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Welcome to the book club (5/08)

Update ... click here for the easier-to-read, threaded version of this discussion.

Welcome to this month's water cooler, which is also the spring meeting of the Everyday Democracy Book Club. For the next hour, from 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern, we'll be discussing The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance - and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same with its author, Matt Leighninger.

Matt is the executive director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium as well as a senior associate with Everyday Democracy. His book, published by the Vanderbilt University Press, draws from his years of working with communities to better engage citizens in decision making, problem solving, and the daily work of democracy. As the jacket copy says:

Beneath the national radar, the relationship between citizens and government is undergoing a dramatic shift. More than ever before, citizens are educated, skeptical, and capable of bringing the decision-making process to a sudden halt. Public officials and other leaders are tired of confrontation and desperate for resources. In order to address persistent challenges like education, race relations, crime prevention, land use planning, and economic development, communities have been forced to find new ways for people and public servants to work together.

During the next hour, we'l learn from Matt and each other how innovative public officials and committed activists are forging new ways to run our neighborhoods, cities, counties, and beyond. Here's how the water cooler will work:

I'll ask Matt the first question at 1 p.m. Eastern. To follow the Q&A discussion, click on the word "comments" below this post. If you'd like to pose a question or add a comment, look for the phrase "POST A COMMENT" at the end of the existing comments. Below it, insert your name (real names, please); email address (it will not be visible online); and, if you like, the URL of your organization or program’s website. Write your question or comment in the box, then click “post.”

Please note: You will need to refresh your browser periodically to see the latest questions and comments that have been posted and answered. If traffic gets heavy, you may be asked to verify your comment with a "captcha check," or typing in a string of letters.

Also, if you see that several questions have already been asked, please be kind and give Matt a chance to catch up before posting your question.
We'll post a rethreaded, easier-to-read version of this live blog at our wiki within 24 hours. (You can read past water cooler discussions there, too.)

Thank you for joining us for today's meeting of the Everyday Democracy Book Club! And now, let the discussion begin ...

Friday digest-open thread 5/9/08

Welcome to another weekend. Everyday Democracy was mentioned on National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" program Thursday! Katherine Cramer Walsh, author of Talking About Race: Community Dialogues and the Politics of Difference, suggested Everyday Democracy to a college professor who called in asking how she could add social context and discussion of personal experiences to a class on the biology of race. "The first thing I'd suggest is that you get in touch with an organization called Everyday Democracy," Walsh said, noting that her studies of community dialogues led by Everyday Democracy formed the basis for her book. She went on to say that Everyday Democracy offers assistance with curriculum and facilitation for such dialogues and that "outside help might be great if you have folks who are practiced in leading discussions about race."

Here's a link to the program. Walsh's interview begins at the 30:20 mark, but the entire 47-minute broadcast is worth a listen. Via the show, we also learned about the new Exploring Race blog from Chicago Tribune columnist Dawn Turner Trice, who writes at the site, "We have a moment in history to have a national discussion about race. We should seize it and try to mine it for what it's worth. I want this to be a safe place where people of all races can explore their views and biases, openly and honestly."

And we need as many of those places - online and in our communities - as possible. As the Democratic presidential primary season winds down, it appears that Barack Obama will be the first African American presidential nominee of a major party, guaranteeing that race will continue to be a major theme in the 2008 elections. But in a PBS "News Hour" show this week, commentators agreed that - so far, anyway - the media has not risen to the challenge of addressing race in a meaningful way. "You know, when you look at a lot of the reporting coming out of the primaries in the Democratic race, and you see the number of times that we break things down by racial categories in determining how people voted, we are, in some ways, abetting what I would regard as a fairly narrow and superficial discussion about race," said Keith Woods of The Poynter Institute.

"So, you see a full vocabulary for talking about white Americans in this debate, from blue-collar, a euphemism for white blue-collar workers. We talk about lunch-bucket Democrats. We talk about the soccer mom and the NASCAR dad, all of which are euphemisms in the national discourse for white Americans," Woods added. "And then we talk about black people, as though they are all the same, with pretty much all the same views. And Latinos and Asians haven't fared much better. And we don't talk at all about Native Americans." Read the transcript or access audio or streaming video here. Woods has a follow-up essay on the Poynter website, too.

