I found a news clipping from my 1994 City Council campaign the other day. It was an advertisement in which I described myself as a "pro-community" candidate. I don't know whether my claim made any difference, but I did win that '94 election.
Maintaining a "pro-community" voting record in the City is much easier than in the County. The City is a defined community, whereas the County is more like a collection of communities, or maybe an alliance of communities. So "pro-community" voting in the County requires that most fundamental of all political skills: imagination. You have to think about a big tent to properly analyze the issue.
So who is under the big tent? Put another way, which communities qualify for the resources that find their way to the County coffers? Are they the brick and mortars which can be located on maps, or are they groups of like-minded people bound together by their interests?
Making decisions when it comes to approving resources for a "community" can be a tricky business. It requires a steady hand. The only new thinking I've seen on this problem is the suggestion that Tuolumne County create a flag so people could start thinking about community living from an entirely different vantage point. That actually did happen a few years ago, but most people I know operate as if it did not. That's fine with me. Some day that flag will make a difference. There is a lot to be said for unity of purpose, and sometimes people come around to wanting to experience it, but I'll leave it to voices in the future to describe new ways in which that can happen. In the meantime, I'll stay on the "pro-community" side of the ledger.
It is only common sense to do so.
