..."I would invite my sisters and brothers who live on that other part of town to say hey, there is a responsibility here to take care of these children, these families, who are dreaming the same kinds of dreams your kids dream,” Pastor Mueller says.
He holds his hands mere inches apart. “But [these children] only have this many options in front of them,” Pastor Mueller explains. He then extends his arms outward. “When your kids have this many,” he demonstrates the disparity.
A sign the city is ready to confront this silent crisis: recently, leaders renamed the Diversity and Inclusion Office to the first-ever Office of Equity. They also appointed the first-ever Chief Equity Officer, Kiran Bains.
“Equity means fairness and delivering services and a budget that is based on need,” Bains says. “Equity, then, is different than equality, which means sameness.”