On a Sunday near the beginning of this Spring, I went to one of the Occu-picnics at MacArthur Park. I sat on my throw-jo and hung out with my committee, thee OLA Media Team, yeah.  I love OLA, love media in any state of operation. The minds are like/alike and I feel at home with them. Inevitably, the aroma of skunk uh... as strange as it were in MacArthur Park, captured me and I wandered across the many circles of OLA Committees until I found some former OLA neighbors of mine from back in the day at Solidarity Park. The lunch time pow-wow gang. I was happy. Food, revolution, grass, sky, solidarity and love. All you need.

Then I heard Esteban say, "Who wants to play a game?"

My mother, she would roll in her grave laughing at me. I was always at the front of the games whatever they were, wherever they were. I'm not competitive although at times I truly believe there is no competition. But rather than competition, I love games because I love fun. Fun is a symptom of Freedom.

Esteban's game was a blast. He challenged us to bring a pretend proposal to the table and then, the rest of the group would go through "the process" in the attempt to come to a ... I forget the word. Oh yeah, a consensus.

Of course, Yvonne's hand shot up like Horse Shack's. "Oh I know I know, I got one!". My proposal was just a contribution to fun. My life equations include: game - fun - freedom. Esteban said, "Okay Yvonne, you have a proposal."

"I propose we order a pizza from the new pizza joint slash herbal medicine clinic on 3rd that has a special. The special is, for the price of an X-tra LARGE pie, your choice of 2 toppings, you get one free gram of your choice of sativa or indica from the other part of the pizza place."

The pretend assembly gamers went on and on with points of clarification about distance and monies pooled, about risk and whether or not the menu had glucose free pizza, eventually reaching consensus on some other pizza joint and one of the guys just picking some smoke up from a friend. I played mad and yelled, This is why I hate to come to GA, why waste my time spending all this energy on the topic when you're just going to ... blah- blah it was so fun. Media team left me there and went to the Sunday OLA media team meeting since I was MIA with the facilitation game. I had to subway it to the meeting at some downtown coffee joint due to universal law, too much fun hath it's repercussions ...sigh.

Games aside, YOU CAN PLAY TOO! and I tell you, you end up learning and becoming a bad ass like the rest of them that have aced "the process". I came away with a new life equation. game - fun - freedom--Freedom School.

Below is a copy and paste, a link and an invitation to better the flow of this revolution from Comrade Esteban Gil, who is always working on making it work:

"Are you interested in direct democracy? Do you or somebody you know want to address the needs of your community in a direct and democratic way? Interested in how to make decisions without appointing decision makers?

Interested in helping facilitate General Assemblies a...t Occupy Los Angeles?

Come to OLA Freedom School this Sunday and learn how to facilitate democratic assemblies!

--Short intro into the concept of General Assemblies, Collective thought, and the construction of consensus
--examples of developed assemblary structures
--play GENERAL ASSEMBLY---THE GAME!

If you have experience with the dynamics of large meetings/assemblies in a horizontal fashion, please lend your expertise. Come to OLA Facilitation Committee Meetings on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 5:45pm at Cabbage Patch on 6th Street near Olive."

Facilitation/Group Dynamics and Direct Democracy Workshop

Public Event · By Esteban Gil