MLK A Start to Action

Martin Luther King Day: Begin the search for justice in your community. Daniel Bassill has worked his entire life on overcoming injustice and bridging the divides in our country. He posted today ideas for what to do on this important day in our country. These are not easy, but in today’s world, we need to act with others.

Terry Elliott placed the post on hypethes.is for us to annotate and discuss.

As I read the post, I considered the poverty issues in my very rural area, near a large Native American Indian reservation. I began searches for information, and this search path occurred like this:

I tried to look up info for WA State at census.gov and found the site unavailable due to the shut down and no funding. It will be very difficult if the politics of this country eliminates our access to accurate data. I need to know what the issues are. [Search: “Map, Poverty, WA State”]

I did find a 2016 Seattle Times pdf that identifies important information about Washington Tribes, including the good things that are happening — which could be places to start: What’s there now? What is positive and what is being done?It also provides ideas on how to connect with the people and places in addition to including fairly current places– which are leads to connecting to those who may provide information and may lead to places already providing help and needing support. [Search: “native american poverty wa state“]

Next, look for neighborhood, or in this case, reservation resources. For this area, a good place to start is  the Colville Tribes website. [Search: “demographics colville confederated tribes“]

I also found a 2014 WA State Legislative presentation by the Tribes, which provides poverty rates and their impact as well as financial data of the Tribe. It also includes the many challenges of the rural reservation. [Search ” poverty rate colville confederated tribes“]

Be in the neighborhood. Look for yourself. I find on the Tribal website the names of people I know to connect with, and we’ve invited people from the Tribes to our library foundation.

Find organizations doing the work of action organization; I remembered an old action community here and their blog  which led me to a resource for organizing. [Search Blog / Northwest Area Foundation and EveryDay Democracy ]

Look at the local newspapers for information: A current situation in the area: Government Shutdown affects local Tribes and local area. [Search: “star newspaper colville confederated tribes shutdown“]

I know have information, people and places with which to connect, and resources on how to organize, in addition to the work of Daniel Bassill.

Hopefully, this will help others begin their work to advocate for positive action and justice in one’s own community.


This post Day 19 the #blogging28 challenge by Edublogs, thanks to Denise’s tweet