CIIP '18: Week 6

It is a hot Wednesday morning and I am standing on the corner of North Ave and Harford Rd waiting for people to walk by and ask about the giant kiosk next the bus shelter. My mind wasn’t fully present as I was still reeling from a poor experience with MTA buses that morning, but this is my job and I am supposed to like the MTA.

It was a slow morning – people were just not interested in what we had to say. I was a bit frustrated because I woke up early to be here and ready to “engage with the community” but the community wasn’t ready to engage with me or the MTA. As I stared into the sun thinking these thoughts, a man in a wheelchair grabs my attention by criticizing the portion of the project about bike lanes. I immediately jump into my basic spiel about North Avenue Rising, but this man was not interested at all; he cared about the bike lanes and why he wasn’t consulted before this plan was made. I told him that this right here is the “community engagement” piece of the project development and it is his voice that can be heard right now. Without hesitation, he responds with “now do you really think my voice now is going to make a difference? Don’t you see the plan has already been laid out and this is just a formality?” I am so startled by how blunt his response was, I choked on some ums and ahs. I said something along the lines of “yeah, I really think your voice will be heard or else we wouldn’t be so open about the upcoming plans.” I didn’t think that was enough so I began telling him a bit about myself and how I was learning how to interact with the community with stuff like this and how I thought it was important to be an “active community member.” As soon as I said those three words, he asked me if I was an active community member, and if so, how. “Of course, I know what’s going around me” I respond. “No, I mean have you tried to get your voice to be heard before? Are you a part of any community associations? Have you actively fought on or advocated for an issue before?” It is silent for a minute and I despondently respond “No, not really.”

Then how can you tell me my voice will be heard if you don’t understand or haven’t tried to understand how difficult it is

With that, my privilege smacked me in the face as I realized I have never really fought for anything. When it comes to publicly voicing my opinion on issues, I am reserved so that I don’t offend anyone. I can discuss issues with others in a private setting, but you’ll never catch me making a Facebook post or protesting. I can afford to do that because my daily life is not affected by these issues- Q. E. D., privilege.

To be an active community member, I must not just know about issues, but I must get involved with the issues- like really get involved. Talk to people, ask questions, show up to meetings, do the research, form an opinion give my time, and ultimately, fight when called upon. What do you think it means to be an active community member? Find me and let’s chat. Also, I can tell you about the rest of my encounter with the person from my story.