A letter for my neighbor

Dear those who dare to listen,

Just a year ago, around this time, enjoying the luxuries of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, my husband finally gave in and bought our son a pair of those huge earphones that all the kids are wearing.  I pleaded with my husband not to buy them because my son would want to be cool and keep the earphones on while outside and put himself in danger when unable to hear someone trying to send him a message.  Every morning before leaving for the bus stop at 6 am I would sing a familiar tune for my son, “Don’t wear those things while walking to the bus stop.  Someone will be trying to tell you something and you won’t even know it because you can’t hear with those things.”    Today I realized that I may have been singing to the wrong person.  

 "We, the adults in this community, have been the ones wearing those horrendous earphones.  Our youth are giving us messages that there is a problem and we are not listening."

We, the adults in this community, have been the ones wearing those horrendous earphones.  Our youth are giving us messages that there is a problem and we are not listening.  Are our earphones blocking the sound or have we chosen not to listen?  On November 28th, 2016, a son of the Columbus, Ohio community sent us a message for the very last time.  Abdul Razak is only one of thousands that have reached their ends wit with facing their challenges alone.  Abdul Razak was brave enough to tell us that he felt uncomfortable at his school.  Did anyone reach out?  Who heard his cry?  Now it has been shared that he had bad grades?  Bad grades do not show up over night.

 

   Is not graduating from Columbus State and making it to Ohio State University not conviction enough that this young man had dreams and was ready to invest in his future?  This young man was angry and he had to scream before we could hear him.  His actions are proof enough that he did not know the power of his words so he resorted to actions. I am ashamed of myself.  I stand by what I preach to my children.  If you are not a part of the solution, you are complicating the problem. I am ashamed that my neighbor’s son felt so desperate that he took a car, ran over fellow classmates and then tried to further harm others with a butcher knife.  No gun, no sitting with the victims for an hour before killing them, no floor plans tucked away under the floor boards; just a painful last choice reaction to the things that were going on in his life. Why were we not there? Where was this community?  Where was I?

 "As a community, we have no idea about the challenges that resettled refugee families face.  There are so many ninety day agencies, doing all that they can to get these families started but that is not hardly enough"

Now I  am going to use my words because his have been silenced.  Don’t you dare try to change this story and claim that I am taking the side of a terrorist.  I am taking the side of my neighbor, my neighbor’s son, my neighbor’s  classmate.  He was not convinced that he was important and that his contribution to his community is valuable. We as a community have to fess up and admit that we all let the ball drop.  We have to take responsibility for this tragedy.  With tears in my eyes, I regret that I never got a chance to meet him and let him know that Allah wakes him up everyday for a mission far greater than he can understand now. I apologize to the people who were hurt by this action.  I am sorry that we as community have not done better to protect all as they endeavor to dream bigger and do better. What is the state of education if it becomes the very subject of rash and extreme human behavior.

 

As soon as I heard the news finally identifying the suspect, I had to pull over.  “Damn it” was my first reaction.  My aggressive words had nothing to do with the fact this story would quickly follow the “muslim terrorist” path.  That would have been selfish.  A life was lost and the first thing people thought about was how they and their children will have to face backlash.  Really! I instantly thought of his mom.  I am a mom.  I thought about how she might feel now that her American dream for her son has ended in an international nightmare, where the unenlightened from the other side of the globe are trying to get a piece of the pie.  

 

This was a family of newcomers.  Do you know how many years people wait in refugee camps to be resettled?  Do you know how many people from war-torn countries never even make it to a refugee camp?  Have you ever walked from one state to another in pursuit of safety, shelter and food for your children, not even for yourself ?  I have not.  I can only imagine finally letting out a sigh of relief and watching the walls crumble around me, yet again.  

