A Chopper not a Hacker Be!

Thanks to the many of you who commented in some way to my last entry; 'What if they're right?'

We live in a society of downstreamers. Downstreamers are those in our community who are content in staying at the waters edge of humanity. Without regard to where the flow originates, half of these folks are pulling one dead body out of the water at a time and the other half are commenting on how well [or not] the other half is doing.

The 'fun' begins when the workers and the commentators begin to argue about who is right, or who is better. Or worse yet which of them is more important in their chosen tasks [fields of expertise].

When will we learn; Downstream problems cannot be solved with downstream solutions. It absolutely amazes me that our civic leaders and sadly in too many cases, religious leaders, continue to behave in such a way that reveals their obvious belief, namely; fixing what has happened is more important than solving the cause of what has happened.

Let me give you a few downstream realities we keep trying to fix rather than solve:

• homelessness
• addictions of every kind
• teen pregnancies
• incarcerations
• divorce

And on the list goes - you get the picture.

Here's the problem - as a community we have demonstrated complete competency in fixing things. This is a problem, because fixing things rather than solving them is like a placebo. A wonderful little sugar pill that is as good as we imagine it to be.

Here are today's questions:
'When is enough - enough'?
'How much longer can we afford to exhaust our resources fixing things rather than solving them for a life time'?

'For every one thousand hacking at the branches of evil there is one chopping at the root'.

Thoreau

For those of you who read this today and are filled with a similar hope, I encourage you to pick up the 'ax' of your conscience and join me and others in being among the one who chops rather than hacks at the systemic, the rooted, the ugly and the dirty.

Let the dirt of our work be the badge of our honor as we embrace the virtue of indifference towards the mess and possess the virtue of attentiveness towards God's leanings.

With an Ax,
Dan

What if they're right?

In last Sunday's Blade [March 1, 2009], Roberta Deboer wrote a front page article on teen pregnancies in Lucas County. You may already know that Lucas County has had the highest teen pregnancy rates in all of Ohio 12 of the last 14 years.

As I read on though, the article wasn't so much about the pregnancy rates as much as it was about the reality of School Districts in Lucas County, unlike ANY of the School Districts in the counties surrounding Lucas County, have not allowed questions regarding sex to be asked.

The National Center for Disease and Prevention has a survey, administered locally across the United States called 'Youth Risk Behavior Survey'. While this survey asks a wide array of questions regarding risk behavior, for some reason the School Districts in Lucas County omit the section on sex among teens.

Now the tendency is to say; 'the School Districts have an ostrich in the sand policy'. You may be right. Every School District in Northwest Ohio seem to have no difficulty asking these questions.

Here are today's questions;

• 'Why would we want our School Districts to ask these or any questions?'
• 'If the School Districts are in possession of the answers [statistics] what do we expect them to do about it?'
• 'Among the many School Districts who have had this information, what have they done to address sexual behavior among our youth?'
• 'What if Lucas County School Districts are right?'
  

Once again we may be asking the School Districts to do more than they are designed for - clearly teen sexuality is not going away. For example, in Wood County [a county asking the sex questions] 31% of youth have had sex before they were 17 with a high percentage of those youth having multiple partners.

30 seconds is all it took me to google and find the Youth Risk Behavior Survey on line. I found the test and instructions on how to administer the test.

I think the organization in the community that is potentially the most qualified to do something with the results, is the only one that should be asking the questions. This may scare you - but the organization I'm referencing is the church.

Churches need to once again see themselves as the PRIMARY Delivery System toward and for, their communities. Imagine a world where churches as delivery systems administered the Youth Risk Behavior Survey in Lucas County - what would these same statistics look like 10 years from now? Would they be different? Potentially - yes! Because sexuality is a moral issue, not an educational issue.

Something to ponder,
Dan

Global Food Crisis?

A few weeks ago I was in Nashville attending a conference of broadcasters (long story) when in one of the symposiums a well known international organization that serves a wide variety of needs globally ran a video called; The Global Food Crisis.Of course, the video was quite compelling with sights and sounds of children and families, countries in famine, and the people globally trying to connect resource and need.

I was already to buy in.

But, as is my habit I researched the premise of whether we are in a global food crisis and asked a few questions along the way;
Are we truly in a global food crisis?
Is this a food shortage issue?
Is this a food transportation issue?
Is this a food distribution issue?

Interesting enough, here at home our national grain reserves are the lowest since the 1960's. Further research shows that low grain reserves are against the backdrop reality that millions of tons of grain are on the ground (literally) in the Midwest in states like Nebraska and Iowa - rotting.

The reasons for rotting grain seem to be as many as the grain itself, from lack of rail transportation and lack of distribution outlets to the price per ton itself.
However, when you research globally the food crisis equation, it’s not hard to question whether the crisis is in fact food.

In fact, a case can be made that we’re NOT in a global food crisis – not that such a crisis can’t exist or even that certain present realities couldn’t put the global community in a crisis of food – it’s just that I don’t think we’re in a food crisis just yet.

I do however think we’re in a Global Poverty Crisis. It’s not so much that there is not enough food, but that poverty can’t afford what food that is available.

Let me be quick to add that of the three components needed to stabilize a life, food is number one followed by clothing and shelter. To a starving person it hardly matters whether the source of their hunger is poverty or lack of food.

However the point in defining the right problem will determine whether the work we choose to do will bring daily solutions or build endurance into solutions that last a life time.

Dan

The Lines are Blurring

I've lived in urban settings most of my life and consider myself an urbanist or 'city planner'. While I've not held public office or have sought employment that is specifically oriented to city or town planning, I have taken where I live seriously - as have most of my acquaintances.

Most people I know, and this is probably true of you, have taken some kind of active role in their community or city in an effort to participate in its wellness. And so you've joined block watches, or attend council meetings or maybe even visit your kids school - all intentional activities that signal you are engaged and aware.

