Dear Mom,<\/p>\n
Thanks again for all the Hanukkah presents and for the dinner last night \u2013 it was delicious.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago I was watching a city council meeting.\u00a0 The meeting\u2019s agenda consisted of two main topics: \u00a0the first topic was whether or not Miller-Canfield should continue advising Mayor Bing and the second discussion was regarding an emergency financial manager in the city.\u00a0 The council was going back and forth on both topics for the majority of the meeting, discussing consequences, opportunities, and alternative options to move the city forward.\u00a0 Detroit residents also had the opportunity to chime in on the debates.\u00a0 After much deliberation, one elderly woman took to the microphone and said,\u00a0 \u201cNone of you are understanding the true problem.\u00a0 I woke up one morning and read in the newspaper that I now live in Midtown.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the root of many disagreements is opposing cultures.\u00a0 You raised me, Mom, in the suburbs of Detroit, not in the city of Detroit.\u00a0 Growing up, my perspective and understanding of the world was much different than those born and raised in the city.\u00a0\u00a0 While striving for understanding of different cultures is a noble endeavor, acknowledging that different cultures exist is the first step.\u00a0 Working towards coexistence is the next.<\/p>\n
During the city council meeting, different ideas coexisted in the same room.\u00a0 One person speaking could be both right and wrong.\u00a0 If different ideas can coexist, then can different cultures, different communities and different people?\u00a0 I like to think the answer is yes.\u00a0 We are a country, after all, founded on diversity \u2013 diverse religions, people, and ideas.<\/p>\n
The problem arises when one group thinks their culture is better.\u00a0 The paradox, though, is that if we thought someone else\u2019s way of life were better, we would reject our culture and accept theirs.\u00a0 So we all think our culture is the best.<\/p>\n
The challenge is to move beyond competing cultures and move towards acknowledgement. At my host company, one of the books frequently referenced is Good to Great <\/em>by Jim Collins.\u00a0 In the book, there\u2019s a saying that \u201cthose doing the work understand it the best.\u201d\u00a0 This same principle can be applied to the city \u2013 those who have lived here their entire lives understand the problems and which solutions are most practical.<\/p>\n But back to the main point \u2013 a woman woke up one morning and realized she was living in Midtown. \u00a0\u00a0With development and revitalization comes change.\u00a0 But change should not be forced. While change is needed, growth for one community should not come at a loss of another community\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Mom, Thanks again for all the Hanukkah presents and for the dinner last night \u2013 it was delicious. A few weeks ago I was watching a city council meeting.\u00a0 The meeting\u2019s agenda consisted of two main topics: \u00a0the first topic was whether or not Miller-Canfield should continue advising Mayor Bing and the second discussion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12745\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}