How Does Dialogue and Diversity Elevate Our Purpose? My Guest: David Miller

Do you ever ponder the power of your voice and how it can impact your community? Join us for an enlightening conversation with community stakeholder, David Miller, the SwS Director of Optimism. Together, we’ll navigate through the complex terrains of culture, values, and global citizenship. We shed light on the pivotal role that your voice plays in shaping other's thoughts, and why community reactions often carry more weight than individual actions. We also reflect on recent events in Jacksonville and the commendable efforts of our citizens in uniting our community for change.

Finally, this segment echoes a resounding stand against hate. We stress the importance of listening to- and respecting- each other's stories, while highlighting the influential role of initiatives like The First Coast Relief Fund, which was established following the PULSE nightclub shooting, and mobilized immediately to receive and utilize contributions to address immediate needs following the New Town shooting motivated by anti-Black racism that took the lives of three victims. 

The First Coast Relief Fund welcomes the Together Strong Community Fund, founded by David Miller on behalf of the Miller Families as the newest partner in the collaboration, focused on combating the root causes of bias and long-term systemic racial inequities. The Together Strong Community Fund was formed to advance community-wide conversation and education following the display of hate speech in downtown Jacksonville in 2022. 
 
"My family is fiercely devoted to making the greater Jacksonville community a place where everyone can feel safe and reach their personal potential,” said David Miller, founder of the Together Strong Community Fund, which includes lead gifts from VyStar Credit Union, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Florida Blue, CSX and Haskell. “The time is now to forge alliances and promote healing, conversation, and education.”
 
A generous gift from the Together Strong Community Fund has already been pledged to the Relief Fund to support this effort. The founding partners in the collaboration include the United Way of Northeast Florida, United Way of St. Johns County, The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, the Jewish Federation & Foundation of Northeast Florida, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, and now, the Together Strong Community Fund, based at the Jewish Federation & Foundation.
 
The partners in the collaboration share a longstanding commitment to racial equity and promoting understanding across religious differences, among other dimensions of diversity. 

To find out more about donating to the Together Strong Community Fund, visit https://www.jewishjacksonville.org/togetherstrong

#TogetherStrong #TogetherJacksonville

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Think good and it will be good. It is lessons like these built into a deep belief system of my faith and I pass it on to the next generation. I keep hearing that this is an intrinsic ideology amongst my people, but as someone who has made sure to have a valid passport my entire life in case they are chasing me out like they chased my parents and grandparents before me, it's easier said than done. Think good and it will be good. So is thinking good enough? Or do we know now that it's just the first steps and that's what we're going to tackle today? Hi, I'm Sue's here with your weekly dose of culture, values and identity and where we tackle those topics others may consider off limits. A little about me. I'm a busy Gen X mom who, quite frankly, wanted to grow up like the Brady Bunch, but how could I, being raised in the shadow of Schindler's list? So this means I've spent a lifetime navigating these mixed messages we get hit with daily. You know those conversations where we wonder if it's safe to speak our minds. Can we share our experiences, voice our fears and concerns, or should we just keep our mouths shut? Well, too bad. I need to know, but I'm no expert, so I'm going to schmooze the experts and get their thoughts. Why so? When we engage with our kids, colleagues or the countless committees we interact with, we can do it with competence, kindness, confidence and maybe a bit of humor. If this sounds like your cup of coffee, welcome to Schmooze with Sue's.

Speaker 1: 1:38

Im en anili mili uksha anila tzmi ma'ani ve'im lo achshav e matai. If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now? When I remember memorizing these passages from ethics of our fathers as a young child and back then I believed every word committed to memory before experience, existence and exposure to the truth narrowed my vision and I understood the assignment. So if I try to remain apathetic or be silent and stay in my silo, I stay in my individual bubble, and that helps nobody. But the deeper, more embarrassing truth is that I didn't know how to help. What do I know about the plight of other people? And would they mistakenly view my presence as an imposition? So I grew my bubble and I developed my board of directors by including people who are smarter, better, wiser than I am, and so on. My board of director, my director of optimism, david Miller. Thank you for coming back for dialogue with David.

Speaker 2: 2:54

I'm glad to be here, and the only thing I have a disagreement with is that you surround yourself with smarter people. I think you surround yourself with people who are rowing in the same direction, and so, yes, we are all helping each other. Be our best selves, I think you're right.