Several friends of Everyday Democracy are mentioned in an article in the May-June issue of Utne Reader, which has "Re-imagining the American Dream" as its theme. In "Tear Down the White Picket Fence," Hannah Lobel writes about how a new civic ethic is encouraging people to move beyond partisan gridlock. A snip:

Whoever moves into the White House next year needs to nurture this civic reflex both within and beyond the under-30 set. And to help, a number of groups are already gearing up for the day after the election.

The November 5th Coalition, an informal group of civic engagement experts, is pitching national service programs that focus on developing leadership and problem-solving skills. Not the kind of service programs, says Peter Levine, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement and a coalition member, “where you just have a bunch of people drafted to paint buildings or something.” They’re also promoting national and local forums that bring together diverse groups to tackle the vexing issues that haunt politicians and communities, such as health care and education reform.

In Bridgeport, Connecticut, for example, “community conversations” about the down-and-out industrial town’s schools not only led to improvements—smaller classes, more-involved parents, fewer poor-performing schools—but also laid the groundwork for a thriving culture of civic participation that has stretched beyond school halls, the think tank Public Agenda notes in a 2007 report.

“Civic participation,” says Melanie Campbell, executive director of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, “is about engaging in a process that helps to improve your individual life, your family, your community, your nation, and your world.”

Isn't it thrilling to see dialogues on race and growing civic engagement mentioned nearly every day in the national media? And then there's the Associated Press story from earlier this week reporting that voter registration is soaring this year, with big gains reported "for blacks, women and young people. Rural and city. South and North. Overall, the AP found that nearly one in 65 adult Americans signed up to vote in just the first three months of the year" and that registrations are up a whopping 64 percent from the same period in 2004.

Do you want to learn how to harness all this energy to help create lasting change in your community? Sure you do. That's why you ought to consider attending Everyday Democracy's national meeting June 12-14 in Denver (the early bird registration deadline has been extended to May 22) and/or the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation's 2008 conference Oct. 3-5 in Austin, Texas. (NCDD's early registration deadline is May 16.)Take these opportunities to meet and network with others who share your passion for making democracy work for everyone, every day.

May Day brings rallies

Livin’ in a city where the streets are paved
With good intentions and a people’s faith   
In the sacred promise a statue made
Livin’ in a city of immigrants ...
~ Steve Earle, "City of Immigrants" (lyrics, video)

May Day, known as International Workers' Day throughout most of the world, has in the United States lately become a rallying day for supporters of immigrants and immigration reform - and today is no exception, though rallies this year are expected to be smaller than the historic processions held two years ago. In Detroit, a four-block-long throng marched downtown at lunchtime, carrying signs calling for an end to workplace raids and deportations that separate families. But in Miami, activists are placing more emphasis on a family celebration set Saturday than on a modest march planned today.

In the nation's largest cities, however, crowds will turn out today. Organizers expect a large turnout for a march and rally set later this afternoon for New York's Union Square. In Los Angeles, up to 100,000 people are expected at four different marches that will wind up at a rallying point near City Hall. From the Los Angeles Times:

While most of the attention will be focused on the marchers, the LAPD will also be under a great deal of scrutiny today after last year's mostly peaceful event ended with riot police beating journalists and demonstrators in MacArthur Park. The beatings, captured on television cameras, took place as the police were trying to clear the park after 20 to 30 people starting throwing rocks and bottles. This year, after additional training and cooperation with march organizers, the Police Department leaders say they are better prepared to keep things under control without letting conditions turn chaotic.

Click here for a list of May Day marches around the country and here for some interesting history on why May Day has always been associated with immigrants in America. Finally, here's a compelling column from Ruben Navarrette of the San Diego Union-Tribune on why today's calls for immigration reform are of interest to the 80 percent of U.S. Hispanics who were either born here or are legal residents.  "When they talk to me about the immigration debate, they condemn the hypocrisy of a society that is addicted to illegal immigrant labor but looks for others to blame for the addiction," he writes. "...  Most of all, they scoff at the claim that, as U.S. citizens, this debate doesn't concern them and that the attack is limited to illegal immigrants."

