Shoreline of change

Escaping into solitude with shorelines of sand, pluff mud and reeds...

There are many reasons to visit, live, or linger in the Lowcountry region of South Carolina. What I value most is her sultry way of letting me just be...to wonder and wander without limitation.

Port Royal, SC is a small village of almost nothing, but everything at the same time. We've seen a great deal of change in the economy of this small town through the financial market crash to being hit last year with a tropical storm and a hurricane. The village is about to undergo some big change this fall as a port redevelopment project gets underway.

I will mourn the loss of the "sleepy" nature of my village along the coast. The port project will bring commerce and activity as well as a great deal of visual/physical change to the village center. At the same time, I welcome what such a development will offer the community, her people, the market of opportunity, and perhaps maybe even my own endeavors.

Heading into fall I know change is afoot.
My remarks to town council related to the port property during the open public comment period in August 2017:

I served on the redevelopment commission for the Town of Port Royal for eight years and am quite familiar wth the port property, past and present. 

Historically, careful consideration was given to conducting charrettes to “take in” public opinion when the sale of this port was placed on our table to develop.

What seems evident to me in these public forums is that the citizens of Port Royal reflect back to that thoughtful process with great pride.  [As do I] It is a benchmark for many and a healthy one to leverage in the discourse or discussions related to the port.

However, even then we did not all agree about the future of the port nor will we all agree today in what is to come. It’s healthy discourse to disagree with so many diverse interests in one small town like ours, ONE THAT IS COOL.

In making decisions connected to this port as our designated body of decision makers, our council members have to make choices that serve those who will come along long after they and many of us are gone.

Please keep in mind that access is not only a public right of way but also in the opportunity to participate in the commerce and activity of this port. The jobs and commercial activity of what is to grow and thrive inside this port and in close proximity will have positive economic impact on our ability to enjoy both the land and sea of our community, ONE THAT IS COASTAL.

In terms of any land swap...

• don’t give away what improves our quality of life and existing views;
• do enhance what we see.

In terms of the existing dry stack...

• don’t overlook what could be done today to create immediate opportunity for economic gain;
• do weigh the future over the past.

The role of our members of council certainly includes sustaining long term growth and viability for our town, its residents and business owners. As such our assets should be configured so that they shine bright in this FAR FROM ORDINARY town.

Thank you.

It's not fatal if we shepherd change.

A seven-year old has a natural curiosity to understand the world around them. Everything is new and most anything invariably involves asking why it is so. That was most certainly true in 1970 in Huntington, West Virginia. 

I recall that evening in October when my father came home from the Marshall University campus after students protesting recent drug raids were tear-gassed. As an Episcopal minister it would not have been unusual for my father, also an adjunct teaching social work at the university, to believe his campus presence a necessary protocol as a member of the faith community. He certainly would have been easy to identify with his white clerical collar. Whether he chose, was asked or just happened to be on campus that evening one thing remains vivid in my memory and that was the sense of relief my mother expressed when he returned home. (Tragically this unfortunate event was followed by the plane crash on November 14, 1970 that claimed the lives of thirty-seven members of the Marshall football team, its coach, its doctors, athletic director and 25 team boosters. To say that Huntington as a community introduced me to the art of resilience is an understatement. It remains a special place.)

Flash forward to Ithaca, New York in October of 2015 when a campus wide assembly was

called by the Ithaca College administration to address racism and cultural bias. I remember catching the clerical collar out of the corner of my eye and denoting the gentleman’s location in the lobby as I, along with other alumni, members of the staff, faculty and student population proceeded into the College’s Athletics & Events Center. Truthfully, this assembly was crafted as poorly as prior attempts for fostering genuine dialogue. A heavy uniform presence, staff instructed to marshall attendees to fill seats on the floor, a panel of speakers comprised of white-haired caucasian men...all the trappings and appearances of inflexibility. However, what made this particular evening different was a student protest by POC at IC who took to the stage to verbally deliver a bevy of information recounting the campus experience for students of color. When the students concluded their remarks they asked the audience to join them in walking out on a panel prepped to talk at them rather than include them. By my estimate 75% of the audience elected to leave the assembly and I was part of that procession.

At the onset I intended to listen fairly to the discussion, taking in all that was to be said, but one look at the panel suggested my good intention would be lost on yet another misguided, maligned attempt to control the conversation. I grabbed a quick video clip of the procession out of the building, walked up a short flight of stairs on a mission to locate the man in the clerical collar. When I found him I hugged him, whispering quietly to him “Father, I think we’ve been here before.” I gingerly gripped his arm in recognition and walked away. In that moment, hugging a man of the cloth, it was as if I had the chance, some fifty years later, to understand fully my father’s commitment to his faith and to the students at Marshall University that fall evening in 1970.

While one can deliver instruction on recognizing discrimination and embracing an ever-expanding definition of diversity it is wholly another challenge to grasp the impact of bias academically, economically, and culturally. Change takes time. That is especially true when it seems to be languishing in the bureaucracy of decision-making and disingenuous dialogue on a college campus. Thus, sometimes negotiating a new way forward necessitates action. 

As similar calls to action are made at several institutions of higher education I imagine those with the greatest to lose are those seeking to avoid or negate the conversation about doing things differently.

Frankly, presidents, Board of Trustees, administrative heads, alumni, faculty, staff and students at any of these institutions will find they are compromised by inaction perhaps even culpable. It's only fatal if we don't take action to shepherd change.