Mother, mother
There’s too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There’s far too many of you dying
You know we’ve got to find a way
To bring some lovin’ here today…
This song touches on deep-rooted social, political, and economic issues that cripple the ability to reach full human potential. For all of us to reach our full human potential we must find a way to coexist.
This song, released during the Vietnam War and just after the assignation of MLK and RFK, Jr., struck a common chord, not only in the USA, but also the rest of the world. It was originally inspired by a police brutality incident.
Reflecting on this 41 years later, in the 2nd year of COVID, the summer riots of 2020 in response to George Floyd and the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot, I ask the same question Marvin did…What’s going on?!?
Frankly, I don’t think anyone knows. What I do know is The Dakota Center continues to live its mission to awaken the whole human potential of those we serve. At the heart of this mission is love. Love brings hope and hope is a powerful thing.
These past 7 weeks have been difficult to find hope. COVID is surging, people are suffering from pandemic fatigue and those who lost their loved ones are grieving. Yes, it has been difficult for the Center to remain open. Yes, staff is feeling overwhelmed and disoriented by the length of time under restrictive conditions. Yes, we would all like it to just stop. But, what’s really going on, is we remain passionate about what we do and our commitment to our community is unwavering.
I thank you for your support of the Center and apologize our communications have not been at the level we would like. We are going to get that straightened out, but in the meantime, we want you to know all is well. Truly, I feel the Center is like a tulip bulb. We have been buried deep in the dirt these past 7 weeks. It is from the dirt we will emerge in the spring sharing our bloom for all to see the beautiful gift that life is… in spite of not knowing what is going on.