Tracking tales of civic revival

PACE - Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement - presented preliminary findings from its study of "How Local Governments Are Reinventing Civic Engagement" at a webinar today. "There's a lot going on, and it's coming from many directions," said lead researcher Mike McGrath, who shared these examples:

California is home to a groundswell of activity, ranging from Oakland's Neighborhood Law Corps to the renaming of Ventura's Marketing and Public Affairs Division as the Civic Engagement Division. In Palo Alto, the city council adopted public engagement as one of four priorities for 2008. The 1978 Proposition 13 property tax revolt in California created a climate where local governments faced with hard budgetary choices have had to seek greater citizen consensus on decisions.

In Sarasota County, Florida, several foundations teamed to create a nonprofit called SCOPE (Sarasota Openly Plans for Excellence). As its website says: "The idea for SCOPE emerged following a series of discussions among a broad-based group of Sarasota County residents concerned about the county’s future. After several informal meetings, a diverse group of community leaders came together to discuss the idea of undertaking a visioning or community goal-setting process." Since its founding in 2001, SCOPE has held citizen study groups on a wide array of issues, including affordable housing, family violence, traffic congestion, and  many others. See more about SCOPE's work here.

Dubuque, Iowa, was in sorry shape in the mid-1980s after the John Deere tractor company left town, but a series of visioning processes held since then have helped turn the former industrial town into a community that's pursuing riverfront development, a revitalized downtown, and greater broadband connectivity. A city that actually once had a "Will the last person to leave Dubuque please turn out the lights?" billboard now calls itself "the masterpiece on the Mississippi" and boasts the highest job-growth rate in the state.

Other communities mentioned included Portland, Oregon; Chicago, Illinois; Greeley County, Kansas; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Worcester, Massachusetts, where neighborhood teams use handheld computers and digital cameras to record code-enforcement eyesores and public safety problems. The PACE team also gave props to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which has worked with Everyday Democracy as it has addressed community growth, sustainability, and education issues via its long-running Portsmouth Listens program.

McGrath noted how it pays to go well beyond the usual suspects (a.k.a. "stakeholders") in engaging the public. Many homeless people in Ventura, California, live in the river bottoms when the weather is dry and aren't keen to move into the indoor shelter during the rainy season. Through a community conversation on the issue, an artist who lives near the river suggested that the homeless people establish a camp. With help from a nonprofit and city resources, "River Haven" is a self-regulating, self-policing community of homeless people.

Today's PACE presentation left participants with a sense that although a robust civic revival in the United States seems to be well under way, there's plenty of work to be done to create a more coherent national movement. Some questions include:

What's better - temporary processes for public engagement, or permanent structures? If the former, should they be run by city employees or outside facilitators? If the latter, how can such structures be sustained? Should more decisions be made and implemented at the neighborhood level? Should citizen participants be selected randomly or by interest level? Can we develop a new language to better describe these new forms of shared governance, as well as minimum standards to guide everyone doing the work?

Kudos to the PACE team for its work. Anyone who wants a copy of the report can request one via email.

Remember: Matt Leighninger's book The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance - and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same - cited in today's PACE presentation - is the selection for the Everyday Democracy Book Club, which will be meeting right here at DemocracySpace on Thursday, May 15. Join us at 1 p.m. Eastern that day for an hour of live discussion on the sort of examples and questions raised at today's webinar.

'We' got game - or do we?

It was a big weekend for sports fans. The NBA and Stanley Cup hockey playoffs are in full swing, the NFL draft captivated football devotees, and the 2008 baseball season is hitting its stride. Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts wrote late last week how sports have "a singular ability  ... to make people say 'we.'" He continued:

It happens much less often in other areas of civic life. No one says ''we'' when they talk about homelessness or hunger, no ''our'' enters the discussion of fatherless families or abortion rights, ''us'' is a stranger to the debate over failing schools and crime. Those conversations are framed by words like ''them'' and "they.''

I have no bone to pick with sports. Still, I find myself thinking a healthier society would find common cause beyond the ball field and the basketball court, would regard working toward great and ambitious goals as a civic obligation.

He pointed to the Civil War, the Depression, the War on Poverty, and even the Apollo space program as examples of times when our nation has come together to work for the greater good. But in recent decades, too many politicians and pundits have been short on vision and long on divisive rhetoric.

