Yesterday (4th of October ) we hit Lourdes College (founded in 1962).We had here the oportunity to meet Cris Doby. Not only meet but also listen Cris telling us about community organizing. She started by explaning us a a three level model by which all of us are acting : inner personal (who I am), interpersonal (persons are with persons), social/political/cultural context(behaviors, social identities).
Cris told us that the presented model is interactive, meaning that who I think I am (the inner personal) forces how I behave with you, (interpersonal level) which is shaped by the social/political/cultural context. She gave us the exemple with the middle east culture, where if people from there want to talk with you they get very close. She explains that in the United States things are a little bit different, as here they take an amount of personal space (3 feet – the perfect distance for a handshake). We figure out who we are and out interpersonal relations are influenced by the society that we live in.
How this relate to community organizing ?
Community organizing is acting at the level of social/political/cultural level. Is to change something at this level. And organizing is looking for talents, finding leaders and work with them.
But how do you find leaders ? How do you find people that care about something? How do you find people that „have fire in the belly” and that care enough about what is happening at the society level ?
One to one interviews might be the answer. 🙂
So, this evening we had the task to interview people coming at the Hungarian Club of Toledo for the International Friendship Night & Welcome Potluck. The purpose was not to identify leaders, but to practice this exercise.
Marianne Elizabeth Polhe was the person I interviewed.
Marianne is a 72 hungarian citizen („once you have hungarian citizenship, you’ll always have it”) living in Templates neighborhood (?? don’t quite remember, and my notes are not helping me to much). She is living in the United States since she was a 20 years old. How she came to USA ?
Well, after the Hungarian Revolution took place on 23th of October in 1956, along with her husband she went to a refugee camp from Hungary to Austria. There they had the luck to receive some flight tickets to New Jersey, USA. As she says, it was the only time she flew with the plane.
Since then, never left United States and never plans to do that.
After getting to USA, Marianne and her husband , after staying in a military base along with other 33.000 Hungarians, moved to West Virginia for 6 years and a half. Her husband, a tool maker received a job in this area. Later on, starting with 1982 they started a small business om their own – a machine shop. In the same perioade they bought a house in Michigan, in Template area.
Marianne is taking care of the business now.
I’ve asked her how is the life in East Toledo, and she said that are lots of Hungarians. Old and retired ones, as young people move to other cities or different parts of Toledo. The problem she sees within the city is the fact that there are no jobs. With regards to local authorities she says : „The city is trying to get care of this part of the city”.
What is Marianne doing ?
Runs her husbands business (2005), watches TV (travel channels, History Channels, cartoons and old stuff). Until her husbands dead, she was a a housewife. She reminds and says the following : „hardwork as a housewife, big responsabilities to rise your kids. It’s not easy to being a mother and running a business”.
There are two funny stories that Marriane told me that I must share with you.But since the brain is advising me to sleep, i’ll write in a new post.
Americănisme 