‘Peace House Community Journal’ Archives
Prove Me Wrong, Please
from the series Peace House Community Journal... By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby On July 2, the City of Minneapolis announced a new effort to deal with the open-air drug markets that plague the city, especially the neighborhoods served by the alley. By the time you read this, the announcement will be a month old, and we will hopefully have some idea of how the effort is going. My prediction is that current problem areas will get safer, but currently safer areas will become more dangerous. I can’t pretend that I could solve the problems that drugs cause in Minneapolis, even if I was given an unlimited budget and power, but I can anticipate some of the hurdles that will trip up this effort. Some are inevitable, such as the addictive nature of drugs. There is no way to remove the attraction of drugs, especially among those who already use them. There’s also no way to remove the profit motive from dealing drugs. No matter what the City does, there will always be buyers and [...]
The Quiet Time for Friendship
from the series Peace House Community Journal... By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby I recently attended the 2026 Nonprofit Leadership Conference, hosted by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. During the opening keynote address, Ryan Vasquez (Executive Director of the Minneapolis Highrise Representative Council) commented on how important it is to develop friendships when you don’t need them. The middle of a crisis, he said, is a lousy time to find out who you can count on. His comment reminded me of a related statement by Robert Lilligren (CEO of NACDI and then-Chair of the Metro Urban Indian Directors). During Operation Metro Surge, the Native American community collected and distributed literally tons of groceries and other supplies to families who were too threatened to leave their homes. Robert said something along the lines of, “A lot of people see how many supplies we are sending out and think, ‘You guys are really well funded.’ We aren’t. The Native community [...]
Grace in the Face of Destruction
from the series Peace House Community Journal... By MARTI MALTBY Marti Maltby Last month I wrote about the need to use power wisely, and the temptations that everyone faces when they get power over others. Power can be used for our own prestige and comfort, or for the good of others. We have plenty of examples every day of each of those options playing out in front of our eyes. Since I wrote that article, I have been reading Missionary Conquest: The Gospel and Native American Cultural Genocide by George E. Tinker. It is a wonderful example of using power well, along with being a great book on many other levels. Tinker looks at four missionaries who are revered for their work among Native peoples in North America, but he shows how they all contributed to the destruction of Native societies, and the results that still haunt us today. One of the missionaries he writes about is Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, an Episcopal clergyman who worked in Minnesota and after whom the [...]
