More About POW!
POW! Fired Up and Ready to Go!!
By Dana Barton
The group now known as Progressives of Washtenaw (POW!) began to meet in the fall of 2004, in the wake of the re-election of George W. Bush. We were alarmed by the direction our country had taken, and discovered we shared concerns about some similar trends emerging in our own local governmental entities. Out of these meetings grew a desire and commitment to develop a plan to increase the influence of true progressive action in our local community.
Over the past four years, since POW! officially became a political action committee, there has been much speculation as to who, exactly, POW! is. There are those who have suggested that we are some secret group on a mission to create havoc and subterfuge in local politics. Some have declared we are a radical fringe group that spreads misinformation and lies about local politicians and their goings on. One of the more humorous suggestions offered was that some “big money” interests with the goal of thwarting the local political status quo directed and financed our efforts.
To the contrary, we are a group of residents who have a genuine interest in making our community the best it can possibly be for all its citizens: young and old, rich and poor, white, African American, Latino/a, Native American, and Asian/API, homosexual, bi-sexual, heterosexual, transgendered, and those questioning their sexual orientation. We are determined to preserve what is very special about our community: its unique character, its neighborhoods, its outstanding parks, its “livability,” its rich diversity, its size. We are concerned by what appears to be a shift in local public policy away from maintaining what’s wonderful about our community, to developing, sometimes seemingly just for the sake of developing, newer things, taller things, more massive things without adequate consideration of the eventual lasting impact on our city.
POW! is a group of citizen activists who spend a chunk of our “spare” time talking over and planning strategies to realize that ever-present goal of creating and supporting local affordable housing, so those among us who have the least can share what we have enjoyed over the years. POW! is a champion of social justice, believing we can and must nurture a community that respectfully takes care of its own. POW! is made up of people just like you, who recognize that we have not been good stewards of this planet and that it is long past the time to begin addressing the damage we have caused. Far from being a “special interest,” POW! advocates for our community with no interest in receiving personal economic benefit for its efforts.
POW! is all of these things, and so much more. Some of you may remember Joni Mitchell, in her late 1960s classic, “Big Yellow Taxi,” melodically warn that “you don’t know what you’ve got ‘till its gone.” POW! is determined not to allow that to happen in our community. Our efforts at responding to this very important truth is to recruit, endorse and elect progressive candidates, support progressive ballot initiatives, and build progressive alliances in our local community. We hope you will join us.
(Dana Barton is a proud founding member of POW!.)