Speaker 1: 3:17

I think I have to agree with you. As usual, you've convinced me, but here's the deal. The reason that dialogue with David has been instrumental for me is because you are helping people like me, people who grew up in a different time, a different place and a different energy, to use our servants' hearts in a way to uplift and embolden others, to advance and achieve things with other people together. So can you help me, during a time like this, to be transparent, as a stakeholder, as a community Servant? Tell me what are you thinking? The day after, we held a vigil, yeah, well it's.

Speaker 2: 4:04

It's interesting there. There are a couple of thoughts one and and coming right off what you said that we are inextricably linked all together and we have to Remind ourselves of that every day and every moment, and how we think and how we act is incredibly important. The other two other points one is that silence can never be an option, and For too often, for too many people, it is. It's the default. It feels safe, but being silent is is Terribly unsafe, it's bad for the individual and it's terrible for the community. And so you know, our voice is the one thing that we have and our country gives us the right to use it. It's important we do it because it's not only For our own benefit, but our voice helps, helps unlock other people's ideas and other thoughts and other people. So that's that's really, really important. The other thing is, speaking specifically about where we had this vigil, right and Immediately, the thing that I think so many of us are struck by just the horror of it, the how, how.

Speaker 2: 5:27

Here we are again in this situation and it can easily make you feel like a victim. We can feel victimized, our community, but make no mistake, our community is not gonna be judged by the acts of a crazy person, a hateful person or a small group of people. Our community is gonna ultimately be judged by our response, and so we go from a place of feeling like this happened to us to now. Okay, they they had through the first punch, but we are in complete control over what we do next. And so the conversations that I've had one was a great one yesterday with about 40 community leaders, folks from the mayor's office, folks from some of the most important not-for-profits and largest employers in Jacksonville, as well as several city council people, and this morning, different Calls with funders and and that sort of thing, and later today they're gonna be more calls. Yeah, how we, how we galvanized together and how we make a difference.

Speaker 1: 6:46

So I think that's the opportunity for us and that's where our heads are so Jacksonville is clearly on the map and we spoke about this last year when we talked about the Jaguars Bringing the attention on to our city and then, following that, our last discussion was actually on election day and we didn't know where it was going. And I am so lucky and thrilled to say that our new mayor, mayor Donna Deacon, she has not shied away from a single one of these instances. She has stood up and spoken out. She has hugged the children who have been affected by this. She has been present in every community to hear what their pressing needs are. She hasn't implemented policies without first listening and, as someone who is on her transition team, on her advisory committee, much like, I say, my own board of directors You're bringing to the table these opportunities For collaboration. It sounds to me like you bring a number of other People to the table with you who perhaps wouldn't necessarily come to a table if they didn't feel comfortable at before, but you've changed the shape of that table.

Speaker 2: 8:03

Haven't you? Well, I'm a part of it and I think there's so many people who are, and what we're doing when we think about it is we're capacity building. We're in the capacity building business. You're doing it, I'm doing it and ideally, everyone, especially your listeners, everyone has an opportunity to think about how they build capacity in their own authentic way. It doesn't help trying to be someone you're not, but it it empowers you to be someone you are and be your best. You think about how you're gonna make a difference, how you're gonna use your voice, how you're gonna you know whether it's.

Speaker 2: 8:44

Some people can write a check. Some people want to volunteer at an event. Some people just want to go and show up. Some people want to use social media. There are all ways to use your voice, but the key is is that it can't be okay not to use it right. So we've got to use it and we've got to create these capacities, making it easier for people to engage, and One of the things the mayor's done is created, I think, a possibility model of what, what positive leadership looks like.

Speaker 1: 9:18

I was just. You must have read my mind. I was just going to say you're not a role model, your possibility model for how we want to engage other communities to grow exponentially. You read my mind.

Speaker 2: 9:34

Well, think about it. I mean, we didn't choose these haters. They chose us Right. But when they chose us, that gives us an opportunity to either shrink or rise Right, and we choose to rise, we will rise. And make no mistake, if you're someone intent on sharing in instilling your hate in one way or another, here in Jacksonville, you're gonna get a response that is a lot louder and a lot more significant than whatever you've got up your sleeve, and that's what we're gonna define. That's what we will be defined as. So in doing that, we're showing what's possible, we're listening and we're working together and we're using best practices, and, at the end of the day, this is a template that we're creating that other communities are gonna be able to use too, because, just like hate has a way of popping up in wherever it wants to, the forces of light have a way of responding, and responding in a more significant way, and that's the journey we're on together.

