Speaking Up

"When speaking up becomes a necessity" Grace Notes by Natalie Costanza-Chavez, Denver Post, 9/6/09.

"We all live lives of contradition. A ditch that takes no more than a hop-kick to traverse or a canyon gaping and bottomless divides us from who we strive to be, how we strive to live, the good we know we owe. This is not always easy to attend to.

The need to reconcile our contradictions lives somewhere how and deep inside. There's a voice --cricket-thin and consistent as a bell -- this we know. But, it's not always easy to attend to.

When we ignore it, we shift uncomfortably. We feel the small pings or pangs and shove them away like old lemon peels -- best to avoid the examination, the taste. "

At Neighborhood Libraries team meetings we've talked about our need to continually inform and educate our organization on cultural inclusiveness at all levels.

Natalie continues, "We have an obligation to tend to ourselves...we also have an obligation to tend to our own conscience...when something is wrong, be silent for no one. Speak your piece, even if you have to clear your throat repeatedly, even if you shake while you utter, even if it's the hardest thing you'll ever do...when conscience sounds, we need to speak and then, sometimes, more voices speak, and a chorus begins, builds, rises, into the still air finally breaking it beyond silence."

This article resonates with me as I one day at a time, one person at a time, strive for cultural inclusiveness at all levels.

Cindy McFadden