You have to be taught. . .

You do.

Oscar and Hammerstein sing those lyrics in a classic stage play.

When I grew up on Detroit's East Side, trusting and talking to people of color in the nearby neighborhood, let alone the nation, and, on the way to Saint Thomas the Apostle School on Miller and Townsend past Burrough's Junior High at Saint Cyril and George, was not on my radar.

I was taught to exclude.

Outstanding mentors have helped me to undo that harmful learning.

Richard Rohr, for example, a Franciscan pastor, notes of the separate and autonomous self and individual that keeps people alone and isolated.  He claims this posture is an illusion.

It is.

We were made for each other. 

To be with each other.

To be one nation under God.

To be in communion with the community.

In union, in solidarity with each other.

A regional cooperation parade is set for Thursday, August 22nd at 6 pm at 8 Mile/Van Dyke, for unity. Bring a bell, and, a banner to carry to Toepher Street in Warren.

From 6 pm that evening, a supper will be served at 22021 Memphis (2 blocks west of Van Dyke, 8 blocks south of 9 Mile) in Warren, guests of Rev. David Kasbow of the Metro Detroit Family Church. We will bury segregation and lift up diversity and the dignity of each one.

Join me, will you please?