Why I Go ‘Round in Circles!
Written by: Ben Dixon
Published by: Central Carolina Community Foundation
President Barack Obama said it well,
"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
After decades of trying to be the change I sought, I realized there was something missing from my strategy of “giving back” to various communities, and both loving where I lived (by trying to make a difference), and living what I love (by sharing what I have a passion for) in the process. Too often, it seemed, I found myself doing all this alone. Too often, I was sharing my treasure and talent with people I never even met.
So, I started going around in circles, first in Virginia, now in South Carolina. By Joining hands, and linking arms with friends, family, and neighbors, we pooled our individual efforts and resources in order to significantly increase the probability that the community change we all sought would be achieved.
Read more...
His “Dream”: A Real and Virtual Touchstone for Today
Posted on January 16, 2012 by Community Investment Network:
MLK Day 2012 | On the importance of individual contributions
Written by Dr. Ben Dixon, a CIN member since 2005
By now, less than three months since its opening on October 16, 2011, thousands of us have stepped down from our cars, buses and bicycles to set foot on what some may call sacred ground. As each of us approached for the first time the path leading to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., we carried with us our own appreciation of and joy in being able to touch the granite stone out of which the image of the “Dreamer” emerges. We reveled in the opportunity to stand for photos next to the carefully carved prophetic and hopeful statements of Rev. Dr. King, as if to say, “Amen and amen!” to the power and veracity of their content.
My experience at the Memorial was both a real and virtual one. The beauty of the physical surroundings was surpassed only by the beauty of the rainbow of people viewing and paying their respects to the “drum major for justice.” The able-bodied and physically challenged, whites and people of color, children and young adults, traditional and nontraditional families/partnerships, white-collar and blue-collar workers and retirees moved quietly around the Memorial smiling at and greeting each other as if strangers no more, all connected in a common bond, if only momentarily....
Going Around in Circles Can Be Worthwhile!
Published by: The Community Investment Network. November 4, 2011
Written by: Dr. Ben Dixon
Chris Rock jokes about Black people not reading...
"If you want to hide something from Black folk, put in a book." (Or, blog). Bill Cosby admonishes us about the "Black culture of victim-hood." Ouch! Sometimes, the truth hurts when it's told.
Another truth to be told is that one of the most effective barriers to progress in the Black community has been us. Yes, some say our ignorance, greed and selfishness have done more to blunt our individual achievements and our collective development than any act of discrimination or UNEQUAL opportunity.