I think about our beloved City of Toledo, and it's surrounding communities a lot - I mean a lot. While Toledo is the most densely populated area in our region it is also an island in a sea of rural communities - as is most of the Midwest. As a matter of fact, one of the more distinctive desirables of our City is that you can be in 'the country' inside of 20 minutes from any location.

That being said, when you look at traditional urban vs. rural issues, or for that matter urban vs. suburban issues - is there really a difference any more? A careful search of statistics and percentages of statistics against population densities doesn't really yield that large of a swing in terms of contrast as it did, lets say even a decade ago.

For example, forcible rape, burglary, larceny and property crimes in Findlay are higher than the national average. Yes, and you've figured it out - the same is true of Toledo in the same categories.

Drop out rates, graduation rates and enrollment rates across Northwest Ohio when put in perspective of population densities don't really change from District to District and if they do, it's only by a few percentage points either way.

Here's today's question; "When considering strategies to bring about community wellness, can we afford to continue delineating solutions by specifying what is urban, suburban or rural?"

I don't think so.

Poverty, addictions of every kind, the break down of the family unit and the near obliteration of the value of parents have all contributed to blurring and in most cases have erased the lines of urban vs. rural.

The 263 men and women that slept in one of the beds at Cherry Street Mission Ministries last night did not all come from Toledo. As a matter of fact, nearly half of the men and women we serve on any given day were not raised in, or came from Toledo.

What we face as a community can no longer be defined by something so small as geography. What we participate in for the betterment of the whole is a people [person by person] schematic and must be addressed by the 'who' standard rather than the 'where' standard.

And so our planning as concerned and engaged citizens must be within the context of our present realities. We would do well not to surrender or limit our actions or intentions to the old model of urban vs. rural. Choosing instead to focus on the real and systemic issues of the human condition.

It's not complicated, it's just complex
Dan

We need to change our thinking

Steve Eder, an investigative reporter with the Toledo Blade has begun a year long series (Sunday February 22, 2009) which will examine poverty and the regions readiness, entitled; Poverty Line, Unraveling the safety net.

In today's edition, Mr. Eder quotes me correctly when in our interview I said; "It [our regions growing poverty] is bleak, but the silver lining is that right now as a community we are still ahead of it. but we need to change our thinking".

And, we do!

As we [the service and funding community] change the way we think, we'll change our behavior. As our behavior changes, our outcomes will change as well. We have to think better regarding not only what and how we are serving the growing and present need, but we need a complete overhaul in the way we think regarding prevention.

Again I will say, an ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure. That's why I contend money is not our problem. We just need to utilize our resources better by changing our thinking concerning the communities problems, from a needs based to an assett based approach.

If you start the solution to any problem without first identifying the assetts in place, wastefulness will result and the problem will increase. Which is what our community is facing right now. The majority of the dollars flowing into our community on a local level from state and federal funding focus on the need, not the assetts and resources which have previously been purchased and largely under utilized.

It is actually good news we don't know what the watershed looks like right now. While our window to act is narrowing daily, rather than wondering the possible or even probable, let's behave decisively in the present and participate in the always inevitable results of working comprehensively together.

Thinking for a Change,
Dan

A Growing Intolerance

I'm a member, along with my wife, of New Life Church of God in Christ on Oakwood where Bishop Edward T. Cook is the Pastor. Along the back of the sanctuary is a large banner. It reads; Deliberate Mediocrity is a Sin.

This banner sums up the attitude our Pastor and the members of New Life have when it comes to pew sitting as a vocation. The banner is across the back of the Sanctuary so we can all read it on our way to our respective mission fields;

Deliberate Mediocrity is a Sin!

Personally, I believe there is a divine intolerance within the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Whether it’s Jesus making a whip and driving out distractions from intended purpose or Jesus’ healing of a crippled woman on the Sabbath and being threatened for doing so. He was intolerant towards any evil that resulted in people being threatened, abused or ignored.

While we live in a society that preaches tolerance as an antidote to hatred and discrimination - and well we should. We also realize of course, that tolerance is a double edge sword in that you cannot be tolerant of a particular thing, without being intolerant of its opposite.

And so I hope you've come to your own divine intolerance to the injustices around you. That you've grown your own resistant strain toward mediocrity. When all around you may suggest a conservative approach, remember that to observe Christs' teachings and follow His model of living results in a passionate focus that is unrelenting and without so much of a flinch, during times of distress

Intolerant of the darkness,
Dan

It's a Shame!

Connecting Point, here in Toledo, has closed its doors to hundreds of troubled youth and the families who depended on them. This, after decades of service in our communities. Though I've not read of a public reason offered by the organization, I've already begun to hear the excuses which for the most part have been blaming the economy and the financial uncertain times in which we all live.

I believe we are not only accountable for what we say, but also for what we don't say.

So let me say it; shame on you, the leaders of Connection Point. Your apparent irresponsibility and negligence have caused this closure.

You were a primary preventative service to many people - you helped keep young men and women off the streets and prevented them from ending up in one of our facilities. You provided outreach for young men and women staying at our Monroe Street or Sparrow's Nest facilities in an effort to connect them with other services

Now what?

The sad, and I'm sure unintended consequence from your perspective, is the reality that now, more than likely, Cherry Street and others like us, will be the burden bearers of your failure as we take in the inevitable flow of humanity you could have prevented.

A word of caution.

For those leaders in the social service arena who are watching the closure of Connecting Point - take a lesson. This didn't happen in a vacuum and it certainly didn't happen over night. For many of you there is still time to right your course, diversify your thinking and behavior and provide leadership to the community so we can all have a different outcome; changed lives, changed communities and ultimately a changed city.

You matter,

Dan