Organizing for Community

Doing some research into how to start a community development association. Ever since the Kenny Lake Community League refused to answer my question as to whether they have expanded their purpose to become a development league... I've been thinking of how to deal with that. It's pointless to write about them or try to engage them in legitimate debate. They publish one sided lectures against me in their communitarian local paper (The Copper River Record) and sneer at what they perceive to be my "selfish" character.

Our local community activists are lining their pockets with grant money that's supposed to be used for rural economic development. In my four years here I haven't seen them do ONE thing to boost the local economy. I have seen them enrich themselves and their private/NGO businesses after convienently writing themeselves into the Kenny Lake Plan. These people do not create jobs, they get grants that help them shut down the local resources to locals who don't live off the taxpayers. Grants that are supposed to be used to help promote locals and tourism are in fact used to promote the internationally protected heritage site called Wrangell St. Elias.

The Copper River Country Mapping Project is still underway, and it will not help local non Native/non enlightened businesses at all. The bottom line out here is the Ahtna Indian Tribe, the same ones who got the 5 million to improve community health, just hired 6 unarmed police officers to "help" the State Troopers patrol our roads. Land Protection officers are armed, so this is a new development for our area and I can find nothing online to corraborate the information about the new cops that came to me from a local resource. So who controls the land and the roads in the Copper River Valley? http://www.ahtna-inc.com/ldmt.html Last fall Ahtna was charging $1500.00 for a permit to cross their lands to get into public hunting grounds.

No wonder the issue of whether we should become a bourough is moot. The feds have a much easier avenue into our area called Tribal Government. It's a lot easier to convince the tribes to demolish freedoms guaranteed under the constitutions since they were not included in that deal. My personal theory is that genocidal Imperialism (practiced or admired by many Europeans in the Americas) was an absolutely necessary "step" to achieving global communitarianism. In my naive world view I used to believe the USA was expanding national constitutional protections to people of color and women. I used to believe my generation was going to be the one who truly broke away from the racism of our parents, and that's how I lived my life.

Thanks to Alinsky I now know the Declaration of Independence was unbalanced propaganda:

"Saul Alinsky uses the example of the American Declaration of Independence to elaborate on this statement: To the Colonists who drafted it, the Declaration was self evidently true; to the British, it deliberately ignored the benefits of the British presence. The colonists recognized at the time that the document was not balanced and was to some extent propaganda." http://www.infed.org/thinkers/alinsky.htm

Here's our local development association and their mission statement. I've been keeping tabs on their website since I built kennylake.com in February 2007. It's still under construction and has next to nothing at the site. What's almost funny is this is the group that helped write the Marketing and Branding Plan which said a website of the area would be a good idea couldn't manage it. They had a website making workshop, maybe even more than one. But their website remains so benignly empty... as if they're barely active at all. I'll base our mission statement on theirs, getting a feel for the lingo now. My comments are in red.

Our mission is to facilitate partnerships to improve the quality of life in Alaska's Copper Valley through economic development while protecting our natural and cultural resources. We serve the Copper Valley as an Alaska Regional Development Organization and Resource Conservation and Development Council.

Our mission is to restore confidence in the American work ethic and provide real jobs so people can eat all winter through building businesses based on profits while protecting all our right to be part of the local economy. We serve Kenny Lake and Chitina as an Alaskan owned operation, we don't have any affiliation with the federal or state government and do not survive off grants.

Copper Valley Development Association, Inc. is a non-profit (501(c)3) organization that serves the region as an Alaska Regional Development Organization (ARDOR) and Resource Conservation and Development Council (RC&D). CVDA is funding primarily through the ARDOR program, with federal support from RC&D Program with USDA Natrual Resources Conservation Service. Funds are also leveraged through various donations and fundrasing projects.

CVDA Helps Bring Economic Opportunities to the Region by:

Assisting Small Businesses (I have yet to see any evidence of this.)
Supporting Community Groups to Build Capacity and Develop Projects (Ohhhhhh.)
Coordinating Community Events and Workshops (Like the new nobiz tourist maps?)
Leveraging Funds to Provide Needed Infrastructure, Training, and Services in the Region (???)
Building Partnerships to Improve Communications and Share Resources (Partnerships with me?)
Providing Enviromental and Leadership Education for Area Youth (Enlightenment for all!)

http://www.coppervalley.org/