Monthly Archives: June 2020

Everyone Needs Someone Else

WHY Americans OF ALL AGES are coming together in intentional communities

By Jeffrey Kluger

Theres not a lot to do in Syracuse, N.Y. when youre living alone and a winter storm system dumps 3 feet of snow on the city. Theres no going outside, but theres no staying inside at least not for too long if you want to remain sane. A dinner with friends would be nice; so would a yoga class or a shared movie and a good long talk. And when thats all done, it would also be nice to have just a little bit of that wintertime solitude, watching the snow fall, all alone, from the privacy of your own home.

At one place in Syracuse, all of that happens on those long snow-filled nights. That place is Commonspace, a co-housing community on the fourth and fifth floors of a restored 19th-century office building. The community is made up of 25 mini-apartments, fully equipped with their own kitchenettes and baths, with access to a larger, shared chefs kitchen, library nook, game room, coffee lounge and media room. The 27 residents (couples are welcome) live together but only sort of in private apartments that are, once you step outside your door, un-private too. And theyre part of a growing trend in an increasingly lonely country: intentional communities.

In cities and towns across the U.S., individuals and families are coming to the conclusion that while the commune experiment of the 1960s was overwhelmed by problems, the idea of living in close but not too close cooperation with other people has a lot of appeal. An intentional community is a very different beast from the more familiar planned communities, which can be big, unwieldy things hundreds or thousands of families living on small parcels across hundreds of acres of land. While there may be some common facilities a swimming pool or golf course or community lake the communities are really just villages writ large or cities writ small, easy places to be anonymous.

Intentional communities, by contrast, are intimate: a couple dozen apartments or single-family homes, built around central squares or common spaces. And theyre operated in ways intended to keep the community connected with weekly dinners at a community center or other common area, shared babysitting services, shared gardens or games or even vacations. If you dont want to participate, fine; no one will come pester you to play a pick-up game you dont want to play or join a committee you dont want to join. But when you need the community because a spouse is away or a baby is sick or youre just plain lonely and would like some companionship its there for you.

Its that business of relieving loneliness thats key to the popularity of intentional communities. Human beings may not always get along, but the fact is, we cant get enough of one another. There are currently 7.6 billion of us in the world but we inhabit only about 10% of the planets land, and roughly 50% of us live on just 1% of that land.

We evolved to depend on our social connections, says Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. Surgeon General. Over thousands of years, this got baked into our nervous systems so much so that if we are feeling socially disconnected, that places us in a physiologic stress state.

According to a study by AARP, over 40% of American adults suffer from loneliness, a condition that, Murthy warns, is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and more. Worse, loneliness is a condition that makes no demographic distinctions; it affects millennials just starting their careers, widowed boomers just ending theirs, empty-nesters, new divorcees, first year college students a thousand miles away from family and high school friends. Social media, which ostensibly draws people closer, in fact may be atomizing us further, creating virtual connections that have little of the benefits of actual connections.

A gusher of studies since the early 1990s have established the health dividends of social ties. Among people with cardiovascular disease, those with more social connections have a 2.4 times lower risk of mortality within an established period than those with poor social ties. Social connections lower the risk of cancer, speed recovery among people who do contract the disease, and reduce the risk of hypertension and other cardiovascular illnesses. Even wound-healing improves with social connections. Multiple studies suggest that part of this may come from the psychological boostincluding the sense of responsibilitythat meaningful relationships provide. When friends and family members are counting on you to be around, you make better health choices, even if theyre unconscious. Other studies have shown that similar brain structures control both physical pain and social painand that pain relief, through analgesics in the first case and relationships in the second, operate similarly as well. Being socially connected doesnt simply make you healthier, it just plain feels good.

Intentional communities are about creating attachment, the feeling that someone has your back, says Harvard University psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, a decades-old survey of the health of a population of Harvard graduates and their descendants. We often ask people in studies, Who would you call in the middle of the night if you were really sick or scared? Intentional communities can help you have an answer to that question.

