I am a supporter of the Occupy Movement. Not least because I have spent much of my life fighting for social and economic justice, and against any form of arbitrary authority.

Recently, I have become unhappy with some of the actions of the group calling itself Carrboro Commune, because I have felt that, although they rail against the arbitrary authority of corporate America, they have employed a similar arbitrary authority to impose unwelcome behavior on a community from which they have received no permission.

I had prepared a rather pithy Commentary to that end, until I had coffee with one of the Commune’s supporters.

We did not agree. But we did understand.

As with any small intense community, we believe strongly around here. But with all the differences we are so keen to underline, we forget to remember the one thing we all have in common. We all have addresses that end in either Chapel Hill or Carrboro.

The most disturbing argument I have heard in recent weeks was from a gentleman protesting the new CVS building in Carrboro. He told me that his protest was justified because the community processes had failed.

I wish I had had the wit and the compassion at the time to say, “my friend, the community processes only fail when we stop talking to each other as members of the same community.”

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