Like most others, I was quite taken with Dan Kemmis's presentation.
I was listening closely, and took very few notes--only those items that
struck me as especially important or quote-worthy.
Kemmis said that "Every act of construction should heal a city...
construct a wholeness...[since it has an] effect on everything
around it."
He distinguished between two divergent identities: "taxpayer" versus
"citizen", and argued that citizen is a denizen of the city. Citizens
and cities do, and should, have reciprocal identities. The identity
of taxpayer creates more of an us versus them (some reified government)
relationship between individual members of a community and those
who govern them.
Kemmis added that "the most important laws should not be written
down," but should come from heart and habit, not compulsion.
Then Kemmis drew attention to the "golden mean" (is that right?)
regarding the mediation of scale. To illustrate this he posited that
A is to B as B is to C. For example, 1 is to 10 as 10 is to 100,
using this to assess desirable neighborhood size and density relative
to city size/population. (I am not making this part clear here, but
those who attended will probably make some sense of this.)
Finally, counter to postmodern culture, Kemmis observes, "There's
as much time as there is, and that should be time enough." Although
that philosophy won't make it into the Panic Encyclopedia of
postmodernism, it was a refreshing outlook.
His closing reading about the Missoula Farmer's Market, transforming
the ordinary into the spiritual and ceremonial. It was remarkable.
I was inspired.
Susan
*---------------------------------------------------------------------*
| |
| Susan Palmer Education Programming |
| Phone: 208-885-6616 Coordinator |
| FAX: 208-885-9494 Women's Center |
| E-mail: susanp@osprey.csrv.uidaho.edu University of Idaho |
| Alias: Auntie Nuke Moscow, Idaho 83844-1064 |
| |
| "People convinced against their will, hold the same opinion still" |
| |
*---------------------------------------------------------------------*