I interrupt this irregularly scheduled blog posting to bring you an updated news bulletin. I got some good news from L.A. in week 8 that I thought I would update you on since most of you know about the situation with the tenants I had been defending from the management/ management company in the last building I lived in. I know I'm diverting away from blogging about my experiences here in Australia, but it's my blog, and I will divert if I want to.
One of my old neighbors had contacted me and told me that Amy and Javier (for the few of you who may not know - Amy and Javier are my last apartment managers who made the lives of the long-term tenants miserable with the goal that they would move to create market value profit) have moved out of the building and no longer manage it. About a week ago (week 7), a majority of the tenants along with several tenant rights advocates and attorneys, protested the management company and picketed outside the apartment building. Two days later Amy and Javier moved out. It only took 3 years. It is a victory that is long overdue. My old neighbor describes the apartment building now as being how he had remembered it for so many years before the management enacted their "cleaning house" tactics. Kids are now able to play freely outside and people feel safe and comfortable in their homes. He said it is like a black cloud has lifted, and it is a happy and safe place to live again.
I'm ecstatic and in slight disbelief, this has been such a struggle that we had fought so hard for. I learned a lot about myself, advocacy, and the human condition from this experience, and it is a majority of the reason I am here in Australia. These are the top lessons I've learned (hopefully you find as much value in them as I have):
1. When we are all being persecuted, we all become equal.
2. We have rights and we have a voice, and those are very powerful tools.
3. It's challenging to fight malevolence, but it's nearly impossible to fight indifference.
4. In regards to advocacy work - we can sympathize with any particular injustice, but to experience the injustice and learn first hand all the complexities of the particular situation is to understand the problem at its core. And you need to be able to understand the problem at its core in order to solve it in the most appropriate and effective fashion.
From this experience, I am completely grateful for my apartment family, they have expanded my world exponentially. This experience was both, in certain aspects, rewarding and infuriating. But, if not for it, we might have never learned the meaning of our own strength and determination.
Since I seem to be in a sharing mood, this quote is what continually inspires me and keeps me going:
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead
That concludes this not-really-breaking- news-actually-more-like-old-news-at-this-point update. Please stay tuned for more irregularly scheduled blog posts...
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