I just got back from hearing Sherman Alexie speak at the Cleveland Public Library [1]. My sides hurt from laughing so much and, yet, at the same time, I want to cry. His voice is true and his message needs to be heard.
I wanted to ask him, how do you cope with the double-life? I didn't get a chance to speak, but there were many, many people who got to SPEAK and it may have been their first time, so I am happy for those people.
I am happy for Sherman Alexie, but I know he feels conflict. How can we have an integrated society, if we can't succeed by living together? And how do we share prosperity?
My neighborhood has diversity and much more. It is a healthy environment for children to experience, because they don't see the differences, when they are young. They are friends.
But my neighborhood is also becoming a reservation, because our society tells people living in the city that you have to run away to succeed and that crime [2] is an inevitable factor of diversity. HUD is making my neighborhood a reservation, much like the reservation Sherman Alexie experienced as a child. Federal monies are driving a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure and poverty. I have been told that HUD monies don't have to be applied the way they are applied in northeast Ohio. Columbus, Ohio has a better system for applying federal funding. I have to have hope. Sherman Alexie's book [3]gives me hope. We can be a better society, and I can only hope that it starts with my neighborhood.