" 'What you don't know won't hurt you,' but in this case what we don't know could destroy us."

There is no one I know or work with who can compare to the work that Father Charlie Strobel has done for his fellow human beings. To those who know him, you know exactly what I mean. To those who don't, until you do you may never know just how deep compassion and love for one's fellow man can run....

I do want to add a note of caution to Father Strobel's request here: be careful what you ask for, Charlie; you may find the information to be far worse than you imagined....

Sigh.


We need insight into what level of tolerance exists in our community | www.tennessean.com | The Tennessean

We need insight into what level of tolerance exists in our

community

By CHARLES STROBEL • August 11, 2008

Tennessee Voices

In his book God's Politics, the progressive evangelical Jim Wallis writes: "The United States of America was established as a white society, founded upon the genocide of another race and then the enslavement of yet another."

This may seem to be a jolting reminder of American history, but as Samuel Johnson said, "People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed."

In spite of our failures and social sins, we are also a nation of moral growth, and one of the most important measures of our collective progress is race relations.

Who would have believed, on the night that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, that 40 years later we would have an African-American candidate for president? Still, we ask one another, both in whispers and loud voices: Will race be the deciding factor in whether Barack Obama is elected?

Jon Meacham, writing in Newsweek, says, "We cannot wish race away, but the more we know about people's resentments and fears, the better we may be able to put them to rest." Maybe it's time to know about the level of resentments and fear in our own community.

What if we took the time to find out what we're thinking right here in Nashville? I would love to see a profile regarding our position on minorities, immigrants, the homeless and the poor.

Wouldn't we want to know the level of tolerance and understanding that exists in our midst?

Twenty-one years ago, Barry Lee, a former sociology professor at Vanderbilt, conducted a poll of Nashvillians regarding their feelings about the homeless. He reported that 82 percent of the people interviewed "overwhelmingly favor providing more public services for the city's homeless." He wrote, "I think the real litmus test is that … a majority of the respondents said they'd be willing to increase taxes if that's what it took."

That was 21 years ago. I wonder how we feel today.

Often, we presume to know a lot about our attitudes as a community. We do not think of ourselves as bigoted and mean-spirited.

We claim we are compassionate, tolerant, fair, open-minded and religious. But do these claims represent our hopes or our actions? Maybe it's time to look past our self-perceptions and toward more empirical evidence. We have the groups and the skills in place to make it happen. We are, after all, capable of surveying our opinions regarding NFL stadiums and NHL contracts; why not see where we actually stand on issues of poverty and race in 2008?

The Homelessness Commission and the Metro Human Relations Commission have given endorsements for such a study. Community/Nashville and Vanderbilt's Nashville Studies Project are potentially appropriate contributors.

And wouldn't the Chamber of Commerce want to be a partner, perhaps even funding such a project since the results, if positive, would affect the recruitment of new businesses to the area?

It seems to me that with Obama running for president — along with a possible return to resegregating urban schools, homeless tensions with other downtown residents and a petition to change the Metro Charter with English-only legislation drawing closer — it is time to look for any empirical evidence of resentments and fear underlying our decisions in these matters.

There's an old saying, "What you don't know won't hurt you," but in this case what we don't know could destroy us.

Let's see if this community can live up to the Metro Human Relations Commission's motto: "One City, One People."

Wouldn't we be proud citizens to know we all believed in that?

Charles Strobel is founding director of the Room In The Inn shelter for the homeless.