Background: How it came about that One Southern Indiana’s Michael Dalby contributed today's statement to NA Confidential.

In the interest of fairness, I’ll now try to explain to you exactly how it came about that One Southern Indiana’s leader, Michael Dalby, contributed a statement to NA Confidential providing his organization’s position on a number of matters raised here during November and December, 2007.

These matters pertained primarily to 1SI’s relationship with the evangelical anti-pornography lobby group known as Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana (ROCK), but also touched on the controversial presidential visit in November and the ongoing significance of 1SI’s request for funding from the New Albany city council.

Mr. Dalby’s response is published here: One Southern Indiana's Michael Dalby: " ... A response was needed to clarify our position."

Mr. Dalby and I met at the Public House on the morning of Friday, December 21, for a candid discussion of these issues. Debbie Farmer, president of Develop New Albany, arranged the discussion and was involved in it for the simple reason that my previous efforts to engage 1SI in a public dialogue from the standpoint of this blog’s published concerns had gone nowhere.

Stymied, and recognizing that neither as a blogger nor as a private citizen had I been able to bring sufficient weight to bear in producing the desired effect, I somewhat reluctantly played the only card I had left, which is my status as a board member of Develop New Albany, which is a dues-paying member of 1SI. I expressed my concerns to the Develop New Albany board, offered my resignation in the event that anything I said or did might compromise Develop New Albany, and requested that Develop New Albany intervene to facilitate discussion.

This is how Debbie became involved, and her efforts are appreciated on my part.

All this took far longer than it should have owing to circumstance. All three of us were out of town or otherwise engaged at different times in early December. During the negotiations that eventually led to the meeting on the 21st, postings critical of 1SI’s unresponsiveness continued to appear at NAC even though I knew by then that a meeting would be held at some point in time. Some readers may differ with this, and although I respect that point of view, I persist in thinking it was justified. After all, and as subsequently was revealed, unresponsiveness in this context was not accidental on 1SI's part and fully deservng of scrutiny.

I then observed a personal period of blogging silence just after the meeting so as to allow reasonable time for Mr. Dalby’s agreed upon reply to be composed and vetted by 1SI’s internal apparatus, and this reply was forthcoming as projected on the 28th. I held it until now solely because the blog’s readership customarily falls during the holiday season. Although I kept my blogging collaborator Bluegill posted throughout, he was not involved with the meeting on the 21st precisely because of the necessity that it be arranged by Develop New Albany, and he had already resigned from the Develop New Albany board a short time before. Had the meeting occurred solely because of the blog without Develop New Albany’s involvement, I’m sure that Bluegill would have been there.

The publication today of Mr. Dalby’s clarification should not be regarded as somehow “concluding” the debate; rather, it is hoped that in the future, there can be an enhanced dialogue and channels of communication designed to avoid the impasse that led to the laborious measures outlined above. Politics involves the possession and distribution of power, and whether the entity is an economic development organization, a quasi-religious crusading group or a civic affairs blog, an element of politics surely is involved, and as such, disagreements are unavoidable.

The manner by which these disagreements are debated is the real point.

If there is any one thing that I’d like to see come of all this, it would be the honest recognition on the part of 1SI that seeking to avoid “tit for tat” discussions for whatever well intentioned reason merely reinforces an image of aloofness that 1SI otherwise purports to reject. The only answers are engagement, dialogue and transparency, and given past experience, it’s obvious that we’re all going to have to work harder to achieve and maintain goals like these, which have so readily eluded our traditional cadres in times past.

I enjoyed our talk. I hope some good comes from it. Your thoughts are welcomed.

Bibliography:

Tonight's funding request: "1SI wants us to pay them to tell us to do the same things we've already been doing."

Will the city of New Albany help 1SI pay for the placards at ROCK's next religious rally?

1SI and the revitalization of housing stock?

1SI at the bat: Watch for the hit and run

Next: A dialogue about One Southern Indiana, ROCK and economic development as religious (why?) outreach.

Join the discussion: Is a stonewalling 1SI being disingenuous?

Familiar Tribune guest columnists (ahem) expose 1SI, Councilman Cappuccino.

Nobody listened to Eisenhower, either

Why is One Southern Indiana publicly endorsing a fundamentalist right wing agenda?

R.O.C.K. on, One Southern Indiana ... but first, please answer these inconvenient questions.