Its not easy to come by a firm count of how many intentional communities are out there. Only about 160 of them have been built from the ground up with co-housing in mind, but the regularly updated Fellowship for Intentional Community lists 1,539 communities in all 50 states that have also used existing housing stock to establish co-housing arrangements.

There are urban communities like Commonspace in most major cities. There is Milagro in Tucson, Ariz., 28 single-family homes on 43 desert acres built around a central green space with a shared community center and other facilities. There is Village Hearth Co-Housing, a similar set-up in Durham, N.C., but one intended for singles, couples and families in the LGBTQ community. There are other communities for seniors or artists or veterans; there are even rural communities for people who want the independence of owning their own homes but the collective experience of farming the same land.

For each of the communities, the relative compactness of the population is what creates the feeling of togetherness. You cant possibly know three hundred people, says Troy Evans, real estate developer and the co-founder of Syracuses Commonspace. But you can know fifty. What we try to do in Commonspace is create a neighborhood in a building.

To all appearance, theyve succeeded at that. The communitys 25 apartments rent for an average of $850 per month, which is admittedly pricey for a tiny, 200 sq. ft. space, though services like thrice-weekly cleaning of all of the common spaces and the costs of activities like the weekly farm-to-table dinners are included. And the social benefits which are impossible to measure in dollars and cents are included too.

We set everything up with a town square feel so when you come out of your door theres not a long, dark hallway like in most apartment buildings, says Evans. Town squares, of course, can be noisy not to the liking of even some people who choose to live semi-communally. Thats why one of the floors has fewer apartments built a quiet lounge where locally roasted coffee is always on offer.

The mini-apartments are cleverly laid out, with a platform bed built atop storage cabinets and floor-to-ceiling windows that create an open feel. The bathroom is complete though it has a shower without a tub and the kitchenette is limited only by the fact that is has two electric burners instead of a full stove, because local regulations forbid open flame in such small quarters. The apartments are all equipped with TVs and high-speed Internet, and a Slack channel allows residents to stay in touch without having to remember 26 other email addresses.

Still, its the 6,000 shared square feet, not the 200 private ones that really defines the Commonspace experience, providing what Evans describes as a lot of collision space, which is something people who would otherwise be living alone often crave. What weve found is demand from people who were landing in Syracuse for the first time and not knowing anyone, he says. Weve got people from eight different countries and seven different states. Its a really cool, diverse group.

That diversity is not only cultural but temperamental. Rose Bear Dont Walk, a 23-year old Native American studying environment and forestry at the State University of New York, Syracuse, moved in to Commonspace over the summer and soon grew friendly with another resident who works in computer coding. His mind operates arithmetically, hers works more emotively, and they took to talking about their different ways of approaching the world.

Hes always building something or talking about building something or listening to podcasts, she says. One day, when she was weaving decorative strands out of plant fibers, she decided to make him a bracelet. It was just this way that our worlds connected, she says. He is very logical and mathematical and was very excited about this little tiny rope bracelet that I was bringing home.

Meaningful as those kinds of connections can be, Commonspace residents dont always have a lot of time to make them. Millennials can be transitory characteristic of most people early in their careers and the average length of tenancy is just eight months.

Things are very different at other intentional communities, like Milagro in Tucson. There, the buy-in is typically for life. The 28 homes in the landscaped desert space are sometimes available for rent, but are typically owned by their residents and have sold for anywhere from $175,000 to $430,000, depending on the market. The investment in house and land means an equal investment in the life of the community.

Brian Stark, a married father of two, has lived in Milagro since 2003, two years after the community opened, and considers himself a lifer. For him the appeal is not so much the community-wide dinner in the dining room every Saturday, or the happy hours or the stargazing sessions or the shared holiday parties. Its the easy, collegial pace of the place, unavoidable when neighbors all know one another.

You almost have to assume that someone may stop to chat with you when youre coming or going, he says. It took some getting used to but when were in a hurry for school or a meeting, weve learned to explain our rush and connect another time.

