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The Brookings Creative Lab produced this three-minute video which describes succinctly how the division in American politics is being driven by the dynamics of racial change in our country.  Bill Frey, the video author states that the 2016 presidential race won’t be the last one to pit the “old and the white against the young and the brown,” but, he suggests that it may be “the most contentious.”

I touched on this topic in a previous post, but I want to circle back to it because I think it’s important. The young in this country are leading the way towards an America that will be a minority-majority nation.  In fact, we are already there for children under age five and we will be there for all children under age 18 by the year 2020.

The trend is inevitable.  By 2044 the US Census projects that the entire country will be a majority-minority nation.  Given that there is nothing anyone can do to stop this trend, wouldn’t it be important for our regional community to embrace it; to prepare for it; to ensure that it is a welcomed change and not one that is opposed at every turn?  Wouldn’t it be a good idea of our southeastern Wisconsin region – one deemed among the most racially and economically segregated in the United States – to prepare now for a smooth transition into multi-culturalism?

What would that preparation look like?  In my mind, it must start with understanding the current dynamics.  We must steep ourselves in the geographic, racial, and economic realities of our region using data and not emotion.  Next, we need to walk gently through a process that allows us – individually and collectively – to examine our hearts and our conscience to see how each of us contributes to the reality of our region as it now stands.  From that basic understanding, we can begin to collectively forge a path to embrace a region that is multi-cultural and accepting of all God’s people.  And finally, we must put in place structural changes that begin to alleviate some of the vestiges of the racial and economic segregation from generations past.  Given the sensitivity of the issues, I believe the proposed introspection must be led by the faith community.  Our churches provide a warm and caring environment in which people can address tough issues.  In addition, nearly all faiths have a tradition of social justice that embraces each person as a child of God and calls for societal change to promote the dignity of each individual.

Can we envision a unified region that embraces diversity and which strives for shared prosperity through shared responsibility?  That’s a tall order I know, but the alternative is to suffer through racial and cultural turmoil as the region changes along with the entire country.  We can fight change – as we are witnessing in the current politics – or we can accept change and welcome it with open arms.  Either way, change is inevitable.  How we adapt to it is up to us.

Through Imua-Grace, I am putting together a series of workshops as outlined in the above and would be happy to work with those interested on implementing them in schools and congregations throughout the region.  If you are interested, please click here to get in touch with us.

How many times can we propose to tax poor families and pretend that there will be no consequences?

The most recent example is the $60 wheel tax Milwaukee County Executive Chris Able recommended in his 2017 county budget.  The proposed wheel tax is on top of the $20-wheel tax already imposed by the city of Milwaukee.  With the state, county and city vehicle registration fees, a city of Milwaukee resident will pay a whopping $155.00 per year to register each vehicle owned.  That’s a 63% jump in fees.  This may not seem like a lot of money to some, but to a single mom struggling to keep her family together as she works two part-time jobs, a 63% increase in anything is a big deal.  In the city of Milwaukee, 81% of the households own a car; a number which obviously includes tens of thousands of low income families.

To be fair, the County Exec is recommending that about one-third of the expected vehicle fee revenue will be used to improve transit service.  And, he vows to seek state legislation that will allow more flexibility in how the fee is assessed which might reduce the cost to low-income families.   This promise to seek a remedy would be more meaningful if the proposed wheel tax was delayed until the low-income family safeguards were in place.  But that doesn’t seem to be the case.  It appears that the full revenue for the tax is built into the budget.  And so, the fact remains that a low-income car owner living in the city of Milwaukee will be taxed significantly more to register a vehicle than any other car owner in Wisconsin.  In return, other low-income Milwaukee residents may see improved bus services and roads and bridges will be repaired.

I get it, the county is in a bind. State and federal share of roads and transit revenues continue to decline and our transit system along with our street, bridges and highway infrastructure is wearing out.  But, we can’t continue to pretend that it is OK to stress already frayed family budgets and expect that people will somehow figure out how to survive.

