“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” – John F. Kennedy
We have reached the tipping point as a community. The changes wrought by the global pandemic despite every rosy false projection are not going away anytime soon. Rising infection and death rates cannot be obfuscated by a reality television veneer or outright lies. The fight for racial justice and equality has exposed a raw and visceral wound that is acting like a mirror forcing us to confront the ugliest image reflected back just like the Portrait of Dorian Gray of Oscar Wilde fame. Like the character of Dorian in the novel, we cannot deny the rotting reflection of we are, a beautiful country with a decaying heart and soul. The decay comes from the poison of the original sin that haunts the founding of our country, the original sin of slavery. This sin is exacting a toll that we are in denial about paying. The bill collectors are demanding payment and we are disputing the final tally. Coronavirus is our late fee penalty on that bill.
The combined scourges of our racist past and our current undeniable diseased present are obliterating everything in its fire scorching path. The combination has exposed our collective and individual helplessness to block its inevitable conclusion. We are all staring into the heart of darkness and our fear/panic is palpable. We are looking for a lifeline to pull us to a place of safety that provides us a calming comfort. Holding out hope that maybe something of value and worth will be spared from the blaze and that we can rebuild from the ruins.
For many in our community, Dayton is and has been that safe harbor. A destination removed from the devastation. A community that is impervious to the winds of change that are sweeping our world. Our false sense of safety is rooted in the privilege of denial. Dayton has for the most part survived global conflicts, economic recessions, and societal unrest that other cities have never recovered from. This false sense of security has to lead us to encourage leadership that is more about maintaining the status quo rather than a leadership enlisted to encourage growth and Innovation. Instead, we have settled for a leadership dazed by the halcyon glow of nostalgia and myopic to the possibilities of what a visionary future may hold. Nostalgia has always been a crutch for maintaining the status quo.
Maintaining the status quo requires a certain type of leadership operating within a conducive environment. This type of leadership almost always cloaks itself in the veneer of middling respectability. A profound lack of intellectual curiosity and creative thought processes are hallmarks of their managerial style.
The twin scourges of the pandemic and racism have provided double metaphorical slaps to the status quo. Both slaps have produced a variety of responses from our leaders. Some leaders awoke from the slaps to a renewed sense of purpose, finding opportunities to deal with our problems with a certain amount of clarity and willpower. Other leaders turned their gaze inward by reflecting on and considering the severity of the consequences of their roles and looking to make amends. A small minority of our leaders punched back, obstinately refusing to address the stark reality of our challenges, retreating to a false narrative, and making decisions that dangerously contradict the harshest truths. A fatal denial that endangers us all. The danger of this approach is that our Pre-COVID world is gone up in a blaze that is leaving nothing in its wake. We cannot return to an empty lot and pretend that we have a beautiful mansion unscathed. Wake up!
The Great Reset
Yes, we are in dark dystopian times, and at times it feels as if we are being consigned to a fatalistic ending. Nihilism is a response reserved only for the privileged and over-indulged and doesn’t allow for what inevitably happens after a cleansing fire, a chance to rebuild. A massive reset that addresses a new design for our way of life. Embracing fresh ideas and concepts that provides a roadmap to a future that is inclusive, dynamic, and equal. If we had leaders who possess bold visionary and creative skills and a zest for life, we just might have a fighting chance to be reborn as a city, a Dayton 2.0. For this to happen we have to reset ourselves. We need to imbue ourselves with the ability to never accept bad and mediocre decision making. Exercise our rights as citizens to demand better from those who control the levers of power. If their incompetency causes damage or harm, exercise our rights to remove them from power. Hold them accountable at every point of their tenure.
Image courtesy of Tom Gilliam
We are all looking for inspiration and the motivation to rise up and meet insurmountable challenges head-on. We are all seeking the wisdom and guidance of exceptional leaders who will be an improvement from the gaggle of short-sighted leaders who are currently blocking our progress as we march toward a viable future. At some point, all of us have been lulled into the docile embrace of the mediocrity that governs us. We have let fear make us the pawns in other people’s games. We have let fear guide us away from who we truly are. Instead of talking about our past glories of invention and industriousness let us engage actively in the task of rebuilding Dayton from the ground up. We may be tired, battered, and burned by the fire, but we are also audaciously endowed with the forces of common sense, decency, and creative vitality that will see us through to an even unimaginably brighter future when that last ember has died. These latent powers lie dormant within all of us and the time to use those powers is now.
One of my favorite shows to watch during this period of turbulence and despair has been HBO’s West World and my favorite line from the show that I have adopted as a personal mantra is that, “This is the new world. And in the new world, you can be whoever the F**k you want.” So the question that I pose to Dayton is, who the F**k do you want to be?
Transparency is one of the unspoken tenets or hallmarks of democracy. That regardless of politics or personal ideology, The transparency of our public officials in their decision making is critical in order for trust to exist. That we are all working in good faith towards this state of institutional honesty. Our trusting votes as citizens, that we place in your leadership capabilities put you in the position to craft and shape decisions that maximize our potential for greatness and on the flip side, minimize the impact of making the tough decisions.
Anyone who has made it to the age of 92 would have a planeload of stories to share about a life filled with adventures, but Lt. Colonel Harold Brown is no ordinary nonagenarian. An accomplished educator, air pilot and one of the few remaining members of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. Lt Colonel Harold H. Brown has written a book chronicling this extraordinary life titled, “KEEP YOUR AIRSPEED UP: The Story of a Tuskegee Airman.”
