Let us always be neighborly
John E. Peterson
Thursday, March 22, 2007
I FREQUENTLY get phone calls or notes about this column. I like that. Some of them are suggestions for a topic. A phone call came from Carol Marshall for that reason. She said some nice things about my column and then told me that there are some things regarding our new Somalians about which I ought to write.
We chatted a bit and I suggested that she write some of her thoughts down and send them to me. She told me that her vision has gotten so poor that writing was difficult. She suggested that I think about it a bit and then call her back. We could talk about her ideas. I agreed to do that, if I had my way.
As I thought about Carol Marshall, I realized that I had known about her. She has a doctorate in educational administration and research. She had been here at the university. She had been in charge of the Early Childhood division in the Teachers College.
It also dawned on me that she had been active in affairs with African-American people here in town. She had helped Nellie Essex and Elizabeth Williams write their historical things about early African-Americans in Emporia. I recalled that I had heard those ladies speak on that subject. Very interesting. And Carol is involved in the East Side Community Group which is developing the park on the corner of East and Ninth streets.
So! Carol has had a longtime interest in our African-American people. She now has much interest in those who have recently come to us, the Somalians. She lives near the Ayan Cafe and the apartments where many of them live. Consequently, she sees much of what is going on with them.
Since Carol and I first talked, there has been some attention given to the Somalians and some things have happened to them. THE GAZETTE has run two big front-page stories. One was a general coverage about our new Somalian citizens. The other was about one of the Somalian young men, about the affairs leading to his coming here as a refugee from his home country.
Then, there was publicity about the attempted robbery at the Ayan Cafe, the place where our Somalian people do a good bit of hanging-out. That reminds me that I happened to drive past there on New Years Day afternoon. It was a beautiful day and there were Somalians standing and chatting all around the cafe. There must have been 40 or 50 of them there. It is a fine gathering place for these new citizens of ours.
And, of course, there has been a good bit of publicity about the Somalian worker at Tyson who was stricken with a disease. So! Since Carol Marshall brought the Somalian group to my attention, it has gotten some publicity. Some of it positive, some not so good.
Carol and I did talk on the phone again after that first chat. Then, I received some notes from her, some things she called “possibilities” about which I might write. Her possibilities were not specifically about our Somalian people. They were really about being neighborly, about all of us being regularly neighborly to all the rest of us. Of course, that is a good direction for all of us to take. It is particularly so with new members of our society, as are the Somalians. We would all be neighborly with each other, if I had my way.
As a start for sharing Carol’s possibilities with you, she said that “Most of all, we should ask what our newest resident population would like for us to do.” That is a good thought. Have any of us, or any of our official groups, asked the Somalians what they need and what they would like?
Then, Carol said that we should “initiate greetings and waves with plenty of smiles.” In my opinion, that is a good thought. It is neighborly to greet people and wave to them. We should do a lot of that to each other. That would include doing so to the Somalians also, of course.
Another of Carol’s possibilities is that we should go into other people’s gathering places. For the Somalians, that is the Ayan Cafe. I must admit that I have not been in there yet, but I keep thinking that I want to do so. I would get to it soon, if I had my way.
Carol also speaks of passing around fruits and candies to our neighbors on various occasions. And of offering special invitations to various events to each other. And of making a special effort to let new people — like the Somalians — know about our history and events associated with it.
There, then, I think I have summarized Carol Marshall’s thoughts about being neighborly. At this time, she thinks we should particularly be neighborly to our new Somalian people. I certainly agree with her. We are becoming less neighborly these days it seems. That should not be and we would make a strong effort to change that, if I had my way.