Hope in the Village [View all]
I had a really interesting day on Wednesday, and decided to write about it. Of course, two days later and will all Hell breaking loose, the idea of writing a hopeful story seems preposterous...but maybe a little of this is what we need.
Anyway, here it is.
(Image: Bob Jagendorf, Two kids
via Shutterstock; Edited: EL / TO)
Hope in the Village
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed
Friday 18 July 2014
(snip)
The town square of Nelson, New Hampshire, a few miles north of me, is no bigger than a minute. It does not have a single traffic light, and is defined by the perfect white New England edifice of the Nelson Congregational Church. GPS systems do not work in Nelson; the "You have arrived at your destination" announcement always comes when you're still driving through the deep woods, 100 yards from where you're trying to get to. On one sprawling piece of property there is a lovely farmhouse, and behind it sits a large barn guarded by a floppy yet friendly Basset hound. That barn was my destination, for within, The Game of Village was being played.
The Game of Village is a day-camp for children between the ages of ten and fourteen (9-year-olds are sometimes invited, if they prove themselves to be sharp enough to keep up with the curriculum) that takes place all over the country and in several parts of Europe. It is a five-week community-building exercise in which the kids create small anthropomorphic versions of themselves out of dowels and yarn called "Peeps." The Peeps purchase "Homesteads," build little houses on their patch of land, and engage in commerce with their neighbors. There is a bank, a store, a working radio station, and a newspaper, and each Peep (and their kid) take shifts running them.
(snip)
Most importantly, however, there is also government, which is where I came in. A dear family friend sends her daughter to this camp (she's one of the sharp 9-year-olds they invited), and convinced one of the adults running the camp (called "Commissioners"
to invite me to give a talk. The timing, as it turned out, was perfect. Initially, the kids had chosen Anarchy as their form of government, but that was quickly overthrown by a small cadre of campers who manage to institute an Oligarchy. The bank was promptly looted by an oligarch Peep (does life imitate camp, or does camp imitate life?), and several of the other campers began an insurgency to dump the Oligarchy in favor of Democracy.
When I arrived, the children were arrayed across the main workroom, engaged in various projects. Some were repairing damaged Peeps, others were working their shifts at the bank and the store, and still others were debating the relative merits of their preferred form of government. It was a loose, friendly environment created, with little obvious influence from the adults, by what was clearly a very special group of kids. After I was introduced to each table, everyone gathered in a circle in the next room to hear what I had to say.
(snip)
The news was still terrible when I got home - and has grown worse by orders of magnitude since Wednesday - but a few miles north of me, glowing like a coal in the night, a bunch of kids are immersed in the practice of community and good government. They are engaged, learning how to express themselves, learning how to work together, learning how to be real and effective citizens. They will carry those experiences with them into adulthood, and improve their world. Coals like that are glowing, as we speak, all across these United States, thanks to the Game of Village.
That, right there, is hope.
The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/25020-william-rivers-pitt-hope-in-the-village
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