This week Maui resident, Paul Deslauriers, joins us to update us on how he and his merry band of activists were able to transform their local county government from “corporate rule” to “rule by the people” and how this template for change can be used nationwide. Plus, we parody the corporate sponsorship of baseball games.
Paul Deslauriers is a grassroots organizer, who has consulted over two hundred organizations involving mergers, restructuring, work process flows, teamwork, management coaching, and asset management. The work involved diverse groups such as the Alaskan Inuit, Icelandic communities. In 2002 Mr. Deslauriers became a full-time activist, coordinating nearly three hundred grassroots groups focused on government system change. He has written a number of guidebooks on organizing including Seven Steps to Reclaim Democracy: An Empowering Guide For Systemic Change and Reclaim Paradise: RESET for the Common Good.
First of all, realize that we have an entry to the system, and that is through counties and cities and towns. And that is where we have a voice. That’s where mainstream media doesn’t have the level of control because we have this local network of communication. And that’s what we did here in Maui County. Our organization became an information hub of progressive issues and values and candidates.
Paul Deslauriers, author of Reclaim Paradise: RESET for the Common Good
[Mainstream media] keeps on focusing on the problems… And it becomes overwhelming where if that’s all the message you hear, it gets very depressing. But [the strategy we used in Maui] is a different message. And this is a different approach. Where we can actually do something proactive to really make a positive change. And I think that once people start to realize that, it dissipates that fear, that anxiety that so many throughout our entire planet are feeling right now.
Paul Deslauriers, author of Reclaim Paradise: RESET for the Common Good
One thing about [Reclaim Paradise] is you really go deep into human motivation. I mean, you have all kinds of ways of motivating people and not taking credit for everything, and being extremely aggregate in terms of bringing more and more people in… You’re really into this. And I say this because we’re trying to motivate members of our Congress Club to begin interacting in very specific ways– on major ignored redirections in our country– with their Senators and Representatives. And it hasn’t been easy. And I know they’re going to want to get copies of this book.
Ralph Nader
Overcoming Corporate Rule: A Success Story