Great moments in the history of democracy:

June 15, 1215: King John of England signs the Magna Carta, granting basic civil liberties.

July 4,1776: The American colonies declare their independence from Great Britain's monarchy.

Jan. 25, 2003: Cincinnati discovers democracy at the first Neighborhood Summit and declares independence from the City Opportunocracy (rule by people who serve in public only to get a better public office).

OK, so maybe it's not all that dramatic. But the meeting Saturday could be a seismic spike in our political evolution.

A brief history

Here is my Cliff's Notes version:

In the beginning. Cincinnati was ruled by a Corpocracy. The Cincinnati Business Committee gave orders in a whisper, and City Hall clicked its heels and saluted. Council members were anointed by the corporate elites, and sent to serve time at City Hall like executives on loan to United Way.

They did a good job - because they had real jobs. Politics was just a hobby, not a full-time neurotic obsession. The garbage trucks ran on time because public policy is a lot easier when the public stays out of the way.

But then the CBC went dim like a dead flashlight. Its homegrown energy was drained by mergers and buyouts, and the MBAs who took over were more concerned with leaving Cincinnati than leaving Cincinnati better than they found it.

Cincinnati entered a dark period of Anarchy as the vacuum was filled by mercenaries who came from nowhere, like lawyers at a plane crash. Some were good. Some were not.

Lawyers rule

They represented lawyers, businesses, lawyers, teachers, lawyers, unions, lawyers, taverns and lawyers.

They were not planted by the Corpocracy. And their grassroots were as deep as plastic ivy.

With the exception of Jim Tarbell, who has actually walked the streets of Cincinnati, the neighborhoods have no representatives on City Council.

But Cincinnati has hardly noticed because City Hall handled neighborhoods the way King George handled the uppity Colonies: Keep them fighting over table scraps and they won't bite the hand that feeds them.

On Saturday, that changed. Avondale, Madisonville, Westwood, Northside and other neighborhoods discovered they have the same problems: drug crime in their streets, not enough cops, and City Hall didn't care because they were too busy pandering to protesters.

The neighborhoods' message: Give us new cops, or we will get new council members who will. And a coalition of torqued off neighborhood leaders could be just the place to sprout grass-roots leaders.

The day could dawn when council members come from real neighborhoods, not law firms; when they don't need a public hearing to find out what's wrong because they hear it on the street; when their goal is a better city, not a better job.

It could happen. As the serfs said to King John, "Power to the people."

E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.