Yet the tide may be turning, Pitts suggests, as Barack Obama "has been able to build a political movement on a simple promise to bring people together" and John McCain "has lately been calling people to ''sacrifice for a cause greater than yourself.'" Pitts ends his column by asking us to remember the first three words in our Constitution: We, the People. (Read the whole column here.)

Anyone who could have lurked on our Communities Creating Racial Equity Learning Exchange last week would know that all across the United States, "we" remains the operative word for activists who are intent on being sure that everyone within their communities has the chance to speak out, to take action, and to be part of building communities that thrive. (I've posted notes from the introductory session at our wiki so you can easily see just a taste of the tremendous work they're doing.)

And there are hundreds of other communities getting in the game, too. Whether your city (or even your neighborhood) is ready to work on racial equity, youth issues, or growth and sprawl, Everyday Democracy has tools to help you put points on the board. Look at our website to learn what others are doing and how you can get started.

Welcome to the Learning Exchange

About 50 people have gathered in East Hartford, Connecticut, this week from around the country to join in the first of two Learning Exchanges for Communities Creating Racial Equity. Everyday Democracy executive director Martha McCoy (below) greeted us by saying that the program is "a step in a dream we've had for a long time."

Formerly known as the Study Circles Resource Center, Everyday Democracy began focusing on racism during the 1992 civil disturbances in Los Angeles after the Rodney King beating. But in the 16 years since then, America has changed the way we talk about racism, McCoy said.

Early discussions were driven by King's plaintive question, "Can't we all just get along?" At first, it was enough for tens of thousands of people to come together in communities nationwide to talk about racial differences. Eventually, however, communities - and SCRC - understood that real change had to come on the institutional and policy level. Today, Everyday Democracy helps lead the effort to turn community organizing and dialogue into substantive change.  "We're working on two of the leading edges in the country," McCoy said: racial equity and making democracy work better.

CCRE participating communities include South Sacramento County, California; New Haven and Stratford, Connecticut; Jacksonville, Florida; Hopkinsville, Kentucky; Montgomery County Public Schools, Maryland; Syracuse, New York; Burlington, Vermont; and Lynchburg, Virginia. Today at the conference, communities will tell their stories, discuss structural racism, and learn tools for evaluation and communication. Tomorrow, participants will look forward to the next six to 12 months of work, using markers of progress we'll identify this week (and backed by action grants that Everyday Democracy will award via generous funding from the Kellogg and Mott Foundations).

And along the way - via DemocracySpace, our website, and other tools - we'll share much of the communities' progress with you so that cities and towns beyond the initiative can take what we're learning and make it your own.

Friday digest-open thread 4/18/08

It's time to announce the spring selection for our Everyday Democracy Book Club. Join us here at Democracy Space at 1 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, May 15, as we'll meet with Everyday Democracy senior associate Matt Leighninger to discuss his book The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance - and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same. In the book, Matt - who also is executive director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium - tells how communities all across the nation are seeing how officials and citizens can work together to address pressing issues.

This will be a great opportunity to share stories of "shared governance" and learn from other communities (and Matt's considerable expertise). Order the book from your local bookstore or online, and be sure to mark your calendar for May 15. And if you missed our last book club with Frances Moore Lappé, you can read the transcript here.

Speaking of the DDC, thanks to Joe Goldman for his tip on this recent article on Politico.com, in which e-democracy advocate Steven Clift asked this timely question: “Isn’t it interesting that the best-designed government websites are those collecting your taxes, while the worst sites are those giving you a say on how your taxes are spent?” The article tells how many other governments are way beyond ours in offering the public a chance to comment on legislation, submit petitions, and more. For example, write authors Andrew Rasiej and Micah L. Sifr, "In England, anyone can submit an e-petition directly on the 10 Downing Street website, and the most popular ones are featured on the site’s home page. More than 7 million people — one in 10 British citizens — have signed one of those petitions since the site’s launch in the fall of 2006."

Next week, Everyday Democracy will be holding the first of two Learning Exchanges for the nine communities involved in our Communities Creating Racial Equity initiative. Two important articles on this topic crossed our desks this week. Education Week had the bad but not unsurprising news that the academic achievement gap grows fastest for bright African-American children, particularly in schools with higher black populations, "where test scores are lower on average, teachers are less experienced, and high-achieving peers are harder to find."

