Episode 125 Mack McCarter - "Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home"

This week we sit down with one of the great thinkers about community that we have. You can find my full discussion with Mack McCarter here.  

 

Here are the questions that I asked:

 

0:46 1. Mack, you are the founder and coordinator of Community Renewal International, one of our community’s most impactful nonprofits that you first started in 1994. You are also one of the great thinkers about community that we have.

 

The what, where, when, who of Community Renewal are all instructive and invaluable lessons to us all but where I would like to spend the most time with you today is the why. In a little while, I will come back to you to give me a snapshot of Community Renewal but let’s start here.

 

In numerous podcasts, I have been a detective, asking numerous guests how do we move from a “Me” to a “We” world.

 

How did we get here? Why are we so me-focused as a community?

 

6:38 2. Tell me about Harry Blake. How did you first get to know him and what are some of the things you learned from Revered Blake?

 

15:02 3. You live part time in Washington DC. In an op-ed piece you wrote for The Shreveport Times in 2018, as you looked out at American society as a whole, you wrote these words:

 

“We must celebrate our diversity as we all commit to common values that transcend each of us for the good of all of us. But how?”

 

You have studied social systems, trying to discover what kind of society would make possible a world where people love their neighbors. What are some conclusions you have come to?

 

21:20 4. I don’t want to spend too much time here because I’ll have another representative from Community Renewal International on in a few weeks.

 

Community Renewal International focuses on three primary strategies– We Care Partners, We Care Neighbors, and We Care Friendship House. Can you give me a snapshot of each of these three strategies?

 

26:46 5. As you look at our community in 2024, thirty years after you first started Community Renewal, talk to me about some of the things that still concern you the most?

 

31:32 6. Lastly, what gives you hope that we’re headed in the right direction as a community?