For the last 6-7 years I’ve had a color printout of the 1930s-era redlining map of Columbus on the bulletin board in my church office. Like all good maps, it serves as a useful guide for understanding where we are and how we got here. In this case, it illuminates what areas of our city have historically received the most favorable terms for investment (green areas) and which have been denied (red areas), with race as a key determining factor. (Blue and yellow areas were in between,...
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After I graduated from Bluffton University, I decided to sign up for Mennonite Voluntary Service with a placement in Hutchinson, Kansas. In many ways, this whole endeavor was a pilgrimage because part of the reason I went to the “wilderness” of Kansas was to try to figure out what life beyond college looked like for me.
While I was on this wider pilgrimage that eventually expanded into three years, I also took what I would consider a much more specific, shorter-term pilgrimage. I had built a relationship with Camp Mennoscah, a Mennonite camp near Hutchinson, and the director...
What’s the difference between a tourist and a pilgrim?
I think I first asked myself this question while studying in Cairo, Egypt during my senior year of college (half a lifetime ago, oh my). The semester included trips to many common destinations – the pyramids, a boat trip on the Nile, old mosques and churches. Amidst the tourists, I noticed what felt like another genre of visitor – those who approached these sites with a certain level of reverence, curiosity, and wonder. Those who came as learners, even worshipers, as if ready to be changed by the place and the stories it...
We got some good news a couple days ago worth celebrating.
The city of Columbus budgeting process involves the mayor sending a proposed budget to City Council toward the end of the calendar year, with Council having the ability to make its own adjustments. On Monday, Council President Shannon Hardin announced an additional $1.2 million allocation to the 2023 budget for the creation of a nonpolice emergency response pilot program (at the 6:10 mark in this video).
Columbus already has several “Alternative Response”...
With the Coming of Age Celebration this Sunday, I’ve been thinking a lot about the topic of transitions and change. One of the things that has been bouncing around my brain is an NPR article that came out late last year about how the pandemic may have shifted our personalities on a population-wide scale. I don’t think this is surprising to anyone. We’ve all been through a lot.
But it was interesting to have some data to back up the anecdotes and general feelings that...