Let me begin by confessing that I am a proud black man (been one my whole life), living in an intercultural home where relationship has trumped race. I have two degrees and an amazing job. I have spent nearly my entire adult life attempting to lift up humanity. From urban education to economic development, I have endeavored to “defy the statistics” that seem to be presented to me everyday, ageless and ever green about how my demographic is becoming a permanent underclass.
THE HEALING OF A NATION (OR SO I HOPE).
“What doesn’t heal gets passed down.”
Let me begin by confessing that I am a proud black man (been one my whole life), living in an intercultural home where relationship has trumped race. I have two degrees and an amazing job. I have spent nearly my entire adult life attempting to lift up humanity. From urban education to economic development, I have endeavored to “defy the statistics” that seem to be presented to me everyday, ageless and ever green about how my demographic is becoming a permanent underclass. Even though some would say that I have in fact, defied the odds, and find myself able to interact and engage with people of every hue and from every background, I still find bigotry and racism in its various forms (both covert and overt) every day of my life. And when I’m not looking for it; it finds me. I also must admit that I believe that we can do something to change the human condition in America, which is why I write this post. I refuse to be among the silent majority whose silence has become deafening.
Our Nation has a critically deep wound. Throughout the history of our beloved United States we have cut and punctured, slashed and gouged, stabbed and sliced the fabric of our National culture and conscious over one issue: race. Although not necessarily in school, we all have heard about the atrocities that this Country has inflicted upon people of color, more specifically African-Americans. We hate to talk about it, and we should. The genesis of our Nation and its subsequent track record is horrific at best on this issue. There has always been, as Dr. King stated, “two Americas.” One America is flourishing with the ‘milk of prosperity and the honey of opportunity.’ While the other America has a ‘daily ugliness about it that constantly transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair.’ It’s been like this since the founding of our beloved Nation and remains that way today. Sad, yet true. The history is REAL. The present is REAL. And the connective tissue of unhealed pain is also VERY REAL.
I am a huge fan of those who have given their lives to attempt to cover our Nation’s wound with the scab of love, truth and inclusivity. Their work has NOT gone unnoticed and should be honored as nothing short of selfless heroism. However, in a real human sense we as people are a metaphor for a human body. When your get a significant wound in your arm, you immediately grab some kind of cotton material that is soft enough and pure enough to relieve the pain. Next, we seek out some type of antiseptic to clear the wound of any lingering harmful bacteria that could worsen the situation. If we skip this step, our efforts toward healing the wound could prove futile. Finally, we look for a covering* that binds the skin and covers the wound so that it has the opportunity to heal. (*by the way, band-aids have come a long way in multi-cultural options for people who aren’t tan; I’m grateful for that)
Much like a wound in the body, we as an American family have deep wounds about race that are full of the bacteria of fear, ignorance, bigotry, systematic inequality and prejudice. The more ugly truth is that things in our life that are not healed are typically passed down. Let’s tell the truth; we pass our attitudes, fears and world views on to the next generation. Maybe not explicitly, but we gain our sense of self through our interactions with other people. Conversely, we gain our sense of others through our interactions with them (or not with them). Think about our circles of friendship and influence, do they look like our values of inclusivity and equality? We learned more about race from our families and communities of origin than we realized simply through the way our lives were lived. We live those values and histories whether we admit it or not. You see, every time there is another clinched purse in a store, or joke at the water cooler, or job promotion denial, or youth on youth killing, or police/citizen interaction gone wrong, or fatality from violence, or fatal choking of a young man selling cigarettes, or visual of the disparities in education, health, household income, prison population, referrals into the special education system, mediated public crucifixions of one group and the simultaneous excusing of others in the same scenario OR God forbid, a church bombing…we rip away another piece of the scab that attempts to cover our National wound. That’s just sad.
