‘Peace House Community Journal’ Archives
Timing is Everything
from the series Peace House Community Journal... Illustration: Jake Ryan Marti Maltby I’ve had a hard time settling on a topic for this month’s column. I’m writing this about a week after the election, which is obviously a significant event, and the implications of the election results are big enough that I should probably say something. But you won’t read this until at least a couple of weeks from now because of the production and distribution times involved in publishing the alley. So if I say anything about the election, it will be outdated by the time you see this, at least in some respects. There’s also the fact that I’m Canadian, living in the U.S. as a Permanent Resident without American citizenship. Emotionally, the election doesn’t have the same significance for me as it does for Americans, or for non-Americans with a less secure immigration status than I do. While I and almost everyone I know will be affected by the events of the next few years, I [...]
Meaning What You Say
from the series Peace House Community Journal By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby I recently attended a meeting put on by the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness (MICH). As is common these days, the meeting began with a land acknowledgement, which is a statement recognizing that what is now Minnesota was and is the homeland for various Native American tribes. The wording of a land acknowledgement is up to whoever is speaking, or whoever organized the meeting. This particular acknowledgement caught my attention because of some of the language used. The statement read: Today, as we gather virtually, it is of the utmost importance that we all recognize the land we are living and working on is stolen land from our Native American relatives. We must seek to understand our place within that history and use that understanding to work towards justice. The first thing I noticed was the word “stolen”. Of all the land acknowledgments I have heard, this is the strongest [...]
Networking: The Mother of All Mixed Blessings
from the series Peace House Community Journal... By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby I recently traveled to Breezy Point, in northern Minnesota, to speak at a conference. Since the trip involved five hours of driving, I made sure I had some audiobooks to pass the time. I started listening to Taking the Work Out of Networking: An Introvert’s Guide to Making Connections That Count by Karen Wickre, and within an hour I had an idea for the next presentation I wanted to give at a conference.As an introvert, the idea of networking doesn’t appeal to me. Imagining myself walking up to strangers at a party to convince them to do something for me makes my skin crawl. Fortunately, the audiobook helped me reframe my thinking, pointing out that “networking” doesn’t just mean convincing others that they want to help you. It can be as simple as asking a friend if they know any good restaurants. In other words, my view of networking was far too narrow.I should have realized this earlier, [...]
