I've been saddened lately by the anger in public discourse, all the way from national to neighborhood. On the way home I often walk by the site of Kapow Coffee which will soon be a new restaurant. I've heard neighbors advocating a boycott of the new business due to bad blood with the landlord. Us vs them.
On Monday we went to the Martin Luther King Day Celebration at Seattle Center, where a local pastor gave a stirring reading of the full text of Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech. I was struck by the fact that Dr. King, though attacked physically as well as verbally throughout his career, advocates reconciling with instead of merely defeating his opponents: "one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers."
Next Tuesday night we'll attend the city's public meeting to discuss the South Lake Union Urban Design Framework. The local rhetoric about building heights has been particularly vicious. (For those of you not familiar with our South Lake Union neighborhood, there are fears that billionaire Paul Allen's company uses insider government access to write laws for its own profit.) I hope that whatever the outcome, we can help form a neighborhood of reconciliation.
