EDITORIAL: Community Voice

Two years ago, we launched our Community Voice section to give members of the community an opportunity to have their views heard. We believe that the success of a nation depends on the Government’s ability to tap into the pulse of the citizens and residents.

As we encourage unity, a word that is been currently emphasized we encourage readers to submit their thoughts to info@caymaniantimes.ky. These articles should not exceed 200 words and will be reviewed by our editorial team before publishing. The writers name may be published if requested.

The following extract about the community voice was found in the Huffington Post blog by Duane Elgin.

The Power of a ‘Community Voice’ Movement

By Duane Elgin

We have a crisis of conversation in our democracy. People want to be heard and to have a voice in our future. It’s time for citizens — you and me, all of us — to come in from the cold. Whether conservative, liberal, or independent, we are all citizens united with the same rights. Coming together for protest and mutual learning is important but, in addition to face-to-face gatherings in the parks and streets, it is essential to bring our conversations into the mainstream of society. Only a relatively few voices can be heard from the streets but tens of millions can be heard through the airwaves that we, the public, legally own. Many people, whatever their point of view, do not feel their voices are being heard. It’s time to give citizens an authentic voice through a “Community Voice” movement that directly fulfills our Constitutional rights to be heard.

Power in a democracy is the power to freely communicate. A “Community Voice” movement could use our amazing array of powerful communication tools:

1. to enable a community to discover the views of its members regarding critical problems and solutions and,
2. to convey those views to elected leaders and the public at large through publicly televised forums.

Our country and our future are in trouble: Our financial future. Our energy future. Our jobs future. Our climate future. Our kids’ future. We are in the midst of a full-scale systems crisis. Whatever our differences may be in this country — and there are plenty — we all want a voice in our future. Importantly, we require a scale of civic conversation that is equal to the scale of challenges and solutions — and often these are of regional, national, and global scale.