Speaker 1: 10:50

Well, that's what we're about here in the brave, bold city that I'm choosing to raise my children in, and one of the things that I shared with you a few minutes ago and I wanna really hone in on this is having met you. You shared stories that impacted you, and all those stories, they really impacted the way I see myself as a parent. Right, you have this background that informs your history. We talk a lot about Sandy Miller your mom may her memory be for a blessing and you in fact, started a program for youth in order to create opportunities for them and create leadership, so that everyone who attends a Sandy Miller program is then invited to use their voice and to shape their voice to grow a better city. So core memory you shared was that your mom took you to a rally when you were a child.

Speaker 2: 11:48

Yeah, well, many. No one, but many. It was just a part of what normal was for me. Why?

Speaker 1: 11:58

Why did she tell you why?

Speaker 2: 12:01

It was. It's interesting we it was who we are, who we were. It wasn't transactional, it was rooted in our DNA. It was our purpose, it was our opportunity, it was our lot. It was just this is what we're doing and it's the right thing to do and that's what we're gonna do. And it wasn't up for discussion. There were times I remember challenging a little around the edges, but that wasn't gonna go anywhere. And it's interesting.

Speaker 2: 12:36

As a kid, you test. That's your job. As a kid, you'd like test your parents. You wanna understand. Do they really mean that and to what degree? So you do that and I remember, as a kid, testing in different ways and one of the things that I understood is that this wasn't up for discussion, this wasn't a negotiable, and I think our ancestry, the horrors that our ancestors had faced, and the realization that those aren't those horrors weren't specific. They weren't only to us, that there are so many. So many of our brothers and sisters out there have faced all kinds of horrors and everyone has their individual stories of how ancestors have gone through all kinds of challenges and terrible things, and I think our opportunity is to be able to help people shift from being a victim of all kinds of oppression of all kinds we're all faced at every day. But it really doesn't matter that we've faced it. It matters that we overcome it.

Speaker 1: 13:53

Right, and so if we're able to do it, then the next best thing is to reach back and help the next person and the next person and create a 2.0 society of global citizenship where we don't see ourselves as individual victims, rather a series of triumph, where we're unifying for that. So the reason that I bring the story up of Sandy Miller and I say her name a lot is because yesterday, when the vigil took place despite the double header that my son had in 100 degree heat and the birthday party that my daughter had that was in Mandarin as soon as we wrapped up it was important to me that I create for them a core memory similar to the one that you described. Because that story never left my mind, david. I realized that it was incumbent upon me as a mom to take them to the part of town that I just hadn't taken. I've been there before myself. I go at least five days.

Speaker 1: 14:52

This week I was in that part of Jacksonville, but there was never a reason for my children to be there with me. So I took them and the first thing that my son saw was other people wearing a kipa. He saw not just the community that was impacted, but other communities, people that were wearing their collars, like Pastor Kate or Pastor Rebecca. We saw other people that were coming together and we saw your brother, daniel, and your sister in La Llor and their two children as well, and in that moment, sandy Miller, midor Lidore, from generation to generation, is continuing this impact, because Sandy Miller taught David Miller and Michael and Daniel that we give back and when people see that, it unlocks in them the potential that they didn't know.

Speaker 2: 15:51

You know, it's neat as we continue to add friends and you create, you know, bonds with people all around us. It's uncovering those stories that everyone has A lot of people they feel like, well, my story is not that important and they just don't tell it. But they're really important and it's sometimes, or many times, the stories that people don't tell that are the best stories. And so, you know, I think one of the things I try to do more and more is like I pick and I like try to. Especially the people who don't want to talk are the ones that I'm like I'm all over.

Speaker 1: 16:32

You're like a puppy that knows they don't like you.

Speaker 2: 16:35

That's unacceptable. I am going to be unacceptable, that is yeah.

Speaker 1: 16:40

That's why I'm obsessed with you, which is why he doesn't hang out with me as much as I want him to.

