The Blurgh

This week, I’ve seen my first major triumph and first major defeat at CRR, and both of them happened within 24 hours of each other. If this is what life-after-school is really like, maybe I should start rethinking grad school…

A few days ago, I was out in Polish Hill with a couple CRR organizers, and we were making the rounds in the neighborhood trying to drum up support for the renovation project. Reaction has been mixed thus far, but we have been successful in getting a couple very enthusiastic supporters, so we were optimistic.

We came up to a door and rang the bell, and when the owner answered, we noticed that there were a dozen or so people in the living room. They were all home-owners who lived on that block, and they were having a meeting about different issues effecting them all like street conditions, snow plowing, etc. This was the perfect opportunity for us to make some good contacts, so went full-speed into talking about the project, and we were soon in the middle of the living room taking questions from a very engaged audience. By the time we left, we had a dozen names and numbers, commitments from several of them to speak with their neighbors, and a tremendously satisfying day. The next day, however, was nowhere near as smooth…

Besides canvassing, CRR does a lot of tabling and literature distribution. I’ve had some tabling experience before, and since everything’s been going so well, I was the lone person at a table setup outside one of the local businesses. We always get permission from the businesses before setting ourselves up, and often times businesses offer the space before we even ask because people tend to stop in the stores that we’re outside of.

Everything was going smoothly until a guy came up and started talking about how things would never change, and that a renovation project would never happen in Polish Hill. This was the first time I ever encountered any serious negativity, so I was a little taken aback. It seemed like this guy’s sole purpose in life was to be cynical and bring everyone else down with him, but I decided the best way to handle it was to counter any argument he came up with. He said it’ll never work, and I told him about neighborhoods where it did happen. He said that renewables will never be good enough, and I told him how solar cells these days are cheap and incredibly efficient, and so on.

This continued for over an hour.

At that point, the store owner came out and asked us both to leave. After the guy left, the owner apologized to me, but said that even though he supports us, he can’t allow incidents to happen outside his business. I packed up, and went back to the office.

Everyone there told me that this kind of stuff happens, and that you just have to get used to it. Although I know I shouldn’t have even tried to engage someone who was so obviously just a naysayer, I couldn’t help it. I really felt sorry for him. I personally feel like the definition of depression should be “the absence of hope,” and this guy made it obvious to everyone around him that he was majorly depressed. What he needed was some help; that kind of cynicism is a danger to himself and others.

I strongly feel that amazing things can happen when there’s hope, and when hope is coupled with ambition and opportunity, the world starts to change for the better. I’m just glad I work with people who feel the same way.