The Value of Community

Here in Cleveland a major employer has just been bought out by another in a neighboring state. As we watch the fluctuations in the value of our retirement accounts, we are also on edge about how all of the financial meltdown mire is going to bring change to our community. There seems to be little question that a large number of people will be displaced from their current work positions.

How the displacement affects the community is largely up to us. Will the community support those who are displaced? Will there be other positions available for making use of the years of experience? Will we think and behave in innovative ways to move the community forward? Or we will fall victim to the fear and sense of failure?

Now is the time to become engaged in conversation in the community. We need to talk through our fears being supportive of each other. We need to share the most valuable of our assets, our caring and our brainpower. Let us grow in community, celebrating and enhancing a legacy for our children and our children’s children.

Calling Me

The water, it is calling me, calling me.

I went down to the water but

I didn't want to go in.

No, I didn't want to go in.

The water it is splashing me, splashing me.

I went down to the water but

I only got my feet wet.

Yes, I only got my feet wet.

The water, it is cooling me, cooling me.

I went down to the water and

I floated to the bottom.

Yes, I floated to the bottom.

The water it is pulling me, pulling me.

I went down under water and

I am never coming out.

No, I am never coming out.

[Dennis Coughlin April 2006]

Watkins Glen State Park

Other pictures here

It Will Come Back to Bite Us in the End

The other day I heard a politician praising her party for wanting the government to defeat its enemies. It is a popular sentiment not just for national political leaders but also for many leaders political at all levels, civic leaders, and business leaders. However, that thought leads to the problem identifying ones enemies and how one relates to the enemies of enemies.

Perhaps we should recognize, no, we definitely should recognize that defeating our enemies is not only not the only solution but may be one of the worst approaches to any way of life. We have been using that approach for thousands of years and it still does lead to any lasting community. It continues to be “what goes around comes around” and “an eye for an eye”.

Isn't it time that we live life under a new banner of behavior, behaving in a way that builds trust and respect. Yes, there needs to be accountability, time out for bad behavior, and honest criticism. We are teaching our business leaders that putting our competitors out of business is the only method of growing our businesses.We have countries that hate each other. Tom Lehrer wrote a song about it and we are at a point that nobody likes anybody else very much:

There’s strife in Iran

What nature doesn't do to us

Will be done by our fellow man.

We practice bad behavior in our business relationships, we extol it in our television and movies, we export it to countries in economic need, it our behavior always seems to come back and bite us in the end.

Customer Service

This morning I went to get a haircut up at the shopping district about a mile from my house. I grew up going to the stores there: the movie theater now a bank, the drug store now vacant, the Manners Big Boy still a restaurant, the small grocery now a CVS. Problem was, I had a hundred dollar bill left over from my vacation. I went to the bank to get change. In the bank were four or five employees and one other customer. When I asked for change, I was refused because I was not a customer. It was corporate policy not to provide service to non customers.

What has happened to the service businesses in Northeast Ohio that they feel the need to not take the energy to serve the community? I know that this practice is repeated elsewhere but my opinion is, it shouldn’t. Taking that refusal as an opportunity to talk with the manager I introduced myself and we talked for about thirty minutes about customer service, community service, collaborative behavior, quality connected places, branding, and many other aspects of Open Source Economic Development and good behavior.

We talked about the bank not waiting for the landlord to fill the vacant space where the drug store moved out but proactively searching for a new tenant. The new tenant might provide employees who open accounts and apply for loans, the new tenant might open an account and become an active user of bank services, and the new customers the tenant attracts might provide profitable business for the bank.

We also talked about neighbors who were refused service and did not open accounts with the bank when the need arose, neighbors who did not have good things to say about the businesses practices of the bank, and possible building tenants who did not move in because of the less than pleasant atmosphere. The manager did offer to make change for me but today I decided to go elsewhere so that I did not the teller feel that perhaps she had done something against policy and that I had gone over her head.

I will be back to the bank because we began to build a relationship. I have connected the bank manager to a new Women’s Enterprise Network program that I am helping to develop. Maybe she will start having her branch provide service to the neighbors, customers or not. And maybe that vacant space may be filled soon.

Loss of Focus

I have found that over the past several months I have been a little less focused as well as a little less tolerant than usual. I know that a lot has to do with both my parents dying in early January and my dealing with that loss. As executor, there is also continuing stress of sealing with various governmental requirements and other estate issues.

I had been taking care of my parents over the last five years and my work as a founder and director of a local non-profit allowed me some flexibility to deal with family issues.Luckily, I am more flexible than most and I know that there are many people out there who hold down a regular full time job, are raising a family, as well as looking after parents. I do not know how they are able to maintain an acceptable level of stress.

As far as this blog is concerned, I have been unable to focus long enough and deeply enough to complete a cogent discussion.I still would come with ideas to write about but would not have the wherewithal to work through to the end. I did find myself with a lot of partially finished projects. I am not a journal writer at heart as I prefer to sit down with people face to face to work through a conversation.

My brother thought that a vacation would do me and him good so the two of us went to a small fishing village on the Caribbean coast of Mexico to veg out but we ended up swimming and snorkeling every day as well as exploring the jungle and kayaking in the mangrove swamps.

My brother speaks Spanish but is hard of hearing. I understand Spanish but my speaking the language has not redeveloped from thirty-five years of inactivity. So the locals would speak to us in Spanish, I would translate to English and say it to my brother who would respond in Spanish. The time was somewhat a break and was enlightening but when I came back, I returned to all of the tasks that I had not taken care of for two weeks. Somewhat the way that I remember vacations being when I took them many years ago. (Other pictures may be found here)

Diversity is Over Valued

So my skin is a different color than someone else’s, along with my hair and eyes. So I have less money than some and more money than others. None of those keeps me from finding where others and I intersect and start building community.

Have we focused on diversity to the detriment of community? Back in August 2007 I wrote about a diverse community being an oxymoron. The American tradition has been to celebrate the individual, how we are all different, diverse. If we keep looking at the differences how do we ever have time to find the connections, the touching points?

Geographic communities have lost their binding agents and we have moved away from supporting one another. Areas of synergy go undiscovered. It is through our building trust and finding that deep inside we are one that we are able to stand against our fears and move forward.