Chad Gesser

Discussion, rumours, even hearsay regarding community development reoccurs in our community in cycles. Nevertheless, it's substance has a tendency to leave us dumbfounded. Community economic development will always be an important issue to those communities that struggle economically and struggle with population growth. Work, the education that precedes it, and the socialization by our consumer culture to buy stuff are central tenets of our living. The economy as a social institution is primary to our existence in the westernized, global economy. I would suggest that for the average Owensboro citizen community economic development is a frustrating notion of which most people feel they have no control. Most of us feel we are at the whims of those making decisions, and that our jobs and job opportunities are dependent on what "they" decide for "us". Our local economy has passed through a wood chipper of change over the past two decades. We have moved fr

The opinions of the NIF model are taking into consideration adaptations and additions that have been used in the Owensboro area. To learn more about the NIF model, visit the " National Issues Forums (NIF) website , the Kettering Foundation website , or the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation website . " National Issues Forums (NIF) " is a nonpartisan, nationwide network of locally sponsored public forums for the consideration of public policy issues." The NIF forum is characterized by the use of a NIF guide. The guide's primary thrust for a dialogue that yields a "successful deliberation" is the formulation of information and knowledge of the particular issue into at least three options. The premise is that to achieve critical thinking and in-depth analysis there must be more than a "yes/no" stance on a particular issue. Simply put, a minimum of three options on any particular issue, with pros and cons per option, p

My brother Nick turned 38 this year. Because he is so old=so many candles=a cake that was more like the 4th of July sky at the river than a sweet, candyland like, cute lil' birthday cake. "Honey, where's that fire extinguisher?!"

Meet the new Borishnikoff, the Fred Astaire of the theatre, welcome to the debut writing of my debut performance in the 2005 production of the Off Broadway/RiverPark Center Production of Peter Pan...... Ok, if I knew then what I know now, I may not be writing this! Well, I've wanted to get on stage, in performance mode as opposed to janitor mode, for quite sometime. I'm taken back to my high school days like a return flight to New Orleans when I had the opportunity to act, but passed for fear of public reprisal....of my friends no longer being my friends, and from becoming one of the 'weirdos' in school. But ahhh yes, how nice it is to be a weirdo. So I have finally grown up, to the point of a seventeen year old. Whaaa? You ask. It's nice to be taken back to replenish my need to be creative. All in the name of growth. Sometimes we must return to a previous time in order to find ourselves in the middle of that futuristic state that seemed unatenable. We

The following is a couple of paragraphs from "In defiance of gravity: writing, wisdom, and the Fabulous Club Gemini" , by Tom Robbins found in the January 2005 edition of Harper's Magazine. I found it highly ironic that I found the courage to post the definition of wisdom to the Owensboro Blog, and found this definition shortly thereafter. Mr. Robbins offers insight on what Tibetans call "crazy wisdom". "Crazy wisdom is, of course, the opposite of conventional wisdom. It is wisdom that deliberately swims against the current in order to avoid being swept along in the numbing wake of bourgeois compromise; wisdom that flouts taboos in order to undermine their power; wisdom that evolves when one, while refusing to avert one's gaze from the sorrows and injustices of the world, insists on joy in spite of everything; wisdom that embraces risk and eschews security; wisdom that turns the tables on neurosis by lampooning it; the wisdom of those who neither se

I have been involved in exploring the dynamics of dialogue and deliberation in the Owensboro community proper for several years. I have also served as a facilitator in various forms, particularly as an adjunct instructor in sociology for close to ten years. There have been many opportunities for dialogue and deliberation in the Owensboro community for the past six to seven years, particularly led by Community Conversations and the Public Life Foundation . As vice chair of Community Conversations , I know all too well the challenge of maintaining neutrality in addressing community issues, particularly with a focus on providing the opportunity for all voices to be heard. To develop this process and approach to individual communication, intra-group dialogue, community dialogue, and subsequent deliberation on each of these levels, it becomes important to establish a foundation of theoretical justification for initiatives to proceed. The dialogue/deliberative work in the Owensboro comm