Meanwhile, criminal injustice is in the spotlight in the current issue of the alumni magazine for Brown University, where economics professor Glenn Loury has been working to bring greater attention to the fact, as author Beth Schwartzapfel wrote, "that the number of black men incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails—a number wildly disproportionate to their representation in the general population—reflects the social dishonor to which African Americans are still subject today, a dishonor with roots in U.S. slavery." Click here to read "A Nation of Jailers."

The good news is that many communities are proactively deciding to address racial inequity, often with the help of resources from Everyday Democracy. If you caught yesterday's water cooler, you learned how Lynchburg, Virginia, successfully held the action forum for its first round of "Many Voices - One Community" dialogues on race and racism this week, and how activists from New Haven and Stratford, Connecticut; Jacksonville, Florida; Syracuse, New York; and Memphis, Tennessee are being - and leading - the change they want to see in their communities.

Next week at DemocracySpace: We'll have news from communities walking the walk for Earth Day and two days of live blogging from the CCRE Learning Exchange. If you like what you read here, you can get it delivered right to your email box by subscribing via the link atop the right-hand side of the page.

Happy Passover to our Jewish readers!

Friday digest-open thread 3/28/08

This week saw the creation of the world's newest democracy in Bhutan. The question is, can a democracy function without an opposition party? In Monday's vote, all but two of the 47 seats in the new Bhutanese parliament were swept by the pro-royalist Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT). Today, however, Reuters India is reporting that the opposition People's Democratic Party "said the country's first ever general election had been unfair and they would resign from parliament." Bhutan is perhaps best known for the Gross National Happiness index that values the well-being of people above any other profit measures. Will the good vibes continue as the nation grapples its way toward democracy? Stay tuned, and weigh in if you like at the Deliberative Democracy's Consortium blog on the subject.

Speaking of the DDC, today's email brought one of my favorite monthly reads, the DDC eBulletin. Many of the items collected by editor Lars Hasselblad Torres and his international cast of contributors find their way into posts here each month. You can email contributions here and read past issues and subscribe here.

There's been a lot of ink spilled and bytes - well, whatever bytes do - this election season over the rise of youth in American politics and public life. Adam Fletcher begs to differ. Writing at his Younger World blog, Fletcher says this is "No Country for Young People" because we are far more occupied with our middle-aged and senior populations than we are with children and young adults. He notes that youth involvement in civic life is far more robust overseas, and that "instead of being an occasional, one-off activity or an underfunded, underutilized grassroots movement, these efforts are systemic, operationalized and powerful." Read more here.

Meanwhile, in another topic of keen interest to young Americans, the next edition of the public radio show Justice Talking will ponder whether college admissions are becoming more elitist than ever. Here's the description: "The college admissions process has changed significantly in recent years, particularly for students seeking to get into the nation’s most elite universities. Should these schools' admissions policies favor athletes and children of alumni? Should low-income and minority students be a priority? Or should top schools only enroll the smartest and most academically accomplished? We also talk about the obstacles and misconceptions facing students who attend community college. Tune in to this edition of Justice Talking as we ask how money and privilege affect the college admissions process and whether reforms are necessary." Click here to find a station airing the show near you.

Many of us here at Everyday Democracy are fans of Parker Palmer and his Center for Courage and Renewal, which (according to its website) works "to help teachers, physicians, clergy and others 'rejoin soul and role,' renewing their passion for their work, reclaiming its basic values and deepening their service to others." Palmer recently spoke to the Commonwealth Club of California on "How to Build a Democracy." The 53-minute presentation can be heard here via American Public Media's Word for Word program. So sometime this weekend, why not get comfy on the couch and hear what he has to say?

A platform of public engagement

Scott Trimble faces an uphill battle in his run for Congress in Texas' 25th District, but the Green Party member is putting forth some interesting ideas that he hopes to spread beyond his south Austin base. Trimble writes at his blog:

I want to create a process that will allow every registered voter in the district to participate in the decisions that will affect her/his life. If I am elected, I can guarantee the people of the district that I will actively seek the advice and counsel of the people through this process.