 

As a community, we have no idea about the challenges that resettled refugee families face.  There are so many ninety day agencies, doing all that they can to get these families started but that is not hardly enough.  There is no gap in the research confirming that refugee families’ hardest challenge after resettlement in the U.S. is finding balance between multiple identities and learning the English language.  What resources are available to walk young people through the life-changing event of resettlement? Grassroots organizations need to become a meeting ground for others who are as ashamed as I am this happened.  I have a teenage boy.  I have had to talk sternly to him.  I have had to let him see my tears to understand how I fear for his safety and pray exhaustively for his success. I know that this young man’s mother has done the same. 

 

A fellow ESL teacher once reflected on a home visit with one of her Somali students whose parents were not proficient in the English language.  The teacher shared that every parent wants the absolute best for their kids. Wanting the best for our kids has nothing to do with language, religion or color. Maybe this mom and her son just needed a little help navigating the pressures of their new community.  Today I challenge all of you to be a part of a solution.  We do not need anyone else to complicate the multitude of problems facing our young people today.  What happened on OSU’s campus is not the problem of one particular religion.  We do not need interfaith circles on this one. We need a bunch of humans to get together and commit to teaching our young humans how to deal rationally with their emotions, successes, failures and struggles.

How can we save the others?

With Motherly Love for one neighbor to another,

Dorothy Hassan

 

(Dorothy Hassan writes from Columbus, Ohio)

Thanksgiving Day: MY Project USA provides for 67 families

In the mood of Thanksgiving Day, MY Family Pantry, an arm of MY Project USA, a non-governmental organization, on Wednesday, November 23 gave out food items and winter coat jackets to 67 families in and around Westside of Columbus, Ohio.

The opening of My Family Pantry at 3036 Sullivant Avenue, Columbus which was tagged “Thanks is Giving” served refugees, immigrants and the poor in the neighborhood fresh food produce that targeted their needs.

According to MY Project USA coordinator, Dorothy Hassan, “everyone that came to the event was happy to go home with lot of items for the Thanksgiving Day. They also got coats donated by Eddie Bauer for the winter.”

She said that the Pantry will be opened to people in need on weekends but they will have to make appointment in order to prepare for the number of guests for each event.

Dorothy Hassan added that “MY Project USA is a joint project of Muslim youths, parents and community members who are committed to protect, nurture and empower our youths in the United States of America."

Huntington projects 1,000 additional new Columbus jobs by 2024

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*  To Build new $18.3 million Cleveland Avenue Huntington Gateway Center

*  To commit $300 million in focused lending

 Huntington Bank has announced its intent to bring 1,000 new jobs to the City of Columbus by 2024, invest $18.3 million in a new 210,000-square-foot Huntington Gateway Center at 5555 Cleveland Avenue, and lend $300 million within Columbus low-to-moderate income neighborhoods over the next five years. 

The plan incorporates targeted outreach strengthening the City’s Linden and Northland communities through development and lending investment.

Columbus City Council President Zach Klein joined Mayor Andrew J. Ginther and Huntington CEO Stephen D. Steinour at the announcement from the Huntington Gateway Center development site at 5555 Cleveland Avenue, a former Meijer store location.

“This is a win-win agreement for our community,” said Klein. “For the City of Columbus, it’s significant job growth at Huntington and infrastructure investment that will have a deep economic impact on this area of the city. For small business, it is a notable investment that will yield growth and spur job creation.”

“As we continue to grow, Huntington will continue to invest in Columbus by bringing 1,000 new jobs to the city and investing in neighborhoods where our colleagues and customers live and work,” Steinour said. “Columbus is our home, for the past 150 years, and we’re stepping up to help transform an important area because we believe in helping small businesses grow and families prosper. The city has been an outstanding partner and we’re proud to support the Mayor’s vision to revitalize key growth neighborhoods.”

Huntington’s $300 million lending commitment is composed of:

• $175 million in small business lending in Columbus low-to-moderate income census tracts (LMIT) with focused outreach in Linden and Northland.
• $25 million in LMIT mortgage lending with waived closing costs including small home improvement unsecured borrowing opportunities of up to $3,000.
• $100 million in community development loans and investment throughout Columbus LMIT neighborhoods.

