Tag: Community

“Milwaukee inspires me and breaks my heart every day,” says Angela Lang, the executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC). “It is such a beautifully complex city and it’s full of potential.” Interacting with people in her community almost every day, Lang sees immense hardships but also uplifting resilience. She is the kind of person who witnesses struggles in her neighborhood and feels moved to take action. In her eyes, there is a path for change and a way to achieve a better future. “All we have to do is tap in and engage folks in a really meaningful way,” she says. By organizing her community and encouraging participation in the political process, she gives others the power to fight for their rights. Lang grew up on 32nd and Wisconsin, well aware of the dichotomy of the neighborhood’s low-income housing in the shadow of Marquette High School, a school most of her friends would never be able to afford. She also watched as her single mother struggled with breast cancer while working multiple jobs. Fast forward to 2017, when Lang and five elected officials (Sen. LaTonya Johnson, Rep. David Bowen, Ald. After hearing the concerns of everyday people and taking time to understand their hardships, BLOC began training canvassers (or ambassadors, as BLOC calls them) to educate citizens about the political system.

Part 3: When you are born into the Hasidic Jewish community, you are born a Hasid for life. However, if one does choose to leave the community, they risk being an outcast in not just the Hasidic community but the…

Tragically, too many lives have been lost over the past years to too many shootings and acts of domestic violence. The nexus of the gun lobby, second amendment rights activists, and a crippled mental health system has effectively blocked action to stop the killing. Any solution in this political environment has to start at the local level, and be reinforced by Executive Action. Effective programs for identifying and monitoring potentially violent young offenders are grounded in community mental health systems and involve community social agencies, the police, and the FBI. As a career military psychiatrist and former Army general, I have learned that a complex system needs a senior commander in charge to build a strategy and coordinate the operations, particularly when the politics are dysfunctional. An empowered Assistant Secretary can design and implement programs to strength community mental health and prevent future tragedies. Nikolas Cruz is a teaching case on violence and mental health, and the failure of our society to care for handicapped and disadvantaged young people like him. Cruz’s problems were out in the open for years. Nor was his adoptive father who had died six years before. The social service agencies, police, and FBI failed to act on Cruz’s threats and the dangers he obviously presented.

Last year, hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria inflicted record-breaking devastation on America, taking more than 200 lives and causing more than $200 billion in damages. Before federal emergency relief could respond, the religious community was there. Only after the water had receded and most were able to return safely to their homes did these religious organizations begin to look to their own needs. What they found was overwhelming. The White House ultimately brought an end to FEMA’s discriminatory policy, allowing religious entities to receive aid on the same terms as their non-religious neighbors. The BBA ends the religious discrimination of the past, and makes clear that houses of worship will be able to participate with FEMA’s vital disaster assistance, the key to ensuring that religious nonprofits will be able to rebuild and serve their communities for years to come. FEMA comes in behind natural disasters. States are able to credit the cash value of volunteer labor towards the required percentage of funding a state must match with federal disaster aid. The hundreds of thousands of tireless volunteer hours performed by houses of worship and religious nonprofits in the wake of every natural disaster saves damaged states millions of dollars that can freed to benefit citizens in other ways. Thanks to the Trump administration, and the swift action of Congress, thousands of houses of worship are again eligible for FEMA relief just like everyone else.