KFTC New Power Leader and Cluster member take on the USSF

United States Social Forum from a New Power Leader Perspective!

Wow! This forum was truly a great experience for me. I considered it to be a buffet of all the social issues of the world. I felt like a kid in the candy store for the first time. Attending all of the sessions is what I wanted to do, but of course I could only choose one the first day.  Both my number one and two choices for workshops ended up being canceled. My cluster member Wanda Jefferson and I found the USSF to be an adventure.

We went to M. I. E [Missing in Education].  This forum involved five people telling their perspectives on education in America. We had one person who spoke on the ills of K-12. There were two people telling about the rising cost of college education. They were trying to administration to drop some of the fees. Another person spoke on how American children are so behind in education compared to most of the other industrial nations.  At last the ending the forum talk about how we could change our schools. This led me on a quest to another education forum which was very exciting.

The next education forum was IDEAL institute for Democratic Education in America.  In this forum, children being active with their own education and youth led groups. These groups would be peer-peer teaching. This was a welcomed surprise finding out how they were allowing children to participate in their own education. The most exciting thing was they had opportunities for you to be a mentor in your own hometown. The mentoring program was people being able to go to the schools and helping the children make the rules which included how they wanted to receive their education. The second session of this forum was the next day and lasted from 1-5 pm. In this forum, all styles of teaching were discussed. This was very informative and great to be a part of.  

The most relaxing part of the USSF was participating in the Yoga Transformation session.  We did yoga, listened to music on mats, and just learned how to have a calming effect on ourselves.  I was not able to be a part of the meditation forum. If anyone was able to attend, please let me know what they thought about it. Another part of the forum was the maternal health. In this session, the question was posed what is the most dangerous risk for American Mothers.  As we all know, healthcare is a big issue for everyone.  The biggest danger for maternal health in America is not having the ability of prenatal care. Yet, we live in the richest nation in the world.

To my surprise, the Food Sovereignty forum was quite interesting.  Urban farming was talked about. Topics included growing your own vegetables and using less pesticide.  I enjoyed this talk because I have been trying to grow my own vegetables organically.  The main area we focused on was in Detroit. While discussing urban farming, a gentleman stood up and let everyone know the farming was just a way of letting the big banks buy large plots of land in the Detroit area.  He said that he could not buy the lot next to his house and do urban farming. This is called "minimizing Detroitâ€.  Most of us were unaware of what minimizing meant.  A lady on the panel explained that it was called, at one time, urban renewal or "get rid of the negroesâ€.  This caused uproar amongst the participants in the forum.  The gentleman spoke again saying that most African-Americans, in Detroit, are losing their properties. This Urban farming is just used as a way to take away their land.  It seems to me that while the urban cities of America are mostly African-American, now the big banks want to reinvest in the inner-city even though they do not like the residents. Additionally, I heard about this at the 2007 Social Forum in Atlanta, but by another name, Gentrification. In my opinion, this is just the same game, but only the name is changed.  How can this be stopped?  This is a passion of mine that I would like to continue to work on. This is an issue that definitely needs to be brought up in the social circles of Louisville and the state of Kentucky.

Overall, I found Detroit very interesting. I appreciate being able to travel with Kentuckians For The Commonwealth and Kentucky Social Forum. It gave me a chance to learn, network and connect with members and allies.

I hope members who were unable to join us in Detroit, MI will come hear all about it at the upcoming report back held at the office of Women In Transition. Details are below.

Kentucky Road to Detroit USSF Debrief & Potluck with W.I.T July 21st (6p-8p)

    219 West Ormsby Avenue Louisville, KY 40203-2819 - (502) 636-0160

*Check out this link for USSF posters www.ussf2010.org/materials

Shirley Moorman