Wednesday, May 6, 2020

The Deputies: Final Project - Civic Engagement Flyer

PAD 2073


The Deputies present...Get out the vote!


"Our MISSION is to make the youth voice be heard. Don't be the biggest generation with the smallest voice. Go vote!"


"Our voice is our vote. Our culture is our city. Define your culture, define your city, cast your vote...today!"


See flyer for details...

The Deputies - Get Out the Vote!


Friday, March 6, 2020

The Deputy's Log: Team 2 On The Scene - SA Public Library Locations

Team 2

March 3, 2020

Voter Registration Drive @ Cody Library

A tough sell for Team 2 as this was official election day for the 2020 primary, but we were ready to register who we could and much to our surprise we came away with a win. We set up shop in the front of the lobby of the library with most citizens waiting in a line down the block to cast their vote in the primary election. Not many people entered the library on this day but we did our best to engage the population and provide info on current candidates. We approached this 21st-century student style & utilized our laptops.

We were fortunate enough to have someone who needed their address updated. They filled out the form and our team was beaming with civic pride as we informed him we would be dropping off this form as soon as possible to the Bexar County registrar office. This individually was earnest in filling out this information and thanked us for our civic duty.

Success!


March 6, 2020

Voter Registration Drive @ Downtown Central Library

Possibly voter fatigue of all those walking into the downtown Central Library on a Thursday afternoon. Many citizens/residents who entered the library made a straight line for the internet desktop PC stations; most sporting headphones to tune out everything surrounding them. Others were utilizing other meeting rooms the San Antonio Public Library provides for small business & entrepreneurship happenings. We did our best to engage the populace but not one individual stopped by our table. We did take time to observe everyone and the library itself, resorting to discussing current events during our attempt to register voters.



Tuesday, February 25, 2020

The Deputy's Log - Project Implementation (Gameplan)


Project Implementation
Group Team

The Deputies on a mission...

1st Team - UTSA Convocation Center, possibly post-game JPL area UTSA vs. UAB
March 1st & March 7th, 2p-4p
Civic Awareness Campaign, goal of 1 registered voter per visit

2nd Team - Public Library, possibly Bexar County Courthouse
March 3 + 5, 12p-1:30p
Political Campaign Awareness Campaign, goal of 1 registered voter per visit




Project Task List

List of Materials
- Clipboards
- Pens
- Folding Tables
- Voter Registration Forms

Thursday, February 13, 2020

PAD 2073 - Group Project

Group Project: Register citizens to vote in voting drive

The Deputies are formed

New Blog Title: The Deputy's Log

Group Project – Project Design
Team Name: The Deputies

After defining in class what it takes to act as model citizens, our group has determined we will engage our fellow citizens by attending public events & open-to-the-public locations frequented by the student & professional population. Our goal will be to implement civic awareness & increase civic participation in the political process. While we understand not every individual we encounter may be willing to register to vote, our intention is to make an impression & inform our local population on the importance of civic engagement & how it can make an impact in your community.

Our group project will consist of the following components:

Project Definition
o Voter Registration Drive, Two Teams
o Team #1 – Public Locations – Public Library, Bexar County Courthouse
o Team # 2 – Youth Locations – UTSA Basketball Game, University Café

Feasibility of Implementation
o Schedule voter registration drive times during peak hours or special event hours

Who are we targeting?
o Civic population attending public institutions, from young adult to adults
o Younger population, parents attending higher education

Why target this population demographic?
o Team #1 – High probability of civic-inclined population
o Team #2 – High probability of young people with eager attitude

Where will we focus our efforts?
o Public Library locations, Bexar County Courthouse
o Student Campus locations, student events

When will we implement?
o Weekends, mid-day weekdays, special events

What will be our measure of success?
o Implement successful awareness campaign for voter registration & participation in civic, inform & aim to get people enrolled

Please see next page for further project implementation detail…

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

PAD 2073 - Semester Begins

Spring 2020, Day 1

Foundations of Civic Engagement

Semester Project:

To be deputized as voter deputy registrars for Bexar County (City of SA)

Group project in the works, stay tuned

Monday, December 4, 2017

Public Policy Final Exam: Review of the Garbage Can Decision-Making Model


Public Policy Final Exam: Review of Garbage Can Decision-Making Model
Garbage Can Decision Making Model
  • Goals: Emerge Spontaneously
  • Means/End Analysis: Means independent from Ends
  • Test of a Good Decision?: If participants agree the problems and solutions matched


Context: The incident prompting me to review the “Garbage Can” Decision-Making Model was the San Antonio City Council vote to remove the Confederate monument located in downtown Travis Park.


