Harrison: Beyond the wonderful, perhaps unmeasurable cultural and arts programming from this station, KETC, it helped people save their homes with its focus on the mortgage crisis (Read the Beacon's stories on the effort.) They did it by collaborating with organizations in this area, and not caring who got the credit, and by bringing in people who may not watch public TV or listen to public radio but were so frightened when they got a foreclosure slip, they came to a town meeting. The end result was a fulfillment of the mission of public media -- serving unserved, underserved audiences with information that makes a difference in their lives. We have to do more of that.
Next, we'll be concentrating on dropouts. We have to make a connection in people's minds. This is a crisis beyond your own son or daughter. It does impact you. Your children might be doing well, staying in school, but we are living in a world where so many millions of young people are not even able to pass a basic reading test they need to enter the military or get a job. Each community can make a difference, and we're going to look at how public media throughout the country can address this.
Pat Harrison (CEO of CPB) was in St Louis this week. Here she talks about an issue that she shares with many of us. What to do about the alienation that is part of our schools? How to get our kids back into being interested and motivated?
What I have learned at KETC, when we looked at the Mortgage Crisis, is that by having a focus and using your public TV station as a facilitator, those who care can get both diagnosis and action.
If CPB go ahead, there is a good chance that finally we can have a legitimate process where the community can define the problems and where the community can work on what would make things better.
This was how America built itself. This process is what impressed de Tocqueville who was used to the norm then in Europe of people waiting helpless for the government to act. He was stunned by the American norm of a community coming together and working it out themselves. Something that we have lost I think.
My hope is that your community based TV or radio station can be the legitimate convenor for this old process to become new again.