Sadder yet? WE sit back and watch it happen, and say NOTHING. We sit in the rooms with the jokes in silence. We join the locker room conversations and even suggest that “people pull themselves up by their own bootstraps” like we did. Knowing full well that it is a bit disingenuous to ask a bootless person whose never had boots to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. We join in the foolishness and hatred in the stands at our children’s games when the ‘suburban’ school plays the ‘urban’ school. We allow political talking heads (not to be confused with the true public servants fighting to make a difference) to make decisions that we KNOW are unjust, unfair and nefariously created to not only become the law of land, but we keep re-electing them and empowering them! Every instance, every opportunity missed, continues to put the healing process in reverse. So much in so, the newest TIME magazine cover put up a picture of a horrific interaction between law enforcement and a young black male. You literally did not know whether that picture came from 1964 or 2014. That tells us that there’s something more to solving of the race issue than the election of an African-American President. The healing of our Nation and communities requires the very same thing the healing of a human wound requires:
Cover: just like the cotton ball we use to cover our wound and relieve the pain, we need to lead with love in our lives. I’m not talking about the touchy/feely platitudes or Kum Ba Yah moments at diversity training; I’m talking about LOVE. The force that requires you to ask the question “how is what I’m doing or saying going to impact ALL of those around me?” The power that makes us inquire as to whether or not ‘it’ would be ok if it was me and my family? It is NOT the love that people have been blaming on Jesus lately. Love (Jesus) was found sitting with the woman at the well demonstrating a heart of compassion and invitation, not damning and discriminating people to hell. Love compels people to healing, hate and bigotry repels people to tribes and silos, each one set to destroy the other. This is the LOVE that forces us to love ourselves enough to care about the ways in which our actions bring healing or destruction. We need an immediate covering of love in our daily interactions with one another.
Antiseptic: In order to move into healing a wound needs to clean out the particles that have been infecting the wound. We need to have the courage to close our eyes, take a deep breath and poor the antiseptic of truth on this issue. Things are NOT as they should be. This generation did not create the problem or the system, yet we must admit (with tears in our eyes) that through our silence and indifference we have allowed the problem to persist and the wound to deepen. We are called to have REAL, solution-focused conversations about the disparities in every major measurable area in our communities, and courageously work toward the closing of those gaps, TOGETHER. Even if it means, being unapologetically intentional about working with a specific group of people (no matter what proposition 2 says).
Binding: Much like the band-aid, inclusivity serves as our protection. We’ve been actively allowing for segregation, separation and confusion permeate every generation of American history, and it has gotten us to this sad place in our history. Why not try inclusion? I want to endeavor in my life to err on the side of inclusion. The moment I fall into the trap of elitism and bigotry, I am admitting that my life and my God are too small. By falling for the bacteria of hate I am confirming that there is not enough grace for every American soul. Without ALL of us (yes, I’m talking about YOU and ME), we will never be able have the kind of environment necessary for healing. We must commit to coming together, even when its easy to run away. The truth of the matter is, we needed each other to play out the atrocities of our past, we will need each other to bind ourselves together under the connective tissue of healing humanity.
What does not heal, get’s handed down. What wounds are open for you? What are we passing down? Have we sat back and watched in the safety of silence? What are we going to do TODAY to make it right? It’s our time, and I’m afraid that if we don’t do something now, it might be too late.
Peace, Blessings and Healing,
Tim
COMMUNICATION LESSONS FROM AN 8-TRACK
The word communication comes from the Latin word “Communicare” which translated is defined as “shared meaning.” So in simple terms, when we communicate (both verbal and non-verbal), if the receiver of the message does share the meaning of what we have communicated in the way in which we intended; we HAVE NOT communicated and thereby fallen short of the standard of communication.
As the number of conversations I have with people increases, so does the number of stories of woe as it pertains to failed communication attempts. In particular, people are leaving communicative interactions bruised, angry, confused, disconnected, disengaged and most of all hurt. We can do better. For our soul’s sake; we MUST do better!
