About Homeland
America has always been a nation of immigrants. Throughout our history, there have been times where immigration has been perceived as a national threat to our way of life—we live today in one of those times.
The purpose of Homeland initiative is to help people define how we as a country and a community should best deal with immigration. We will explore the complexity of immigration issues faced by our society. The goals of Homeland:
- Create a safe place for America to talk about one of the most sensitive issues facing our country in the 21st century
- Connect people to the issues, resources and each other
- Give people a voice to confront the question, “are we as a country still a beacon to immigrants?”
The issues faced in Missouri are a microcosm of the larger national debate raging on immigration. We’re exploring the issues that make up the complicated national narrative of immigration through a collaborative process that will live in a multi-platform environment designed to engage participation and action:
- Local and statewide facilitated conversations with community members
- Guided citizen media creation
- Purpose-driven, original digital media creationa national, prime-time, four-hour television series
- A robust online space for people to participate and connect to issues and to each other.
The bulk of our engagement will occur in 2010 with broadcast series delivery in mid-2011.
Why Immigration?
There is no savior coming on a white horse with all of the answers to our nation’s immigration woes. Immigration remains a dominantly divisive issue in America and the issues faced in Missouri are a microcosm of the larger national debate on immigration. Confusion, fear, and uncertainty have reduced the issue of immigration to meaningless and repetitive sound bites hindering our ability to engage with the issues and find thoughtful positions and actions in keeping with our national identity and beliefs.
Why immigration? By 2050, the Census Bureau predicts, the United States will have a new minority: whites. Already, non-Hispanic whites are the minority in California, Texas, New Mexico and Hawaii, and about one in 10 U.S. counties. Missouri currently has no county like that — but that’s likely to change in the next decade and the results of the 2010 Census may paint a different picture of who makes up American communities.
The Homeland initiative is really about the community and that’s where this idea started. It started with dialogue with people across our community—attending countless meetings where people were looking for answers on the future of our region. What we heard countless times was that in order for our region to prosper and thrive, we need population growth and in order to achieve population growth—we must embrace immigration.
The term immigration is innocuous enough—or so we thought. What we we’re learning from talking to lots of people in our community is this: When you talk about immigration, most people are really talking about illegal immigration. “Legal immigration—that’s fine. People who come here illegally—that’s not okay,” is what we’ve heard countless times as we’ve talked with over one thousand people across our community.
What we’ve learned is—it’s complicated. Immigration is a complex web of chicken and egg issues and we alone don’t have the answers. Most media paint a dichotomy of solutions—it’s black or white, this or that, one side or the other. There is no in between—you must choose a side or you don’t fit. All the important issues faced by communities across the country are complicated. But what if we connected lots of people with each other? What if people in our community found a way to reduce the complexity around the issues of immigration? What if they had more and better information to help them decide what’s right for them and for where they live? What if you didn’t have to choose a side? Could this work on immigration help communities take on other complicated issues—issues that are stuck because of polarization? This is what public media can do better than anyone and this is why we’re taking on this work.
Here is a summary of what KETC - my client - is trying to do. I speak for myself here.
The challenges that America and most of the world face are complex and dangerous. If we cannot find a path, they have the power to weaken or even destroy us. But the way that the media works today that feeds into our political system makes it impossible to act responsibly.
Our current media system reduces everything to a binary shouting match - I'm right and you are not only wrong but evil! The result ever great polarization and gridlock. The result, we watch "Political Theatre" as millions face a future with no jobs - while the clock ticks on Peak Oil - while our education system and our infrastructure crumbles.
The impressive civic discourse and can do aspect of American life that de Tocqueville so admired has been replaced by arguments about dogma similar to the early Christian debates about how many angels could stand on the head of a pin.
As Markets do indeed shift to being Conversations - Politics and Media have become Gladiator Shows.
My wonderful client - KETC - has been on 4 year journey of discovery to find out if a local public TV station could find out how to bring back that great American tradition - the "Safe Town Hall" where citizens could be heard and get connected to solve the problems that faced them. Where the intention is to find a way of working with each other to do what is best for our community.
Are you tired of all the bullshit? Do you long for a place where good people can commit to each other to help make where they live a better place?
If you do then please have a look at what we are doing - we are at the baby steps now - and need your advice and support.
For what we are doing is so old that we have all but forgotten how to do this - but we have the wonder that is the web on our side. We are just a bunch of regular folk who are struggling up the Missouri River as Lewis and Clark did. We have an aim as you can see that is clear - we know some things but like all voyages of discovery - we cannot know that is around the next river bend or over the next range of mountains.
Like Lewis and Clark - we need the advice and the help of the natives along the way - for without this they and we could never complete the journey.
By helping us - you help yourselves and your children. For if we can find a way to create the environment for a discourse in a topic that is as messy as immigration, then we can do this for all the issues that currently confound us.
The real new media 2.0 are not the tools. The new politics 2.0 is not your senator on Facebook. America 2.0 is a nation that has got its mojo back - a nation of people from many places that can get together and work out how to get through the great challenges that confront us in the 21st century