Huntington’s lending commitment is augmented by a $500,000 donation that the Mayor’s office and City Council will use to fund investment deployment in the Mayor’s priority neighborhoods.

“Huntington’s anchor development at this key gateway to Northland and Linden provides an enormous boost to the Cleveland Avenue corridor,” said Mayor Ginther. “The lending resources the Bank is committing are equally important to help small businesses and families in low-to-moderate income Columbus neighborhoods to create positive impacts in street-by-street improvements throughout our city.”

“Huntington is a loyal partner to the Northland community and surrounding areas,” said Emmanuel Remy, president of the Northland Community Council. “By establishing a major state-of-the-art office campus at one of our community’s most significant intersections, the company is at the vanguard of Northland’s diverse redevelopment.”

Huntington plans to complete the Huntington Gateway Center by mid-2017 and is seeking a city tax incentive in conjunction with increasing Columbus employment by 1,000 by 2024.

With the 2017 opening of the Huntington Gateway Center, the company will vacate the Morse Road Northland Operations Center it redeveloped in 2003-2004 with an $8.8 million investment at a time of city revitalization emphasis along that corridor. Huntington also will vacate Columbus offices at 7575 Huntington Park Drive in conjunction with the project completion. The company met its 2010 commitment to add 500 jobs within Columbus in 2015.

The Huntington Gateway Center will initially house approximately 1,400 Huntington colleagues with space for 1,600. Building design will maximize natural light exposure with an open floor plan featuring flexible unassigned seating, onsite dining and fitness amenities. 

The building campus also will host a Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) CMAX Bus Rapid Transit hub as part of the Downtown Columbus-Polaris limited-stop Cleveland Avenue corridor project. 

Huntington also will partner with the city’s Smart Columbus green transportation initiative by installing an electric vehicle charging station on the operations center site.

“We are very pleased to see our former site so positively reimagined,” said Hank Meijer, CEO of the Midwestern retailer. “We have a great business relationship with Huntington, and are pleased with their commitment to supporting the community and creating job opportunities through this innovative reuse of our former building.”

Huntington Gateway project partners include Integrated Design Group, Gilbane Building Company and AVI Foodsystems.

New Americans in Columbus meet on post-election challenges Nov. 29

 A collaborative meeting of new Americans’ Community leaders in Columbus and central Ohio will hold on Tuesday, November 29 to discuss the 2016 Presidential post-election issues including challenges and threats. The meeting is expected to begin at 5pm at ETSS conference room on 1060 Mt. Vernon Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43203.

Dr Seleshi Asfaw

According to the facilitator of the New Americans leaders’ Collaborative meeting, Dr Seleshi Ayelew Asfaw, Executive Director of the Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services, ETSS, “We want to have a meeting in regards to post- election challenges and threats to our community. This meeting will bring together some key community leaders, members, business owners and religious leaders.

“If those issues and threats are not reported to the Police, there is no statistics that such a community has been harassed by a group, so that the Police and other safety and security organizations can protect us. Our people don’t know how to report it. We want to hear what our children are facing at school and in work places.

“We are going to invite from the Homeland security and the Police so that they will listen to us, and the challenges we are facing,” he said.

Dr Seleshi Asfaw noted that, “there are so many, millions of Americans, they love refugee immigrants to work with them and do business with them. They know the value the refugee immigrants have brought to the city of Columbus and central Ohio. But we know that few people, less than one percent, are misguided and with misinformation, really don’t understand what refugee immigrants are facing, why they left their countries.

He described “the New Americans Community leaders’ Collaborative meeting as a forum where different new Americans, leaders, civic associations, non-profit organizations come together and discuss our issues and challenges new Americans are facing. This has been on since August 2014.

“When they arrived here, they are impacted, they contribute, bring more resources, start businesses, and they hire more people with statistics. But those people with hate agenda don’t get this kind of information for lack of information and understanding.

“As new Americans we want to come together and make an agenda and let the message to go to the general public. We have to start education in our neighborhoods and communities,” he added.