President’s message
While this will be my last official President’s Message before stepping down at year’s end, I committed to our newsletter editor, Al Ellis, that I would continue in the future to offer my opinions and stories for his perusal. I trust my acceptance ratio with Al will be better than I’ve had with mainstream media editors—I believe I’m batting two for six on “Letters to the Editor” to The Oregonian and Portland Tribune. (In baseball terms, that would garner me a few million a year!)
Beginning with the January Board meeting, Vice President Bill Markwart will be assuming duties as acting President, a task he has performed in the past during his long commitment to the Beaumont-Wilshire Neighborhood Association. I am hoping his service as such will be short-lived and that someone will come forward offering his or her talents between now and April’s annual elections at our Taste of Beaumont meeting. As I’m writing this article I have received a couple of inquiries of interest in the two open at-large Board positions, and perhaps those additions will bear fruit.
Recently I’ve had discussions with folks who have been involved with Portland civic activism and neighborhood associations going back several decades, many of whom feel that that Portland’s City Council and bureaus, then and now, are not as accepting and inclusionary as they should be with respect to input from civic organizations, particularly neighborhood associations, on matters of policy formation. Well, Portland has an evolving council next year with two new members, so the time will be ripe to voice these concerns and see what can be done to turn this perceived exclusionary norm around. That said, in my mind such a transformation can be accomplished only by two-way communication, with civic activists demonstrating a willingness to listen to opinions divergent from their own. I don’t mean to imply that activists should abandon their passionately-held principles, but some level of empathy and courtesy for others’ opposing views is essential. Yes, perseverance requires passion, but celebrating little positive steps through compromise can also fuel the journey toward change.
On a certain Tuesday night last November, I texted a friend with the message, “Not sure I recognize the country that I live in anymore.” Since then I’ve read a few articles that made me pause and reflect that others with completely different life experiences may have voiced similar sentiments over many years. Though it is difficult to admit, many people of strong integrity and good character that have completely different perspectives from our own on controversial issues of the day. In full candor, my empathy and ability to “walk in someone else’s shoes” often runs a bit low, but—hopefully—I can begrudgingly admit it, even after the fact.
In my April 2016 message, I listed many examples of “time well spent” regarding my term as BWNA President, and I don’t plan to rehash that here, except to reassert that sitting around and complaining is easy, and reaching out and joining others to effect change is hard. Yet the latter is so much more rewarding!
Looking forward to many good things happening in 2017, and in the words of an interesting Madison Avenue icon, “stay thirsty my friend.”