Our improvement can be found in a piece of technology from my childhood that I have a love/hate relationship with. Long before iPods and Pandora, the way to listen to music was an 8-track. Now for some of you younger folks, an 8-track tape looked like a big cartridge. The music was recorded on a spool of tape that was wound up inside of the cartridge casing.
The blessing and the curse of the 8-track was that you had to learn ALL of the music on each album because there was no way to skip forward, and more importantly, there was no reverse. The same is true for interpersonal communication. Communication is irreversible. There is no rewind button. And the meanings of what we say and do are in people, not in the words we use.
What would change in our lives if we stopped and remembered that everything we communicate is FINAL. Once its out there, we cannot take it back. No delete. No rewind. No do-overs. AND, just like that 8-track tape, what we communicate is written on the hearts and minds of those we communicate, and those tunes play on a loop in the minds of others as we continue our relationships.
Let’s take a tip from the old-school, and revolutionize our communication by thinking about the permanent tape we want others to play from the music of our life and words BEFORE we speak.
Peace and Blessings,
T2
TRUTH: C.F.O. IS THE MOST IMPORTANT POSITION!
I have the privilege of meeting and engaging hundreds of people who share with me their visions, hopes, career aspirations and fears on a regular basis. I have always attempted to take each interaction seriously. However, if I am honest, there are times when I simply do not know what to do to assist people in their time of need, and there are times that I don’t even understand what they are even talking about!
However, as I reflect on what has worked, I see a common theme; facilitation. I am at my best when I am creating a space for people to live there fullest lives. I don’t have to solve the problem. I don’t have to create the solution. I don’t even have to be burdened with the challenge. I simply have to create the space for them to come to their authentic solution.
Too many of us spend so much of our lives feeling like we don’t have a space to be ourselves. This cripples creativity, inhibits innovation and stifles success. The greatest leaders I have met have embraced the role of “Chief Facilitation Officer.” These individuals lead in a way that allows people to have the appropriate resources, support and guardrails to accomplish their own goals, and reach their own destined potential. Sometimes, all it takes is for someone to get ‘out of the way’ enough for us to fly! As you see above, the most successful companies are companies that don’t OWN people’s successes and dreams, they simply provide the space.
Are you a C.F.O.?
Peace and Blessings,
T2
DR. KING’S 86TH BIRTHDAY LETTER TO AMERICA (2015)
In 1958 On a warm summer evening in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the ripe age of 29, delivered a speech to the Commission on Ecumenical Missions and Relations of the United Presbyterian church entitled “Paul’s Letter to American Christians.” In this, one of my favorite King-ian speeches, young King takes an imaginary journey into the heart of the great Apostle Paul and imagines with these clergymen what the apostle Paul would have to say to their generation about the role of the Church in the struggle for civil rights for ALL Americans. He understood (as most great leaders do), the importance of speaking truth to your audience in a voice that is relevant to their time and context.
Just as Dr. King pondered what the Apostle Paul might say to HIS generation, I too am curious as to what Dr. King would say to us on his 86th birthday. So please allow me to stretch my creative muscles and give you an imaginary letter from the pen of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers. My parents, and my children. To my circle of friends in love; I greet you by the grace of Almighty God. As my life’s season pivots to winter I thought it necessary to write to you. As I watch our beloved country through the lens of these weary eyes, my heart rejoices at the advancements and innovations of the times. The world has moved from the distant 6 degrees of separation, to the 1 degree of iPhonation. You have made the lifespan of the American longer than we ever could have imagined. God has blessed this country with great prosperity and power, and for that I offer thanksgiving. To watch the nation come together; white and black, gay and straight, old and young standing together in solidarity on September 11th was a small glimpse into a dream. And then the unspeakable happened. As powerful as my dreams have been; none of them were prophetic enough to see what my eyes eventually beheld. I prepared to meet my Savior when My soul nearly separated from my body as I witnessed Senator Barack Obama become the President of the United States of America. I could hear Sister Aretha Franklin singing “Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain…” God has seen me through many hard trials. And I have considered myself a man of faith. But when I realized what had taken place…I knew without a shadow of a doubt, that God is real! Coretta and I prayed and we cried. Prayers and Tears of thanksgiving, but also of terrible fear.