Speaker 2: 16:45

But it's really neat, the people who are the introverts, who you know, they're the thinkers. A lot of times they think and they provide all kinds of wisdom and richness and when you get them to talk about their stories, it makes you realize, you know just how, how woven together this fabric that is our community is, and when you live in that abundance and you live in a place that this is really special and wonderful and these humans who are around us are gifts that not to be squandered, right, they're to be embraced, they're to be supported, they're to be loved. And you know, we're seeing that, we're seeing what can happen, you know when, when a mayor, a political leader, takes the opportunity to say I'm going to listen, I'm going to care. That in itself is incredibly empowering and you're seeing all these people. I don't know if you've been noticing, but I see it on social media the number of people who are showing up to town hall.

Speaker 2: 18:00

Town hall, it's growing exponentially. Yes, it started out, it was a great town hall. We had 20 people and then we had 30 people and now I mean they're it's standing room only in these events. And I think it speaks to what we all just want in our heart more than anything. We want that connectivity, we want authenticity, we want to be a part of something that's bigger than us, and, and when we see that, we respond to it. And so these are the things the more we focus on the positive, the more we get, and the more we focus on the problem and and the hate and the and the, the victimhood, we get more of that. So we've got to be intentional. First, you have to recognize what we're doing, when we're doing it, and then we have to model the right behavior for ourselves and for everyone around us, because it's too important.

Speaker 1: 18:57

So we're back to think good and it will be good which is a very, very fundamental philosophy in a lot of faiths that we have that ability to believe, right, if we lean into that belief system. So let's talk about the belief system. I had the great privilege of interviewing several former Jacksonville people. Right, former mayor John Delaney, yeah, former sheriff Nat Glover, and people have often spoken about the time that they were present as Camelot. Right? That sounds idealistic, right?

Speaker 1: 19:33

However, when I'm in spaces in Jacksonville today, presently with those two men, along with many other stakeholders that you and I are friends with, and you're in those rooms too, it does feel a little bit like that. It feels like that Camelot vibe of transparency, of solution hunting, of trying to highlight opportunities rather than getting bogged down and whose fault it is. It's the ideology of progress and process and building the plane while we're flying it. So do you believe that we are pre? We're on the precipice of that possibility moving forward, that round table that used to keep people away has now become the longest table that we're adding people from different zip codes to.

Speaker 2: 20:24

I don't just believe it, I know it, and I know it because I'm seeing. You know, there there are. You get ideas, and without proof, and those are beliefs maybe. And and there was a time in my business where I had ideas that I thought made the most sense and I said I'm going to employ these ideas. And then, when they work, and when I had experience, when they worked beyond my wildest dreams, they were not ideas or potentialities, they were, they were facts, right because they were proven.

Speaker 2: 21:01

I think we know enough now to know that this is not a belief. I don't believe where we're heading in the right direction. I know we're heading in the right direction and, and I think, more important than any one person, whether it's our mayor or any leader in particular, it's, it's the behaviors, it's the portfolio of ideas that people bring that are incredibly important. Those ideas are what we have to focus on and, yes, I'm grateful for fantastic leaders who, like our, like our, our mayor, who's shown incredible poise and and character in highlighting these ideas. But at the end of the day, we can't lose sight. It's not about worship, about a person, it is about the ideas that we have to be focused on. We see it in our national discussion as well.

Speaker 2: 21:58

There are some who want to focus on on a savior kind of mentality, and there is no human savior. There are ideas that, when we focus on the right ideas, empower all of us, and that's where we need to be as a community and that's what we have to focus on. These ideas are facts, they are proven, is incredibly powerful. They lift people up, they bring people together. They allow us to do things collectively that we could never do previously. You know just little things like the idea of the media is against us, which many politicians will say they'll, they'll, you know, have cracks, that the media is against me. And here it was just really interesting. Mayor Deegan said you know, I'm not afraid of the media, I'm my job's to communicate. Why wouldn't I use the media? Why wouldn't I engage the media to help communicate directly to the people? That sounds like the perfect example of duh. Why?

Speaker 1: 23:11

Why Is that your official title on that subject? Why wouldn't you? Okay, so this is what we're getting back to. We're getting back to the idea of transparency and we're talking about using some of our soft skills for collective resources, things like listening and learning and educating. And then what you're talking about, these ideas. That's great to have ideas. I have great ideas in the shower. I'm a great idea person. The implementation of those ideas that's the next step. So let's talk about that.

