Milwaukee. You're my Home.

 I'm home.  

Like, back in Milwaukee, for real.

I have always been an urbanite. I love Milwaukee.  I love being downtown in the morning when the sun peeks over the lake and streams down Wisconsin Avenue.  Before the bustle begins when the air is crisp and the shadows are sharp you can feel everything just waiting to begin. Slowly the cars arrive, the shop doors open, the busses beep, and passengers step into the fray.  

Art museum events, walks with friends down the Avenue, lunch at the Farmer's Market behind the Grand dance in my heart and remind me of those other days. 

I have so many memories of visiting, working, and hanging out downtown.  I've watched the ebb and flow of increase and decrease many times in my life.  It's a favorite place.

And then I left.  I became only a visitor who sometimes went downtown when I stopped in between more important things, who might have taken a picture or two of the lake, but whose attention was clearly elsewhere.

I was living broadly in those elsewhere years.  From Minneapolis to Moscow and several points in between.  Alone, often.  Lonely, rarely.  College degree.  Traveling city to city to soak up culture, history, friendships.  Oh! the places that I went!  The coffee drank.  The tastes sampled. The laughter guffawed.  I remember one day, in particular, sitting at a lovely little shop in St. Petersburgh reading Chekhov and drinking tea.  And roaming Boston as if I owned the place!  And New York, of course, and St. Louis, and... and.. 

But home beckoned.  That great place by a Great Lake wanted me back.

When the opportunity to come home presented itself, I knew it was time.  

It was the offer more than the location.  You see, down in my heart of hearts, I know where my passion lies.  I deeply, sincerely, want to change the image of my city.  I hate that it's called the most segregated city in America.  I despise the idea that there are kids who are not given purpose, access to education, healthcare.  How can that be?  

Milwaukee has a long, long history of openness and acceptance.  Look at the pictures of the people who really built the city.  They are strangers from many different places who got through winter's storms and summer's heat to dig deep and settle in.  

Somewhere along the line someone decided they weren't us and we weren't them and hard words and violence ensued.  A chasm split the city into angry mobs.  

I, personally, don't understand it.  

Urban studying professors may tell you it was because of red-lining and freeway building that poverty dug her talons into my city.  Accountants might blame it on booming industry that later ceased booming and caused massive lay-offs.  Others will say it's because the Italians went over there and the Poles to that side and the immigrants from elsewhere settled into that neighborhood.  Which, I do know personally, to an extent is true.  We all hold our sameness closely and there are definite ethnic neighborhoods.  However, the whole ethnic mix is guilty of this.  We live and shop where we do because of common ideas, convenience, and personal preferences. 

But the idea that people aren't welcome in one place or another because of their skin or religion, I don't understand.  I have felt it, but I don't understand it.  It always takes me by surprise.

Because most people whether they look like me or not, are welcoming and friendly.  

What does that have to do with my being home?  I'm here with a large worldview now.  I have seen how other people in other places navigate strangers.  And I have come to the conclusion that the real determining factor is a lack of understanding.

I'm home.  I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to be someone who fosters greater understanding, greater grace, and greater love for others.  I passionately believe that education is the key to eradicating poverty.  I plan to be involved in increasing educational opportunities for urban students and teachers.  

For example, I'll be working this summer with the Center for Urban Teaching and its summer school program.  It's an incredible organization that prepares teachers with real, tangible skills to bring back to classrooms. Its methods are data-proven with 7 of 10 of the highest performing schools in Milwaukee being linked to CfUT.  Teachers, leaders and students all feel the benefits of this program. 

I hereby therefore henceforth (and any other old English word of your choosing) plan to be the change my city needs.

Amen. 

Who is with me?