My dear Americans, for all the joy I have experienced, I have endured equal measure of disappointment and shame. In the 1960’s and 70’s we engaged in an unfair fight with an enemy who had no intention of retreat. But with courage and God, we DID overcome. And as I watch LEADERS, those whom God has allowed to stand before the people and rule, continue to act with reckless disregard for others; my heart aches. When and where did we lose our ability to meet a challenge with strength and grace? Why have the street gangs become Junior Varsity to the professional gang approach that has plagued our National Political Process? The children are being socialized to think that disrespect and disengagement is the way to solve a problem. I call today for Courageous people who as I said, will build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear! Partisan bickering and idealogical standoffs must come to an end! The stakes are too high. The future is to fickle. Everyone must decide whether they will live in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. We must have the courage to do what we know is the next right thing.
At the core of my disappointment, I see that something in our society has erased one of the most basic human commands. What used to be written on the collective conscious of our Nation has been washed out by the waves of hate, jealousy and indifference. The first commandment that Jesus gave was to Love thy neighbor as thyself. I’ve said and i’ll say it again, darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that! And I, I have decided to stick with love, for hate is too great a burden to bear. We must learn…RIGHT NOW…WE must LEARN to live together as brothers and sisters. OR we will assuredly; soon and very soon; perish together as fools! I stand with the great hymn writer William Cowper, after he had gone through a horrific life experience: Brother Cowper came to the place where he could see things more clearly, and he penned those sweet words, “redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be ’til I die! It’s time now for us to finally exterminate the destructive pest of intolerance and separation. We must find place for love. A place for “We The People.” We cannot be satisfied with hate. We cannot be satisfied with indifference. We cannot be satisfied with injustice! For our fate is tied together and there is no force on earth that can reverse that truth. Come together. Be community. So many have sacrificed their lives for you to be together. Don’t let their living be in vain.
For you see my dear friends, no matter how wealthy you become; no matter how popular the fad, no matter what political or denominational affiliation; We all must face our end. And when that time comes, I want my life to have meant something. I want to be able to look my family in the eyes as I head to my great gettin’ up mornin’ and tell them that I DID treat people right, and I TRIED to love my neighbor as I love myself. I DID help somebody, as I passed along. I cheered up my brother with a word and a song. I’ve shown my sister when she’s travelin’ wrong…And I KNOW my living has NOT been in vain. I pray for all of you. I pray that you love yourselves enough to love one another. I pray that you find a way to forgive one another. I hope and I pray, that this nation, will finally rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men and women are created equal.” This is my hope. Now, may God bless you, and may He keep you. May his face shine on you, and most of all America, may He give you Peace.
Martin.
AND THE SOUL FELT IT’S WORTH…
And the Soul Felt It’s Worth…
It’s been a year of great opportunity and heartbreak in America. Particularly as it pertains to our interaction with one another as humans. We have seemed to regressed a bit in our quest to; as Dr. King would say “live together” as sisters and brothers. I fully understand on this beautiful Christmas morning that usually, our worst behavior has everything to do with US and not much at all to do with the person on the receiving side of our dysfunction. Understanding that, It is my hope that all of us realize that we were all born with a purpose. No greater reminder exists than the story of the Birth of Jesus Christ. Whether you believe in him or not, take a look at what others see as truth behind the miracle; THE SOUL HAS WORTH and EVERY LIFE has meaning. My prayer for you, me and the rest of the world today is that we find, remember and retain the truth that we are worth it. Know that current circumstance is NOT the full story, and there is still room for a ‘weary world’ to rejoice and experience the ‘Thrill of Hope.’ This Christmas, make an attempt to love someone else into hope, but before we do that, we have to love ourselves enough to have peace.