Speaker 1: 23:46

Here we are in the city and back during this time you're right, I don't subscribe any of that idea that people have alluded to. Right, and you lived here back then, so you know that when they say Camelot, what they mean is we felt like as a society, as citizens. We were heard and responded to, and Mayor John Delaney very proudly told me that his takeaway from his first election results were when I found out that most black voters did not vote for me, I went right to that community and said I need to know more about you. So let's get to that right. We call that community development and we have someone whose job it is tasked to do community development in the Mayor's administration, and I spoke with her, lakeisha Burton.

Speaker 1: 24:33

That episode was unbelievable. What she does is put her money where her mouth is, and she is in this community doing two things not just the problems that we're addressing, but she's honing in on the preventative measures. It is the education, the opportunities that we spoke up at the top of the show. It's the police athletic league, where you're inviting these families and the community members to be engaged with what we offer, what you can give back and what you can grow into as a Jacksonville citizen. So that sounds great and everything. However, the city council just denied a diversity, equity and inclusion position, which is not the same thing as community building, because what we've come to discover is that I don't know all the parts of community that need to be built and how I can identify who feels marginalized and who feels like a minority. That's not heard, we can't not address that. That's a very real fact.

Speaker 2: 25:39

Yeah well, I think, boy, timing couldn't have been worse for the city council folks who were pennywise pound foolish around that idea. I mean, look at the timing. I mean, it's just nothing is a slap in the face, like what we saw in this shooting that says the one thing we don't have enough of in this community is a sense of leadership around how we bring people together, how we make people feel included and how we build equity. That is something that if you just don't, if you look at a problem through the wrong lens, you're gonna get the wrong answer. And that was the wrong answer. And it was because they looked at the lens of the head of DEI from well, that's gonna cost us, it's gonna cost 0.0001 of our budget and that's a great place to save money.

Speaker 2: 26:41

And time and time again, pennywise pound foolish is not who you wanna be and leaders should not be. They should be seeking value, not just savings for saving's sake. And so we wanna be smart, we wanna invest properly, and when you have someone who, in the case of Dr Parvez Ahmed, who's a brilliant person and someone who's been committed to moving Jacksonville forward in all kinds of ways for decades, you know you don't. That's not the place you look to save a few dollars. I mean, if you have a heart disease and you need heart surgery, is that the place you're gonna go try?

Speaker 1: 27:31

to get a coupon. We're not looking for a coupon. That's exactly right.

Speaker 2: 27:34

No and so I think that's the perfect example. It's been thrown in those individuals' face and I think you know it's not a good look.

Speaker 1: 27:43

No.

Speaker 2: 27:43

And all really because they're trying to be cute, trying to play politics and, you know, focusing on their power and their division rather than, you know, how do we think about issues from the lens of what's gonna empower and what's gonna make our community better and what's gonna lift us up? What are the right things we can invest in today from a community standpoint that are critical? That we invest in, cause if we don't, no one else will, and how do we think about things from that standpoint? That's the opportunity for them, and I think this gave a wonderful teachable moment.

Speaker 1: 28:22

Let's hope that there's gonna be something that rectifies the situation because, as I said earlier, I don't know what I don't know, and so I've been fortunate enough to be surrounded by people who are willing to teach me, but that's not always the case. People are busy and not everybody has the time to devote and the energy and it's not their job, frankly, which is why we need someone whose job it is to do that right. We can't take somebody whose job it is to build community and say we're gonna take a portion of that and we're gonna give it to a different, something that, while the Venn diagrams do overlap, they do diversity, equity, inclusion and community development and building and empowerment they do, they overlap, they require different strengths and skills and they require individual commitment.

Speaker 2: 29:15

Well, you know what I'm drawn to and I, as I, as you, you're saying that the idea that, um, it's not what you know, the people who get it wrong are focused on the what like. Oh, it's a position, Well, just to, but it's not it's a Y Thanks.

Speaker 1: 29:31

You it's the Y Dialogue with Dave, and so we have to come up with a jingle.

Speaker 2: 29:37

Well, but why? But let's think about that. Right, we believe that people are our greatest resource. In Jacksonville, people are greatest resources. So if you value your people as your greatest resource, isn't it important that you leverage them through understanding people's different experiences? And isn't it important that um there is focus and attention um paid towards equity and inclusion and maximizing the um the the way we all interact together, that we have the right people at the table and that we are really intentional about maximizing what we say is our number one and our greatest resource? Right? Why would you say it's our greatest resource and then say, well, yeah, but I think it's, it's better if we don't invest in it, right?

