Throughout my life, I've learned that at times, you must guard your heart and your ideas, lest they be calcified by those who actively advocate the status quo. We are all familiar with the status quo, it rears its head when there is a challenge to the social order that we've inherited. I learned this years ago while studying sociology enroute to a social work degree.
Back then, I looked at social order and status quo purely through an economic lens. I wondered if the poor neighborhood that I grew up in, the people whose lives I intersected with while in foster care were somehow predestined to be economic failures. The answer is no.
In our history we can see events that set into motion the conditions of our neighborhoods, the conditions of our families and who we've become as individuals. There are both systems at play and the choices we make given the perceived options that dictate what will ultimately be. Collectively, we can and should influence systems to be fairer, to be more equitable and just, politically, socially, and economically.
Individually, we must expand our concept of perceived options. The St. Louis region is not unlike any other place - there are mountains to climb, conceptions to overcome, things to prove, systems to challenge, and leaders to stretch. Shared prosperity is not the status quo, it is economics and leadership reimagined. It is each of us exercising personal choices.
Before anything transformational happens in the world, it starts as an idea in the hearts of men and women.
Where you bank matters.