Introduction
Culture for humans is like water for fish. It surrounds, supports, and permeates. It’s so ever-present it can almost be invisible, forgotten, ignored. Common knowledge, arts, beliefs, and practices are part of a nation’s environment. A nation’s culture shapes its people. A shared worldview, attitudes, values, morals, goals, and customs — its way of life — stabilizes a society. Understanding people requires understanding their culture.
Read MoreBy Wade Lee Hudson
Assumptions about human nature shape beliefs about the potential for change. Reflections on human history and child development indicate that compassion and the desire to cooperate are more primal, stronger, and deeper than hate and the desire to dominate. Which instinct prevails depends on many factors, including training, social conditions, and personal decisions. As Sitting Bull said, “Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.”
When people feel secure, they’re more likely to be loving and cooperative. But when they’re insecure, they’re more likely to be hateful and domineering — and willing to submit. Insecurity hardens the tendency to form ingroups and outgroups. Healthy competition becomes vicious. The hope to improve your material condition becomes all-consuming.
Society can encourage one pole or the other — domination or cooperation — or it can nurture a balance.
Read MoreThe exercise of free will, personal responsibility, and individual agency are powerful. Enhancing self-determination is important. Individuals can dedicate themselves to self-development, prepare themselves for more effective collective action, and engage in moral actions that ripple through society in unpredictable and unknown ways. Once again, it’s not either/or, but both/and. Strong communities need strong individuals and strong individuals need strong communities.
Read MoreIn 2001, Hector E. Garcia attended a St. Paul meeting between a Minnesota immigrant group and the INS (Immigration & Naturalization Services — federal agency charged with handling immigration matters, which was converted after 9/11 into three separate departments — CIS, ICE and CBO). The meeting was one of a series of tense interactions between INS and the immigrant community in person and through the media. Hector observed that community members left angrier than when they arrived and no solutions had been identified.
After the meeting, Hector suggested to Curt Aljets, District Director of INS, and to a Pastor who spoke for the community that it was possible to attain more constructive results from such meetings. Hector, at that time, was MN/Dakotas District Director for NCCJ (National Conference for Community & Justice). He offered to hold an interactive session with Mr. Aljets' staff. Out of that session, evolved a group decision to start the Twin Cities Immigrant Community Roundtable.
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