Speaker 1: 30:29

And, in fact, not only are we not going to invest in it, but we're going to save a couple of bucks and we're going to shortchange the babysitter and we're going to hire someone who isn't really paying attention to our kids and we're going to hope the kids make it out okay. Right, it's a kind of uncomfortable situation because, um, like I said, for me I'm choosing to raise my kids here. Right, when, when my husband got the job, I said I don't do Vils, I don't do Vils and Burgs.

Speaker 1: 30:57

I said I, not only do I but I grow roots here and then I sprout wings and I fly from county to county because I find it important to build community and I can't do it sitting. You become the ambassador of Vils. I became the ambassador of Vils. You know, my mother used to say I have a big mouth. But now I told her no, I'm an ambassador, you're an ambassador of Vils?

Speaker 2: 31:20

Yes, but if I stay home how will I learn the story?

Speaker 1: 31:24

So I'll give you an example. Right, you know I started this podcast because I needed to know more. I needed to know who I live with so I can know how I can be of service to them. This week alone, I have set up interviews for the season. One was with the? Um daughter and granddaughter of sharecroppers Hmm, Tanika use from action news jacks Wow. Alejandra Emigan, her parents and she herself, Um, were migrant workers from Mexico. Hmm, these are people that live here.

Speaker 1: 31:54

My grandparents are Holocaust survivors. We are all here in Jacksonville, in this giant orb that we call the planet earth. Of all the places that we could be, we are all clustered here in this Ville.

Speaker 2: 32:10

And so you don't, people will say, um, we don't need someone managing DEI. You don't think those stories are real. I think those stories are incredibly important. I you just said their background, you said the what and I'm like wow, I wonder what those experiences were like, wonder what I could learn from that.

Speaker 1: 32:30

Right, and how do we make sure we don't go back to that? Yeah, that's the other step that I want to bring to your attention. That really, really makes it uncomfortable. So this shooter we keep saying vigil right, we're kind of not being too frontal, but I'm going to say it.

Speaker 1: 32:45

Saturday, 60 years to the date of the March on Washington and almost 63 years to the date of Axe Handle. Saturday, here in the city of Jacksonville, a white supremacist wrote a manifesto about his hatred for people that are different than him and proceeded to go to historically black college here, the first one in Jacksonville, edward Waters University, and tried to do damage there, but they didn't let him in. So he went to a dollar general right down the street in a black community and he murdered three people. And so he had etched into his gun a swastika. And so my son, who's 11, I told you I took him to the vigil. The reason it was important is because he's now making the connection. There are several exhibits in Jacksonville. One is coming to the main branch of the public library Americans and the Holocaust. What Americans knew about the Holocaust Right? Why is that important? Because we talk about standing up and speaking out. Right, not right we are a brother's keeper.

Speaker 1: 33:47

We are a brother's keeper and at LJDJFCS, at the Frisch Family Holocaust Gallery, they now have the why we came exhibit that highlights the 16 rabbis who came and were arrested with Martin Luther King Jr in St Augustine, which helped to then push forward the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Jacksonville may be the home of the Jaguars, and for some people that's why it's exciting, but for people like me, with a background less than one century from migrant workers, sharecroppers, holocaust survivors that's why that's important to me. Jacksonville is where we're all resettling and we're reclaiming our heritage as global citizens. So Together Strong is an initiative where you put your money where your mouth is. A lot of people shy away from the discomfort, but you know that we can heal what we don't feel and so, together with your family, what'd you do?

Speaker 2: 34:48

Well, so, yeah, when we were faced with hate being spewn upon us back gosh, nine, 10 months ago you know, anti-semitic messages on the stadium on the side of the CSX building and other things we created a fund called the Together Strong Community Fund and we felt like timing was incredibly important, being able to use the timing of it as a leverage point, and so it wasn't one of those things where time was on our side. We couldn't do a focus group and we didn't. You know, it was just the answers yes, what's the question? We need to do this, and there was a sense at the time of what do we do and how do we work together, and we were so overwhelmed with the tremendous community support from our largest employers in Jacksonville, some of the most respected not-for-profits, folks like the Community Foundation the DuPont Fund was thought leaders, the United Way, the JU Public Policy Institute, folks like OneJax, folks like 9-0 Forward, all getting together WJCT, and have been involved ever since.

