Common Good Collective

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This Reader is an expression of Common Good Collective, a vision for an alternative way, rooted in the act of eliminating economic isolation, the significance of place, and the structure of belonging. Whether you come at this from a place of economics, social good, or faith, we hope these reflections help orient your day in fresh, provocative, courageous ways. And most importantly, we hope these lead you into the sharing of gifts in particular communities—into co-creating a common good.

We read hundreds of articles and select the best ones for you by sending them to your inbox on Thursday.
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Imagination: The Prophetic Act of Living an Alternative Narrative, Reader, Structure Of Belonging, The Abundant Community Permalink

Restauranteurs, Voters, Win At The Polls

Chef Isaac Toups joined WCK’s Relief Team in New Orleans to help with our #ChefsForThePolls initiative. He prepared 300 chicken salad sandwiches for distribution near the City Hall polling location.

Every community problem has a community solution. In a highly anticipated election, long lines and long hours for poll workers are a potential problem. The solution: feed the people! Restaurants, star chefs, and communities around the country are pitching in to take care of voters and the volunteers and staff who make our elections work.

Across the country, initiatives from big names like José Andrés and Uber Eats have promised free food to poll workers and voters waiting on long lines.

Everyone knows that a presidential election is right around the corner. But more so than previous years, a big unknown is what to expect at the polls this year. Between a global pandemic and a historically contentious atmosphere, wait times are expected to be high, as will irritability. So across the country, initiatives are popping up to help offer comfort the old-fashioned way—with food.

One large effort, announced today, comes courtesy of Uber Eats and perennial voter-feeding non-profit Pizza to the Polls. Together, they’ll be sending out a fleet of over 180 food trucks to 25 cities, offering free food from their partners like Shake Shack and Milk Bar to citizens stuck in voting lines. The program is set to start on October 24—aka Vote Early Day—and run through Election Day.

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 Eliminating economic isolation, Imagination: The Prophetic Act of Living an Alternative Narrative, Reader Permalink

NYC Tailor Goes Mobile with Pushcart

Urbanist Jane Jacobs likened a New York City sidewalk to a complex ballet. Facing the loss of gigs during a pandemic, Makayla Wray started a microbusiness to help costume the dancers. Using her skill as a tailor, she creates and repairs in the East Village, encountering garments and people with fascinating stories along the way.

Call her Tailor Swift.

Makayla Wray, 29, an East Village tailor, works in Chinatown for an upscale designer during the day.

But Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. until dark, she’s a street seamstress working out of an old cart stationed at the corner of East Houston and Mulberry streets.

“In the morning I make runway clothes, then I come in at night to hem the little guys,” she told The Post.

The pandemic has created a throwback economy — and Wray represents an updated version of the old-timey merchants who used to barter and haggle downtown in the early 1900s.

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 Imagination: The Prophetic Act of Living an Alternative Narrative, Reader, Structure Of Belonging Permalink

Voter Registration Efforts Meet Healthcare Centers

A Milwaukee doctor make one simple change in her uniform – she wore a placard with a QR code linking to a voter registration website. This small intervention, connecting the personal and the political, the health of a human with the health of a city, has taken public engagement into a place where inequities consistently show up. In the process, this doctor has taken one small step to make big changes in her community.

This year, there aren’t as many large public events with volunteers signing people up to vote in the weeks before the election, due to the pandemic.

But doctors’ offices are stepping in to fill the void, through programs like VotER and Vote Health 2020, nonpartisan efforts to register patients in free clinics, community centers and emergency rooms.

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Combing

Gladys Cardiff, a member of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation, offers this brief meditation that stretches across generations. In it, the preparation and care of hair unties women in an entire lineage of ancestry.

 

Combing
By Gladys Cardiff

Bending, I bow my head
and lay my hands upon
her hair, combing, and think
how women do this for
each other. My daughter’s hair
curls against the comb,
wet and fragrant— orange
parings. Her face, downcast,
is quiet for one so young. Read more

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