I hope that these three adjectives continue to describe our Design Work Group. They also apply to someone I want to introduce you to. Her name is Majora Carter. If you click on her name, you will see what she has been up to. If you're like me, you will get the chills several times while watching this.
Majora is from the South Bronx, and she grew up watching the decline of her neighborhood and community, largely brought on by large scale city "planning" that did not take the people living in low income areas into account. As in many low-income areas, her neighborhood hosts a disproportionate number of sewage treatment facilities, noxious industrial plants and prisons, all of which benefit people outside of her community while disrupting the quality of life in her own neighborhood.
However, Majora is one of those rare people we talked about. An informal leader (activist) whose passion for improving her community is matched only by her effectiveness in mobilizing those around her to do something about it. She's started an organization called Sustainable South Bronx, (click on the name to check it out.) Among a number of exciting projects, they've developed the neighborhood's first waterfront community park in decades.
Majora's special, but not unique.
There are people like her in our communities throughout the Delta. People who accept no excuse for the sorry condition of their neighborhoods and who will do whatever it takes to improve things. Our mission tells us it's going to be our job to find the Majora Carters of the Delta, and make sure that they are empowered to do what they have been called to do. Tell me what you think in the comments.
3 comments:
This blog is so lonely! Please be brave and give your two cents!
I think that those 3 words describe our group completely.
I pray that I will be able to change my community around like this. I hope to build a teen center/ministry in my neighborhood. I pray God blesses everything that she does.
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