To Kids from 1 to 92…Merry Christmas,
Tim
50 YEARS LATER…JOBS AND FREEDOM
On this day, 50 years ago, one of the most significant movements in American history took place. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a catalyst for true change in the United States. Today, most will focus on the “I have a dream” speech given by one of my life’s heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., however, I’d like to focus on the part of the day and the movement that still rings real in me. See, the March on Washington was not just about the ugly stain of racism that had and unfortunately still has America in quite a bind; the march was about jobs and opportunity for ALL. Although it seems that my profession of economic development rarely speaks about this great March, as an economic developer, and as a student and beneficiary of the march on Washington, I just had to speak on it. The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was an Economic Development march!
Economic development is about bringing together people and resources to advance and facilitate the most powerful force for change in a community… A job. It is quite ironic to me that on this day 50 years later, we are still fighting for jobs for everyone. And ironically enough, 50 years later we are still fighting for freedom. Not freedom to be Americans citizens in the legal sense, but we’re fighting for everyone to have the pursuit of success. Freedom to me is what the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass said freedom was; education.
50 years later, we are involved in a knockdown, drag out fight for opportunities for jobs to continue to grow and for people to have the requisite skill sets to fill those jobs. I honor and respect the struggle that my forefathers waged so that I could not only have a job and be free from the shackles of lack of education, but I stand humbled and emboldened to continue the fight to grow jobs and to make sure that my children and the children in this community I love and call home continue to be free through the emancipation of power of education.
50 years later, to the exact day, I took my son to his kindergarten orientation. That experience warmed my soul as I reflected on the power of that visit. I stood in line to make sure that my son’s freedom was sure. His teachers, principal and other school officials now know that TJ is free, and we will be working with them as partners to ensure that he stays free throughout his learning experience. This type of presence and persistence is the call of the day! Let’s determine be present and persistent in our efforts to encourage people and companies to grow! Let’s be present and persistent in our willingness to suspend our political disagreements and bickering to come together again for jobs and freedom! Its our time! It’s 50 years later and its time to wind down this war will an all-out assault on negativity, bigotry, classism, racism, inequality and most of all…indifference. Its time to fight with the weapons of love, hope, compassion, freedom and a laser focus on growth!
As some of the old Saints used to say, “for as much as things have changed; they are still the same.” I am humbled and happy to be representing a fight that so many of my ancestors fought before me…the continual fight for jobs and freedom. May God shed his grace on this nation we call home, and give us the courage and focus to remain steady and undeterred in our efforts to grow jobs and to make sure that people are free through access to high-quality education!
Peace, Jobs and freedom,
T2
IF YOU CAN’T DANCE…
“Life is a musical, and if you can’t dance…baby, you’re in trouble!” – Tim Terrentine
There are days in our lives when we seem to be lost. No matter what moves we try, no matter what grooves we love, we just can’t find our rhythm. Too many days lately I have felt like a rhythmless soul.
I know that as leaders and as humans we all struggle from time to time with being “In-Sync” with the melodies of our lives. So I decided to take some time on the back porch of my house to barbecue a few carnivorous snacks and listen to Mr. Marvin Gaye. Soon after my wife and son joined me on the back porch and immediately they were in the groove. They danced and bobbed their heads, all while smiling from ear to ear. I didn’t realize it immediately, but I have actually found my rhythm well! As the three of us danced on the back porch to Marvin Gaye’s ‘funky space reincarnation,’ I recognized and was reminded that life in general is just tough. The needle on our records bounce all the time, and we just can’t find the groove. But it’s not over if we can’t find the beat, because if you can just muster the energy to dance…right there, in that moment when the rhythm of life is muted by your present circumstance; the groove will find you!
When I started to dance, I felt significantly better! So when life has you knocked off your rhythm, I would encourage you to dance because even in those dark moments where you seem to be far far away from your funky space reincarnation, the groove will somehow find you and if i catches you dancing, you too can get back in rhythm .
Peace, love and the boogie!
T2