Nothing is more cringe inducing when you are in the middle of conversation about projects and activities at the ideation stage either at work or in the community, when the voices of caution and timidity start chiming in; “that seems risky” or “I don’t know if the community will support this?” and my all-time favorite “that’s now how we do things here.” Internally the risk takers are screaming, but often we cannot get upset with the messenger, they usually deliver this cautiousness in an earnest knowing way; as if risky projects are initiated all the time in this mid-size city and they are unmitigated disasters. With no overwhelming evidence of high risk successes or consequentially spectacular epic failures I would say that these comments deserve to be banished, especially at the ideation phase.
In the new book “Thank you for Being Late” Thomas Friedman talks about us living in an age of rapid accelerations, a world in which societal progress, technological advancements are happening at speeds that exceed the grasp of imagination, much less our capacity to deal with them. As the rapid progress (Dayton’s version) is occurring in our city, we have to acknowledge and accept that we are still behind other cities of a comparative size. If every city in the world, and this is a global competition, is reaching for the same sort of civic projects and rebranding, then old tropes, lack of imagination and fear cannot be the starting point for any conversation or dialogue or path forward in developing our city. We all hear a lot of talk about our rich inventive history, our vibrant art scene, but scant talk about what this will look like in the future. Forecasting or visioning a stellar future requires huge imaginative leaps of faith and intellectual curiosity.
This conversation to me underscores the need for dreaming about big and extraordinary things. That we need to be redirecting our energies towards the future, or we will be in a perpetual state of catching up to rapidly accelerating societal forces. We need to envision what will Dayton be in 2050.
Which begs the question; what are the new global economic realities on the horizon and beyond? How do we make Dayton adaptable and edgy enough to be receptive to these possibilities? It can no longer be a conversation about retention of talent but also a parallel track of attracting talent, fresh blood and new ideas. New ideas that might be so radical that they scare us or whose impact cannot be readily ascertainable. Ideas that are not safe or cautious. We have to live on that edge or we are doomed to be just taking up space.
“We need to make this country welcoming to all enterprising, energetic, and ambitious people. This is the biggest no-brainer in the world.” – Richard Florida
One such example of the boldness of inclusion is Hamilton the musical. Going beyond the spectacle and privilege of attending live theatre, how the subject of the founding of our nation and one its chief architects was presented by a multi-cultural and ethnic cast and crew with the intention of changing the lens of viewership speaks to that audacity. Yes, it was clever in its use of rap as a vehicle to tell this dynamic story, the bigger story was the intentionality of the inclusion and diversity. When it comes to our urban core (which we call Dayton) that kind of intentionality has to come into effect. I applaud when it occurs, however the omnipresent flipside to this progress is tokenism.
Tokenism can very be debilitating to the civic engagement process as the flip side to the lack of inclusion. Tokenism hinders and binds us to an even greater extent than the lack of inclusion. It can create a false sense of progress. It becomes a tricky and complicated situation in these civic meetings and socially uncomfortable, when it becomes painfully and unappealingly obvious that it is occurring. I am willing to acknowledge that personal discomfort not out of a need to avoid this particular social landmine, but out of a need to detonate it, in order to move forward. When we detonate this particular landmine, the blast will leave a lasting impression, an acquired social knowingness, that stings, hurts, shreds and decimates personal barriers and biases in this massive polemic we call “Race.” There will blood, but I also believe there will be the freedom of release and healing.
next wave of progress must involve immigrants and other ethnicities being engaged in the decision making process and actually getting the job done. Going back to my Sci-Fi Nerd Star Trek reference lower your shields. Do not ask me how to begin this process, I am not in possession of a magic road map to the minefield of “Race.” You as leaders and activists have to chart your own paths and bravely take the first step. Trust yourself to screw it up and be honest and verbal about it, take the hits. Yes, it will feel inorganic and messy at first, but over time you will get the hang of it. If you stay still and take no action, progress will pass you by.
being in the “Room” I am given a unique vantage point on these public projects, all of which are noble in the purest theoretical sense. When we are in these meetings which are beautiful anachronistic formal exercises of contemporary business mores, (handouts, Introductions and PowerPoint and maybe a pot of coffee) we begin the process of Civic project management. As an artist/culturalist I am privately amused at the human drama that unfolds, social machinations worthy of Edith Wharton. Trust me when I tell you most of these meetings never rise above the mundane and pragmatic. When these meetings are healthy passionate vigorous debates on what Dayton is and what it can become, that is when the possibility of bold and audacious action takes root, unfortunately this is the rare exception.
you do not know who they are, Google them) leaders in other fields and professions. My private hope is that more people would throw caution to the wind, loosen up and let their passions fly in these meetings. I need more mavericks and rogue agents driving the next wave of urban development.
of diversity needs to be answered. We all have a tendency to see diversity though the narrow lens of race and class. For this conversation I want to focus on the role of class in the civic decision making process. All too often in these meetings, there is a prevailing parochial middle class lens that shapes and underpins the decision making process. Which baffles me at times, as we have all to a certain extent have achieved a level of recognizable professional success.
Musica, Dayton’s Chamber Choir, is partnering with the Dance Department at Stivers School for the Arts to present Body & Voices, a program utilizing the talents of both musicians and dancers.
