Where To Go From Here? September 28, 2009

I’ll be posting the coming events but first, I have to acknowledge that I did not publish the notes of the meeting of September 10th. I did type these, but the latest incident of violence against me intervened. I will publish those notes and eventually, our Association will produce a “formal” or "official" website which will publish a version of those notes, or so we were promised a year ago and this was again stated by our Communications Director at the annual meeting. However, no dates were given. Running a campaign is the latest in a series of more important tasks.

As to the latest incident of violence, which occurred the night of September 16th, I did send a letter to the management company and to the board, but there has been no response. As I recall, the big campaign issue last year was “about being heard” and at that time our Communications Director stated that the “current board allows no communications”. Seems to me that this has now come to be true.

So, preparing that letter and meeting with police, etc. took some of the time I would have allocated to publishing the meeting notes. But that was one of the intentions of this series of attacks, wasn’t it? To attempt to silence me, a candidate, before the election, to get a continuing message across, and to disrupt my life.

After a year under the rock, er, ROC and now that we are beyond another election, I am wondering how the latest version of enlightened governance will manifest itself. According to the latest political missive of our Communications Director, it will “cultivate a fresh mindset among our community leadership that encourages rather than stifles the individuality of our homeowners and places the highest value on sincerity, honesty and respectfulness.” From my experience, it would seem that “individuality” is to be tolerated only when it conforms to some official viewpoint.

Earlier this year, “injustice” against a unit owner was a big topic for our Communications Director, and of sufficient personal interest to make it worthy of disrupting an association meeting. Supporting people who break the rules and the regulations seems to be something that activates her. But “injustice” doesn’t include the string of violence against me. There are several subtle and not so subtle messages that are being conveyed here. 1) I should be a member of the ROC, 2) I should be a member of the Neighbors Club, 3) I voted for the wrong board members, 4) I have associated with the wrong board members or former board members, 5) I openly stated at the most recent budget meeting that I was in favor of an assessment increase, in defiance of the Communications Director, who voted for a 0% increase, 6) I openly supported our Architectural Director and provided volunteer services for our roofing and driveway projects, 7) I have criticized our Communications Director for disrupting an association meeting, 8) I have criticized our Communications Director and our Landscaping Director for their activities which have stonewalled or delayed our driveway and roofing projects. 9) I didn't roll over when our Landcaping Director accused me of accepting special favors so maintenance would be performed on the building housing my unit, and I won't accept personal responsibility for the poor real estate sales in the area, and 10) I had the unimitigated gall to be so much the individual as to publish all in this blog. 11) Finally, for all of the above and other real or perceived transgressions, I deserve these attacks, which are to be ignored and allowed to continue. Looking the other way is collusion, I am told.

Returning to more important matters regarding this association, if our Communications Director practiced what she preaches, we probably would not have lost our President earlier this year, and with her, her husband who would by now have our “official” website up and running, and the driveways would already be in progress. But we do get nice slogans. The “cultivate a….mindset” statement is one that is frequently used in yoga and meditation. For example, “Cultivate a Positive MindSet Through Meditation” (reference 1)

The statement of placing “the highest value on sincerity, honesty and respectfulness” is probably borrowed from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar or some other mystic. For example, Sri Sri says: “At this time we need only to cultivate love and understanding……The timeless values of religions are……Nonviolence…..Friendliness and cooperation… [and] Integrity, honesty and sincerity.” (reference 2).

This also refers to ontological structures, which “manifest themselves in terms of the intangible human traits that we live by, such as patience, humility, tolerance, deference, non-action, humaneness, concern, pity, sympathy, altruism, sincerity, honesty, faith, responsibility, trust, respectfulness, reverence, love and compassion.” For a typical discussion, see the article from Buddhism Today (reference 3).

Reference:
1) http://www.specialtyansweringservice.net/articles/meditation/Cultivate-a-Positive-MindSet-Through-Meditation_26278/
2) http://sawf.org/newedit/edit02032003/aol.asp
3) http://www.buddhismtoday.com/english/sociology/014-humanright.htm