As Little Earth rises above strife, we, too, have a role

As the mother of three young boys who were born and are being raised in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, I was very pleased to see coverage of the grass-roots efforts women from the Little Earth housing complex are leading to improve and strengthen our community (“Little Earth striving to rise above strife,” March 22). As the elected official honored to represent the nation’s largest number of urban American Indian families, I believe this level of resident engagement aimed at increasing safety, supporting young people and ending the cycle of violence is valuable and necessary — and it is a clear call to action for the rest of us.

As an organizer-turned-City-Council-member, I am a firm believer in the power of people coming together to demand change and create solutions. In fact, that’s what buen gobierno — good government — is also made of. At the same time, as a descendant of Mexican Indigenous people from a country that has had to grapple with the legacies of colonization, I also know about mal gobierno. If we really care about ending our city’s first-in-the-nation racial inequities, then we must face the hard truth about the significant role our government has played in creating some of the persistent challenges we now see at Little Earth.

http://www.startribune.com/as-little-earth-rises-above-strife-we-too-have-a-role/373917101/