I come from the school that you “get the government you deserve.” You have to show up, be involved and participate to make things happen.
For eight months I have done just that with Weed and Seed. I have watched an opportunity to make a difference in community organizing die right in front of me.
Yet, when you attend their meetings it is all about policies and procedures. Certain people can sit at the table. Certain people can speak out of the agenda – if they are the privileged few. If you really have something of merit to say and are not the privileged few -forget it.
In two years, little if anything has been spent on the “Seed” part of this grant. Nothing has taken place in more kids’ programs, interaction of the community, or activity to address the “roots” of the real problems of the area.
Finally after eight months of this I stood up and spoke and walked out of the meeting. I was so upset. It is not about me. It is about making things better, and helping kids, taxpayers’ money going where it was intended. It is about lack of leadership from the top down in our local area. There are not enough gates and codes that people can hide behind. We are all in it together.
The graduation rate of Kent-Meridian High School is totally unacceptable. We can and must do better. Here, Kent has some seed funding money in a difficult economy to plant some seeds. They failed to be inclusive. Not just the residents of the East Hill Corridor will suffer. We will all eventually be affected by this lack of leadership. I tried hard like many others too numerous to name to work within the system but when they do not offer you an equal partnership at the table and any potential for voting rights to make changes … sadly, and reluctantly you have no choice but to walk away.
Leslie Hamada
Covington
(Editor’s note: The Weed and Seed program is a federally funded strategy that aims to prevent, control and reduce violence, gang activity and drug abuse in a designated neighborhood. It is a two-pronged approach in which law-enforcement agencies work with community-based, private organizations to “weed” out gang activity and violence and replace – “seed” – them with human services.
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