We tell stories to help us make sense of the world. These hundreds and thousands of stories we tell ourselves and each other make up our world view – how we process our tiny place within the world. Some stories are meant to inspire. Some stories are meant to teach us deep lessons about humanity....Read More

Alex and I have been talking about how people ask us if we are afraid of getting shot where we live on the 53206 Podcast and the truth is that before I moved into the inner city of Milwaukee, I was afraid of getting shot even driving through the area.  But then I moved into my...Read More

Are some neighborhoods designed to fail the people that live in them?  My neighborhood produces many excellent people but it also produces a lot of people the world would call failures.  People who are in jail, people who don’t graduate high school, people who don’t make above the poverty threshold.  Who’s responsibility is it that...Read More

I was down at the lakefront yesterday and I saw a Black man wearing a Black Lives Matter shirt.  I really wanted to go up to him and say, “Yes, Black lives do matter.”  It made me think of why someone needs to wear a shirt saying their life matters.  It seems so backwards that...Read More

Dex and I biked to a coffee shop last night that is about a mile away.  We were stopped at the traffic light on Holton St.  I told him this street is one of the dividers of the good and bad area of Milwaukee, he tuned to me and said, the white and the black...Read More

14 years of living in the inner city does something to you. What it does depends on who you were before you lived there, whether you felt like you had a choice in living there, and how much access you had during your time living there. We chose to live here. We have enough access...Read More

I have known Andre since he moved into our neighborhood 7 years ago. Andre is the most welcoming person I know.  He invites people with his smile and energy into his circle no matter what.  Andre runs the We Got This garden and you will find him in the garden most days helping people.  ...Read More

I have this really cool opportunity to spend some time tomorrow workshopping our message with Rob Bell. I’ve been a fan of his for years and he is offering, for a fee, small group sessions where you spend time working on your communications. In order to maximize the time, Meg and I have been working...Read More

While I was suppose to be working working today, I was looking at MSN and an article caught my attention: America’s best suburbs for growing families. I feel that articles like these are perpetuating racism whether we know it or not.  I would bet most of these cities on the list have little diversity and...Read More

I just wrapped up listening to the audio book version of White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. The book is her attempt to define the term white fragility. In a rough paraphrase, white fragility is the concept or response that white people often have to their discomfort when talking about race or receiving feedback that they...Read More