Jan.21.2009
11:41 am
by Ed Beakley
RC#24 Wall Street, Main Street, and then that other world – Railroad Street
"Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it. (General George Washington)
America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations." President Barack Obama, January 20, 2009
Resiliency: 1) the power to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity; 2) ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy
Project White Horse 084640 focus for 2008 was "resilient communities" and the leadership requirements to so produce and sustain. Throughout, has been the thread that survival in unconventional, hyper complex, worst case crisis requires not only professional first responders but, private sector and citizen alike. Indeed, severe crisis levels the social status/wealth/political party/race playing field to a lowest common denominator – survival. Reflecting again America's birth, Ben Franklin's words at the signing of the Declaration of Independence apply – "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."
Throughout this year I have been honored to have included inputs from General Russel Honore (United States Army, Retired) – Commander Joint Task Force Katrina on PWH. Once again his words on Martin Luther King Day point to what it will require to be a resilient community – a resilient America:
I think in the spirit and soul of MLK , we should remind the leaders of this great nation that we have three "streets" in America not two… The third street in America is "Railroad Street."... As we celebrate the great accomplishment that will occur tomorrow, let's use the power of the message in the coming days and weeks, to shed light on the realities of life on "railroad street."
Resiliency will most certainly require all three streets with common outlook, common interest, with mutual respect to work as one. Please read General Honore's words on Anderson Cooper's AC360 http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/19/wall-street-main-street-and-then -that-other-world-railroad-street/
Filed in Adaptive Leadership, Resilient Community | One response so far
I fear that unless the issue of Railroad Street is addressed promptly, effectively, and immediately, resiliency is a myth. It is the “wrong side of tracks” that gets beaten into the pulp when any crisis arrives, it is there where suffering is the greatest, and the recovery the longest. If it really ever happens.
Remember – we do not speak of the recovery of Bourbon Street. And we hardly ever speak of the 9th Ward. The first really did not suffer, and there’s not much to speak about – it was, to borrow the General’s words , “an inconvenience.” We do not speak of the second because it was and remains an embarassment. We do not speak of such in the polite society of either Wall or Main Streets. We should.
Embarassments have a tendency of becoming disasters unless addressed promptly and decisively. What magnitude of a disaster will we find sufficiently convincing to start doing rather than wringing hands? How many victims will make us pay permanent attention to the problem instead of lip service? There is something pretty telling about MLK’s “If you can’t fly – run. if you can’t run -walk. But by all means, move forward.”
“Railroad” does not move. it is bogged down in its own mire of despondency, hopelessness, and indifference to its ongoing plight. It stagnates, and has been stagnating forever, since that has been the major attribute of it for as long it existed. The fault that it still exists is not “theirs” but ours – the Main Street and the Wall Street forever preoccupied with all forms of haute couture offered to the rich to consume.
Assuaging our slightly tarnished consciences, we have made enough polite or thunderous comments about racial divides, technology divides, economical divides, and all other divides, but have done very little action: let us stop talking, friends. Let us do some doing.