even in one until IT has gone south? And please don't quote someone else, I wanna hear this straight from the horses mouth.

As I apologized to WRCU2 for screwing up the exchange (in a very expurgated replacement response), here is what I had intended to say:

From a much, much bigger brain than mine:

"The overriding problem is to change the structure of society so that people gain power. The best arena to do that is the municipality — the city, town, and village — where we have an opportunity to create a face-to-face democracy."

Murray Bookchin
 (January 14, 1921 – July 30, 2006)
Author, 'The Ecology of Freedom'

Concerning NAs and the such...

Check out this article, the result of a chat with the newpaper's Publisher, John Best.

(Yes, there are some inconsistencies and inaccuracies in some of the numbers. From now on, I'm going in with tattoos.)

Now this...

...this is the stuff of a town hall, yes?

(The entire CATCH article can be found here.)

This is great stuff.

I love what Mary-Louise Pigott has initiated in the Ainslie Wood/Westdale Community Association regarding the proposed closing of Prince Phillip School. Take at look at the site, here.

Tonight they're having a 'We Need 3 Community Night'.

Our city deserves more engagement like this. 

Regarding a 'Federation of Hamilton Neighbourhood Associations'...

Today's 'Opinion' section in The Spec has an essay by yours-truly focusing on the concept of entrenched neighbourhood associations across the city and how they could make tremendous change possible. 

I wrote it partially because of a previous essay by Graham Crawford focusing on the need for an external 'hero', but mostly because over at My Stoney Creek, I've been engaging in some quality 'What if?' time.

'What if we had a massive penetration of NAs in wards?' 

'What if we saw a paradigm shift in how people tended to see their place in local governance?'

'What if communities were far more involved in not only the decision-making process, but in re-imagining their city?'

And so I went into the future. To 2022. When an entity known as the 'Federation of Hamilton Neighbourhood Associations' exists, as chaired by Ms Lauren McCrawley.