[Dialogue] Balanced Communities

[Wilson Priscilla]

For those of you who don't see Kaze Gadway's Blog on a daily basis...I'm copying today's here. Everyday she blogs about conversations she has with the youth she works with. Since this one is about the social dynamics, thought you'd be interested.


Orderly Communities
David Brooks “The American social fabric is now so depleted that even if manufacturing jobs miraculously came back we still would not be producing enough stable, skilled workers to fill them. It’s not enough just to have economic growth policies. The country also needs to rebuild orderly communities.”

A model I learned a long time ago taught me that society must be balanced.  In our leadership module we have been discussing three aspects of society that are sometimes dysfunctional. To be leaders, we need empowerment in all three areas.

I begin with the economic pole. “What happens if you never join in the work force, if you are on welfare or always scrabbling for money on a day to day basis?” I ask.

“We never feel good about ourselves. We never make it at adults and will always feel like we depend on our families or the government. We would be losers,” sums up one of the youth.

“Yeah,” says another. “It is really something to be able to tell people that I have to leave now for my job. They respect that I pay my own way.”

We then talk about the cultural dimension. “What happens when you are cut off from your Native traditions, your spiritual heritage, or you are ridiculed for being Natives?” I ask.

“That easy,” a teen says. “We die. We have nothing to hope for and we don’t know how to live decently. We don’t fit into being Anglo so if we can’t be proud of being Native, we just drift.”

Finally, we move into what is most sensitive, the political area. “What happens if you are never part of the decisions or choices of your family, or town or nation, if you never vote or take part in discussions or have any choices about the laws that determine so much of your lives?” I ask knowing that there is much pain in this area.

“We don’t and probably never will,” states a young adult. “It doesn’t matter what we decide, we don’t have influence.”

We talk about the decisions they can make but it is always about their personal life, not about the laws that rule the larger society.

“The more money you have, the more influence you have,” says a youth quietly but with some anger. “And it helps if you are not Native.”

We talk a little about a healthy family unit that earns its own way, that does things together that nourish them, and that makes decisions that affect the whole family. They don’t really see a future where they are a part of the larger society in any meaningful way.

I realize that I work hard at getting them employed and exploring ways for them to have a rich cultural and religious life but I often leave out the political realm. It is the most out of balance in our society at this time and the one in which I am most frustrated.

It’s time to think more on how to increase their strength to make decisions that make a difference in more than in hair style.

Something else to pray about.

In faith,

Kaze


You can find her blog each morning at:  http://infaith.posterous.com



Priscilla H Wilson
Pris at TeamTechPress.com
913-432-2107
www.teamtechpress.com






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