Community and the Hmong New Year Celebration
On Saturday I spoke at the Eau Claire Hmong Mutual Association’s New Year celebration at the UW-EC McPhee Center. I appreciated the public opportunity to thank Hmong neighbors and residents for making our community a greater place to live. And I appreciated the opportunity to talk about community.
As Eau Claire prepares for the months ahead we cannot lose sight of the importance of building community. We are in an historic time of transition in our state and country. We continue to struggle with high unemployment and slow economic recovery. We face a growing concentration of wealth in the hands of the wealthiest 1%in the United States not seen since 1928. The purchasing power of working and middle class continues to shrink. State and local governments-and therefore our local communities-are facing major cuts in the public services essential for our families and local businesses, and for our future economic growth. We have a steep hill to climb, and that reinforces our doubt and uncertainty about the future.
But we can choose to face our future with hope and confidence, IF:
- IF we remember our shared need for community;
- IF we remember our shared individual responsibility and accountability for building community;
- IF we remember to keep partisan issues from diverting us form the underlying relationships that are the lifeblood of our community.
Nearly 100 years ago President Woodrow Wilson observed:
You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.
And what is our errand in the Eau Claire community in the months and years ahead?
- Provide jobs that pay a fair day’s wage for an honest day’s work;
- Preserve the work of past generations in building the public structures that connect and enable our families and businesses;
- Strengthen working and middle class families and renew their confidence that tomorrow will be a better day; and
- See to the needs and aspirations of all our children
This is an important errand requiring a strong community, an engaged community, and a community firing on all cylinders.
An important errand, and a big challenge. I think we’re up to it.