The prelude to this vote was the events surrounding a racial and politically charged protest held in Charleston, West Virginia where enraged citizens vehemently argued with each other in the streets over whether statues representing the Confederacy should be allowed to be removed from public places. As tensions grew increasingly hostile between the engaged parties a riot broke out and a woman was run over by an irate protestor who charged his vehicle into the crowd. She eventually died from her wounds suffered from this road rage. The typical media frenzy ensued and a public cry was put out across the nation by activist groups and other political and administrative figures to remove any public symbols representing the Confederacy and its tainted legacy of slavery or any other remnants of “institutional racism” leftover from the Civil War or Jim Crow era, whether this be statues or high school names or what have you.

In San Antonio, a local coalition of community activists, consisting of college professors, former public office holders, and the activist organization Black Lives Matter, had recently failed in their efforts to persuade and influence the SA city council to include measures of accountability concerning negligent police officer action in the recently renewed contract between the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio Police Officers Association. The activists swiftly changed the mission of their crusade to jump on the national bandwagon and, sure enough, a Council Consideration Request (CCR) was soon submitted to SA City Council by District 1 Councilman Robert Trevino and District 2 Councilman William “Cruz”.

The means of the activist coalition group to hopefully achieve the ends of their newly forged goal of eradicating any hints of institutional racism in civic arenas? Same as last time: this activist coalition who would characterize itself as non-violent consistently acted pro-virulent toward any authority figure representing the establishment and outright dismissed any opposing viewpoints no matter how logical or rational the counter-arguments. They threw justice, as an attribute of individual action, out the window and instead replaced it with their own brand of justice with undertones of “by any means necessary.”

A perfect storm of a policy window emerged and the activist coalition focused the aims of its agenda through all the right channels of the policy stream and SA City Council passed the vote, in which Mayor Ron Nirenberg disregarded the standard democratic process altogether for a CCR, by a margin of 10 to 1 with the lone dissenting vote cast by District 10 Councilman Clayton Perry for just that reason: “…we can’t do knee-jerk reactions. We have processes.” Later that night a contractor’s crane parked itself in front of the monument before midnight and by 3am the Confederate soldier statue and supporting obelisk were removed, as well as the model field artillery cannons which were attributed to neither William Barret Travis nor the Confederacy. A handful of activists rejoiced at the sight in the wee hours of the morning and local media outlets remained on site until the last piece was loaded up on the sturdy platform of an eighteen-wheeler rig. The statue removal cost $258,860 of city taxpayer monies.

And what was the test of this council vote as a good decision? Were any traces of institutional racism, in a city of historically low-profile racial or ethnic tensions, abolished once and for all? San Antonio’s downtown annual jazz music festival Jazz’SAlive, held in Travis Park for the past 34 years, kicked off without a hitch. No public mention was made on stage as concertgoers of all racial an socio-economic backgrounds relaxed to the live music performances and enjoyed hot food and cold drinks as they had always done since 1983. Local grocery chain HEB elected to move its annual Christmas tree lighting event from Alamo Plaza to Travis Park and placed the giant tree in place of where the Confederate monument once stood. For years families have made a tradition of attending the event, supplemented by a night time river parade of decorated river barges and other fanfare. Meanwhile, local activists remain waiting in the wings with their matching problems and solutions ready in hand, to be applied toward the pursuit of social justice at the spark of a moment’s notice.

Friday, May 5, 2017

Polemics

No vale nada la vida polémica
La vida polémica no vale nada
Comienzas siempre llorando
y llorando así se acaba

por eso es que en este mundo
la vida polémica no vale nada