(Originally published at the old Dean of Cincinnati blog on January 24, 2005)

Cincinnati City Council candidate Brian Garry with some perspectives on the biggest challenge facing our City.

Cincinnati needs to face its collective fears and be rid of them. One fear our city needs to face is that of conflict.  We should address our conflicts head on. We should work, however long it takes, to find common solutions and compromises. Progress comes by a series of compromises. Both sides give a little. Everyone is not always going to get everything that they want, although we should always constantly strive for that ideal. Cincinnati seems to have adopted the ostrich concept of problem solving: “If I don’t see, then it doesn’t exist.” Thus Cincinnati has placed blinders on and settled into a warm, comfortable lullaby hoping that conflict will resolve.

We employed this ostrich concept with race relations until faced with an emergency of utter chaos. Suddenly, we were forced to face and be-rid of the things blocking us. We started down the path to face our fear of conflict, but now that we have regained control, chaos has subsided, and we are being lulled off to sleep once again with our heads in the ground on the race issue. And they will stay there until there is another eruption/ disturbance of our sleep.

Similar to the way we treat the race issue we, use the “sweep it under the rug” technique regarding the class issue. Again, if we don’t see it, then it doesn’t matter. Unfortunately, one of these elephants is right in downtown’s living room, Over-the-Rhine. We, however, don’t see the poverty. We look right past the human suffering and we gaze at the splendid, Italianate Architecture and we daydream about what we can get out of it instead of seeing what we can give to the community of Over-the-Rhine.

Fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of losing what we have, fear of discomfort, fear of the pain of facing ourselves, our mistakes, our transgressions, our greed. The second way to face our fear of conflict is to take inventory. We need to collectively “take inventory” and perhaps share this inventory with another city. Let’s see what our strengths and weaknesses really are and set about the work of true change. We can then begin the restructuring our society, of making our little piece of the world a more equitable one. We can make a city where we eliminate extreme poverty and eliminate extreme wealth. A city where people feel valued because they are valued and that no one is locked-down, burdened with the fetters of collective racism and classism.

I wish to create a Cincinnati wherein we can truly share and exchange the best of what each of us, our cultures, have to offer. Part of this change is addressing what needs change in each of our cultures. We need true justice and mercy in our court system, business world and policing. When we stop economic injustice, we will see huge drops in crimes, of theft, drug dealing, robbery and murder. We also need to educate and eradicate the glorification of killing, the objectification of women and drug dealing in our culture, media and music. These behaviors just don’t work and just don’t help anybody. We need massive cross-cultural experience and education. Another need is a United Neighborhood Organization. The creation of this Community of Communities is one way our City can come together on real community issues, supporting each other, helping one another.

The Third way to face our fear of conflict is to make a start, not the be-all-and-end-all, but a start, to engage in a massive East meets West effort, rich meets poor, black meets white. To do a cultural exchange, in which for example, half of Taft High School goes to Elder for a while and vice versa. Where churches and businesses and government follow suit.  Our System is awful and needs to be changed, however, we really do have some tangible aversion to each other—rich, poor, black, white etc. For the greatest fear is fear of the unknown. If people really get to experience each other’s cultures in a safe and friendly environment, it will help begin addressing our ultimate goal of a just, equitable, open, accepting, peaceful city.

Our real work is to change the culture in Cincinnati. To make our little heaven right here, in Cincinnati. Christopher Smitherman has taken some first steps and we must continue this journey, walking down this path hand in hand. We as individuals are called to do this work. We must not expect politicians to do this for us. If not us, then who? If not now, then when? They can’t, but We can! We must try to make our lives microcosms of this great vision. The Serenity Prayer says, “Change the things We can.” We must live our lives this way. Enjoying the company of rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight, abled and disabled, Christian and non-Christian. We must allow room in our lives for all kinds of people, ex-offenders, homeless people, mentally ill, business executives, all kinds of people. In this way we will begin the equalization of our city.  A little Utopia. We will work first by equalizing the extreme poles of extreme wealth and extreme poverty. Rev. McCrackin was my mentor. To be around Rev. McCrackin was to enjoy a little bit of heaven, first because of his spiritual connection, but equally important because of his deep connection to all people. Rev. McCrackin said, “We are only people in relation to other people.” If Cincinnati lives by his example of courage, service and love we would truly face and be rid of our biggest challenge, that of overcoming our fear by exercising our faith.

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