Speaker 2: 36:21

And so, when this form of hate even, you know, ratcheted up, we had had words of hate and images of hate.

Speaker 2: 36:30

We had killings this time, and so it took it up a notch, and so we felt the work that we've created around investing in consultants who have done scans all over the country and that sort of thing have really helped us, because we're hitting the ground running now and thinking about who are the folks that we need to be addressing, who are the likely suspects, who are the folks who typically aren't in the conversation, and how are we thinking about education, how are we thinking about interactions and how are we thinking about building true community, and so that's really exciting.

Speaker 2: 37:17

And then, I think, you know, with any great organization there's an evolution, and so, you know, today at 5.15, we're going to have another meeting of our group and, you know, I think Darnell Smith, who is the North Florida market president for Florida Blue, is going to take an active role in taking the baton, I think, for what's going to happen next and how we continue to make sure that we are engaging people across this community and how we're giving them, you know, easier and easier ways to engage that are smart and impactful.

Speaker 1: 38:01

So lucky that you are building the plane as we're flying it right.

Speaker 1: 38:05

The first time a swastika showed up, it activated our community, and then, now that another swastika shows up and it doesn't matter who the community that's targeted is we're already aware, we're already linking arms, and so it is in moments like this that we think of the next community commitment together against hate, right. So now two major organizations the YMCA of Northeast Florida in collaboration with the JCA, launched this month's long initiative that starts with education. Every month there's a speaker series that will highlight another community stories and how we can learn more so that we can use that servant's heart if you have it. And, like you said earlier, when we talk about philanthropy or community, give back. That's not just treasure, that's time and talent, that's volunteering to be there, that's volunteering to walk with or, in the case of the, together against hate, the run against hate in February, which happens to be my dad's birthday, February 25th so it's going to be a very special run for me and I'm looking forward to being there with my kids.

Speaker 1: 39:16

Again, back to Sandy Miller, who is my honorable mention who's getting my honorable mention for being a person of integrity and honor who did the right and responsible thing and then impacted her children and her grandchildren, midora Lidore, from generation to generation, and they keep giving back to the seeds of Jacksonville.

Speaker 2: 39:40

So I can't thank you enough for letting me ride your coattails, because we're on this journey together, my friend there, and along with all of our listeners, all of our neighbors what would you ask of them?

Speaker 1: 39:56

This is your volunteer, david Miller is going to volunteer. Volunteer is what I do to my husband. I volunteer because I have time and my schedule is clear. But every so often someone from the community will say we really need a heavy hitter, and we know who. The pretty one is, ben Becker, and so I volunteer him that he has to stand up and speak out because his time commitments are a little bit less available than mine, and he does it with a full heart. So now my listeners are, our listeners are listening. What would your message to?

Speaker 2: 40:27

them be. Silence is anything but golden. Yeah, we need to, and everyone needs to think about how they're going to speak. And if you don't want to speak, your actions can be louder than words. So being silent and not weighing in is unacceptable. So how you're going to do it is the key. It's not about you know how, how you're going to shirk and how you're going to fade and how you're going to take the less risky option, but rather by you, by by anyone doing that. It makes it tremendously more difficult for everyone else and it makes guarantees us of having a worse community, a worse society. So, instead of being guaranteed of having a bad society and and that sort of thing, we all need to take our part and we need to realize that our voice matters, our stories matter, the fact that you know some of us are sharecroppers, some of us are Holocaust survivors, some of us have been migrants, all of those things, those stories absolutely matter, and you may not know who's going to be touched by them until you share them.

Speaker 1: 41:49

That's the truest thing ever, because your core memory helped to shape my family's core memory. So thank you again for being here, David. Thank you. If you know of someone who is the kind of mensch who should get an honorable mention, send me a note at schmoozwithsuesorg or drop me a line on Instagram. That's going to do it for us today. Thanks for sticking around. Make sure to subscribe to Schmooz with Suze on YouTube and follow me on Instagram to get your daily dose of chutzpah. I'm Suze, your well-informed, smart ass who's not afraid to stand up and speak out. Because what's an envelope if not for pushing? Hey, stay inspired and inspiring.