| | Published January 25th, 2017
| Progressive Groups Organize in Lamorinda
| | | By Sophie Braccini | | |
The outcome of the presidential election has left many progressive Lamorinda residents in a state of apprehension. Many, however, have moved past resentment and looked to regroup for action. From simple conversations to beginning organized actions, Lamorinda is engaging the dialogue about what to do in a post-Obama area.
Maura Wolf remembers the days after the presidential election when she had been watching two conversations on social media that seemed to her very negative and destructive to the community environment. She offered to facilitate a face-to-face exchange, a forum where people would listen to each other. Being on the faculty of the Leadership Department at Saint Mary's College, she contacted her employer to get their permission to house a community dialogue on campus, and called on her friend Edy Schwartz to reach out to as many people as possible. The first meeting took place at the beginning of December and 45 people showed up. This group of people is now meeting monthly.
At the same time in Orinda, Rebecca Verity and her friends created the Orinda Progressive Action Alliance.
At the Thursday Jan. 12 meeting organized by OPAA over 50 people gathered at St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Orinda. Everyone was invited to indicate one issue they were interested in discussing. People listed tens of topics including gerrymandering, religious equality, poverty, women issues, health, diversity, homelessness, the Supreme Court, education, the electoral college, justice, environment and many more. The desire in the crowd was to organize to do something positive.
Some members of OPAA will organize "diversity dinners" where people of different opinions and origin will be invited to discuss diverse topics. Letters to the editors will be sent to local and regional media, people will subscribe to independent media, and educate themselves on specific topics of interest and share the results of their research on the group's website or blog.
The group has started to propose to the participants different action meetings such as a phone banking training session on Jan. 27, or gathering to call representatives on critical issues. Information can be found online at http://orindaprogressives.wixsite.com/opaa.
Meanwhile in Moraga, the conversations continued and on Saturday Jan. 14 people gathered at Saint Mary's College. Wolf was pleased to see that the audience was very diverse in age, with about 33 percent of attendees being either high school or Saint Mary's students.
"The objective is not to lead to action," says Wolf, "but to offer a space for people of all ages and opinions to debate and listen to each other."
This group will continue to meet monthly on Saturday morning. The next date is February 4th, location to be announced, registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/lamorinda-community-conversation-tickets-31202321985.
Meanwhile, calls to conservative organizations found no local activities surrounding last week's presidential inauguration.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA