After some broken promises, DART comes through

I got a phone call from my friend, Mike Davis, this evening.

"Can you get some people together? DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) is reinstating their route through Turner Courts."

I immediately called Lori and Evette, who were at our Saturday Town Hall meeting with DART and had done their best to explain why bus service was needed through the apartments after 8:00. DART had promised that service would be reinstated by March 15, but didn't follow through on their promise. Their representative talked about statistics and dangerous conditions. Evette, Sheila, Lori, and Sylvia tried to help them understand the situation of people who get off work late and don't want to walk through a dark field at 10:00 at night; they told of people who take jobs based on bus service; Ms. Dana Arnette, with the Dallas Housing Authority, commented that she sometimes struggles to lease apartments because transportation is a concern for incoming residents.

Lori, Evette, Dana, Mike, and I met at Turner Courts at 10:00 this evening to anxiously await the bus's 10:15 arrival. A little after 10:15, we saw an older lady come out of the shadows from the end of Bexar Street, shuffling her feet, running as fast as she could. "The bus must be coming," someone observed. Sure enough, you could see it in the distance getting closer to the JBC corner store, which has been the last pick up/drop off point (after 8:00 p.m.) for the last several years.

Mike told the lady not to worry and assured her the bus would wait for her.

She kept shuffling as fast as she could, trying to get to the store.

We told her she could slow down because the bus was going to stop right here.

She kept shuffling and explained, "No, the bus doesn't stop here! It stops at the store up there."

We all began trying to convince her, "No, it's changed. The bus will stop here from now on."

She stopped running, but tried to explain to us, "See the sign. It says right there...No service after 8:00." (I wish I'd have taken a picture of the DART sign from the other side so you could see it).

We assured her tonight that was changing and the bus would now run through Turner Courts after 8:00 on a regular basis.

You should've seen her face. Though my pictures didn't turn out very well in the dark, she was somewhat older, had dress shoes on, and was coming from the church, I believe. The look on her face and her comments were absolutely priceless. "Really?? It's going to stop here from now on?? Oh, thank you Jesus!!" She seemed so relieved, surprised, skeptical, but thrilled. Her excitement nearly brought tears to my eyes.


As the bus pulled up and stopped, Dwaine Caraway, our city council person, stepped off along with about 3 Turner Courts residents who were coming home for the evening. One young adult getting off of the bus was just as shocked as the older lady. "I never thought I'd see the day that these buses actually go through the apartments at night."

Though we planned our little gathering of meeting the bus and witnessing the outcome of the community's efforts to speak out, we couldn't have planned the older lady running for the bus and expressing such relief and genuine appreciation.

Customer service. Valuing the community. It's important.

Sometimes it's important to go the extra mile...or in this case the extra block...to demonstrate commitment, show value, and let everyone in and outside of the community know we're all in this together and we're going to do what it takes to make this community safer and more appealing for the neighbors who currently live there, the children, store owners, bus drivers, and visitors. By working together as a community, inclusive of pro-active city services, we can make this a more pleasant place to live now and a more pleasant area that will attract other businesses and services in the future.

Changing our future...for the better or the worse??

To what extent will we (Whites) go to in order to avoid being around people of color?

If you read the history books, that was a real problem back in the '50s. Thank goodness we are beyond that.

...aren't we???

This week we have a new landmark case to add to our history books. Fifty three years after Brown v. Board, we now have Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. As a result of this case, schools are no longer allowed to use race as a factor when trying to create a diverse student body.

What bothers me most about this decision is the way it was argued. Chief Justice Roberts argued that, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” He went on to say that his views were “more faithful to the heritage of Brown,” the landmark 1954 decision that declared school segregation unconstitutional.

Roberts' argument is flawed. True, discrimination means creating unfairness. However, Brown came into effect because schools were segregated and unequal. A school system that is committed to racial diversity for the sake of our future is not unfairness. It is strategizing the only way it knows how because it recognizes that we have not and are not choosing to live beside one another. Our neighborhoods are highly segregated...which is why our schools are highly segregated. (The average White student attends a school that is 80 percent White, while 70 percent of Black students attend schools where nearly two-thirds of students are Black and Hispanic.) The school systems that chose to make racial diversity a priority in their schools obviously recognized that unless we begin associating with one another on a regular basis while we are still young, we will continue to remain segregated.

Unfortunately, many people side with Justice Roberts...liberals and conservatives alike. Maybe not so much in their speech as in their actions. Over many years, we have become comfortable with who we live around. Because of those time-honored traditions, it is hard to change. Because of those time-honored traditions, we like to make all kinds of excuses as to why we don't need to participate in active diversity initiatives:

We say our children are already in diverse situations. (Yet when you look at their friends, they are all one color)

We say it's not fair for our kids to have to endure such a long bus ride away from their family and friends. (What's the difference in a child commuting to school and an adult commuting to work? We accept it later in life. Why not get them ready for commuting while they are still young?)

We say it's not fair that the kids have to go to school with other kids that aren't their friends (Yet families move from city to city and state to state and kids change schools. The kids always seem to make friends in their new settings in those situations. What is different in this situation?)

It was uncomfortable for the Little Rock 9, Ruby Bridges, and so many others to integrate schools in the 50s. I'm sure they didn't always enjoy doing the right thing so that the rest of us could benefit. Those kids and their families persevered because it was "the right thing to do." We need to do the same. They have already paved the way for us. It is our turn as White people to make some sacrifices so that what they started will continue to progress.

Note: The Time magazine cover in this blog was from 1971.