On the recordMarch 10, 2014
There is wisdom in my community. There is still wisdom. If you will, allow me to share a story with you. I have learned my best lessons in life from some of the humblest folks who have this wisdom. There is something about the DNA of human beings that knows we have to respect the environment that gives us everything. We are a people that used to be an agrarian society. In my city there is a gentleman. I talked about this gentleman in the State of the City Address once who was living in a high-rise building across the street from a lot. It was fenced in by some iron, but the iron had given way, so it was full of debris and junk. There were some guys who dealt drugs out there. People looked at that as an area you just do not go to. This guy got a stimulus check in the mail. You were saying before how expensive it is. James Baldwin, the great American author, said something about is very expensive to be poor. But I also find there are those who have the least who are the most generous to others. This retired State worker, instead of just saying, great, I got a check in the mail--he didn't do that--he said: I am going to use this check. So he went and bought a lawnmower, a rake, and gardening materials. He went into the lot the drug dealers were using--the elderly man goes into the lot and he tended to the earth; cleaned it up, mowed the lawn, a little bit every day. He didn't do it all at once. First, people were worried about it. The drug dealers didn't pay him any mind.…