Here’s a suggestion: County Executive Able spend his political capital to resurrect a Regional Transit Authority in southeastern Wisconsin and stabilize the county transit system based on a vision of the region that guarantees long term self-sufficiency and growth.  I believe this is a better use of the County Executives political chits than the promise to go to the legislature in order to jerry-rig a short term solution to reduce the burden of the exorbitant wheel tax on low-income families.
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Policy makers cannot continue to expect low-income residents to self-fund a ladder out of poverty or to pay for a crumbling transportation infrastructure.  A wheel tax that places undue burden on city of Milwaukee low-income families and turns Milwaukee into a tax island is not sustainable and is not just. Our future rests on our ability to envision a region where we have shared prosperity, shared responsibility and where we see ourselves as one community.  A $60-wheel tax doesn’t get us there.
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When a relationship bond is broken, how hard is it to repair?  We recently learned about the unexpected consequences of community discord with a new study publicized in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  The report showed that 911 calls for police assistance decreased by 20% city-wide after incidents of police brutality were exposed on the news.  These police attacks were committed against black males and for months after, people refused to call the police for crime related concerns.  And the majority of calls - a whopping 56% - were lost from predominantly minority communities in Milwaukee.  What makes this so unnerving is that while calls for 911 assistance went down, the rate of homicides in the city reached a seven-year high.

We should ask ourselves, how pervasive is the breakdown in trust beyond that of the police and community relations.  Police shootings and highly publicized incidents of police brutality may be the most visible – but where else is the community trust broken; where else is society in pain?  Certainly, many feel alienated from the government, as evidenced in the current political campaign.  Financial institutions are deemed suspect after the mortgage market collapse.  Those who lost their jobs are worried about immigrants taking what work is left.  Some in the religious right don’t trust those from the LGBT community.  Communities refuse to build affordable housing for fear of who that may attract.  And the list goes on. 

I wonder how many other types of 911 calls are we missing?    How many groups and individuals are suffering but are afraid to reach out because they feel alone or alienated or that no one cares?  How many opportunities to build community are lost because the bonds of trust are frayed?
 
Trust is built through truth, tolerance, reliability and mercy.  And so, I must ask what role I can play in fostering trust.  How can I help to create an atmosphere where people feel safe in reaching out or are willing to take the first steps to build community?  I can strive to embody the qualities listed above in my relationships.  I can take personal responsibility for building trust with those around me and I can call out actions that degrade trust when I see them on display – at whatever level they occur.
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Trust and community are fragile and seem to be broken at many points in our country.  Perhaps, we are hearing a 911 call from a society in pain and we are needed to become its first responders.

Roger, a friend of mine, told me how he and his partner volunteer at an overflow homeless shelter during the winter months.  This requires the volunteers to take a four-hour shift over night while the guests are sleeping.  Roger related how staying up this one night a month can sometimes throw off his schedule for days while his body tries to catch up on lost sleep.   And because of this, he would find himself getting anxious in the run up to his appointed night.  He also would find himself, at times, wondering if it is all worth it and should he just quit.   It isn’t as if the task itself is difficult.  According to my friend, on most nights the only noise is the sound of snoring or the pater of feet shuffling to and from the bathroom.   There may be an occasional argument, but that is the exception.  For the most part, the nights are quiet. And it was on one of these quiet nights that Roger says he found the grace of the moment.  Instead of feeling stressed, Roger decided to treat his shift as a vigil on this particular night.  He decided to use this time as a time to pray; as a time to reflect on all of the homeless souls under his watch and to envision how each of them is a child of God; to search his own heart in order to find how he has been blessed this night, this day and throughout the week.  Instead of treating this as an obligation to suffer through, Roger decided to treat it as a time of grace.

This story struck a chord with me.  I find that when I am faced with a task I don’t particularly want to do, I get downright crabby about it and even a bit resentful.  In my mind I start to pick apart all that is “wrong” with the situation: how it may be poorly organized; how it is an unnecessary imposition; how the person “forcing me” to do this begins to be seen as an irritant or sometimes worse, as an opponent.  I guess you could say these moments don’t bring out the best in me.

But now, Roger’s story has provided me a new way to view these times when I face a task I don’t want to do or when I’m forced to deal with someone I don’t like.  What would happen if I simply decided to seek the moment of grace in these situations? 

The Chinese Taoists teach us about Yin and Yang; that there is a light and a dark side to everything in the universe and that everything contains within itself the seed of its opposite.  So, in a stressful situation there is a seed of serenity.  In an unpleasant encounter with someone is the seed of a relationship.  In the unwanted task is the seed of freedom. 
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Maybe another way to say this is that in every encounter, there is a seed of God and we just have to look more deeply to find it.  We have to find its moment of grace.
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