Trimble envisions precinct-level assemblies that will discuss issues and, in turn, report to division assemblies (with perhaps 16 divisions in the congressional district) and finally to a district council. Trimble writes:

At the division assemblies, delegates will discuss the issues brought forward from the precincts, amending them as necessary to try to gain greater consensus among all the delegates there. Proposals that pass at division assemblies will be forwarded to the district assembly, and each division will elect four delegates to the District Council. Proposals that pass in the District Council will determine how I will vote as the representative of the district.

He adds elsewhere on the blog:

Even though I do not yet have the resources to set up the precinct assemblies I would like to, we can begin discussing issues right here.  If you are visiting this site, feel free to post a comment, or to email me.  This site is not just for me to post “campaign information,” it is part of the process of initiating democracy.  We can start now.

It will be interesting to see how the people of the Texas-25th react to Trimble's ideas and also how they are received by his opponents, who include incumbent Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat. We're also eager to hear whether other 2008 candidates propose local assemblies like this, or perhaps something like the Citizen Congress envisioned by former Democratic candidate John Edwards.

War, faith, and a new social contract

This is the second of two posts from the Take Back America conference held this week in Washington, D.C. More than 2,000 progressive activists and organizers attended the event. Julie Fanselow was at the event as an invited guest (independent of her work at Everyday Democracy). Here are some of the interesting stories she heard:

• "A New Social Contract" was the theme of a panel moderated by Miles Rapoport, who is the president of Demos, described on its website as "a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization committed to building an America that achieves its highest democratic ideals." (He also is a member of the Board of Directors of the Paul J. Aicher Foundation, which oversees our work here at Everyday Democracy.) In this panel, Kate Kahan of the National Partnership for Women and Families, policy analyst Karen Kornbluh, and Julie Smith of Ohio Acorn discussed ways that the United States might replace or augment government programs that were designed for the 20th century with policies and programs that recognize modern realities. Rapoport noted how, after World War II, businesses, labor, and government all collaborated to increase prosperity for everyone. "It was public policy," he said. "It wasn't an accident." And yet the old contracts left a lot of people behind, notably people of color and women. They also were formed at a time when unions were stronger and the U.S. faced little global competition. So what - beyond the "plastic net" of mortgage and credit-card debt - might be part of the tool kit we use to rebuild the middle class? The panelists mentioned living wages (including a much higher minimum wage), paid sick days and an expanded Family and Medical Leave Act so workers can care for their families and not lose their jobs, and other policies that value families and individuals.

• As U.S. involvement in Iraq entered its sixth year this week, ten congressional candidates led by Darcy Burner of Washington state used the conference to unveil what they call A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq. Their central point is that America shouldn't have to decide between an endless U.S. presence in Iraq and a sudden, destabilizing withdrawal. The candidates also indicated that - due to media ownership consolidation and war fatigue - many citizens have disengaged from the discussion. "The American public must also re-engage in the discussions and decision-making about how to proceed," the plan's text says. Although the plan's 10 original endorsers are all Democrats, it cites pending legislation including several bills with strong bipartisan support, including the Media Ownership Act of 2007 and the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2007.There also was a lot of talk at the conference about the "Iraq Recession," with speakers pointing out that the cost of the war in Iraq - more than a half a trillion dollars so far, and estimated up to $3 trillion once related costs are tallied - has prevented the United States from dealing with domestic spending needs at home.

• A panel on "Religious Activism and the Public Good" featured a lively discussion among several prominent clergy members and community organizers over recent shifts in some parts of the evangelical movement away from  issues like abortion and gay marriage and toward environmental activism and poverty relief. As evangelicals begin to work with more mainline and secular activists on these issues, they will need to focus on the common ground and minimize their differences on other issues. But it also means that activists who see the world in secular terms need to respect the religious views of others. "That will be a chance for progressives to be more progressive," quipped the Rev. Brian McClaren of Sojourners/Call to Renewal.

• Speaking at the final session on Wednesday, Deepak Bhargava of the Center for Community Change noted that political candidates from both major parties are busily seeking the votes of people of color and of low-income and working-class Americans. The big question, he asked, is whether low-income communities and communities of color will be as central to elected officials' agendas in 2009 as they are this year, when the elections are at stake. He advocated for a governing philosophy that benefits us all, but pays special attention to people on the margins.
  

Were you at Take Back America? What did you take away from the experience?