Even more important are the benefits that accrue to any communitys most vulnerable members: babies and seniors. For families with very young children, we do baby care trades, Stark says. And having a supportive community to help as you grow older is also a wonderful alternative to assisted care living.

Intentional communities are not without stressors. Stark recalls the decade of committee meetings that went into the simple business of deciding whether there should be path lights in the community important for safety, but murder on the deserts spectacular nighttime sky. Even when the community agreed that lights were a good idea, there was continued wrangling over cost, wattage and more. A similar struggle ensued when it came time to have all 28 homes painted, as residents debated color schemes for the homes stucco, trim and side boards.

Still, the long meetings and compromises are a small price for those suited to intentional communities. Thats true of diverse, cross-generational communities like Milagro, and it can be even more so when residents come together with a particular shared need for a particular kind of solidarity as in the LGBTQ or aging Boomer communities.

Shortly after the opening of Village Hearth, the North Carolina LGBTQ community, one of the founders explained to a local reporter that she was tired of hearing about this or that intentional community that has a nice lesbian couple or a nice gay couple. She and her wife didnt want to be a curiosity in even the friendliest surroundings, so they founded a community in which nothing would be remarkable about them at all.

There is little science so far that explicitly addresses the medical benefits of co-housing arrangements, but the benefits of the human connections the communities provide are being powerfully established. In one recent meta-analysis of 148 studies gathered from around the world, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, compared subjects reported state of loneliness with their overall life expectancy. The total sample size was more than 300,000 people and produced sobering results: Adults who are socially isolated, she found, have a 50% greater risk of dying from any cause within a given time frame than people who are more connected.

In a follow-up study in which she used census data to assemble an even larger sample group of 3.4 million, the results were a bit less stark, but no less conclusive, with social isolation and loneliness leading to a 30% increase in risk of mortality on average. Of course, being alone is not the same as being lonely, Holt-Lunstad stresses. Many people enjoy their solitude, and other people can feel lonely even in a group. The key is the subjective experience. If that experience is bad, thats when health can be affected.

More often than not, social media falls into the category of bad rather than good experiences. Even without being trolled or cyberbullied, people can suffer merely as a result of having replaced real relationships with virtual ones. Murthy does not believe social media is all bad, provided its often used as what he calls a way station rather than a destination, helping to establish real-life connections.

Using social media as a way station might mean that if Im traveling to a different city, in advance of the trip I look on Facebook or LinkedIn to see if I have any friends there, he says. Then I reach out to them and we get together.

The exact mechanisms that make loneliness so physically damaging are not easy to tease out, but chemical markers in the bloodstream, like cortisol, a stress hormone, or c-reactive proteins, indicators of inflammation, are considered worrisome signs. They indicate a weakened immune system and metabolic disruption, says Waldinger. This is when you start to see signs of illness like rising lipid levels and blood pressure.

Residents of intentional communities also see another kind of benefit to health and happiness in co-housing: as a way of alleviating transitions that can be both stressful isolating. Stark, the Milagro resident, recalls that when his older daughter, Maia, was born 12 years ago, the Milagro community was still new. Unbidden, the neighbors pitched in to help the family, cleaning their house, making them meals, even doing their laundry so that he and his wife could have the luxury of doing what few parents can do: focus their attention exclusively on their new baby. Since then, the Stark family has returned the favor, making food for people recovering from surgery and offering to make a pickup at an airport.

Everyone at some point needs someone else, Stark says. Intentional communities, in their quiet way, are helping to make sure that powerful human need gets met.

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Why Americans of All Ages Are Embracing Communal Living - TIME

STEPHENS CITY It should be smooth sailing for Stephens City candidates this year, as the Town Council elections in Stephens City on Nov. 3 will be uncontested, according to the Frederick County Office of Elections.

The filing deadline for candidates was 7 p.m. Tuesday. Three of councils six seats are up for election. Members of town council are elected for four-year terms, and they run without a party designation on the ballot.

Incumbent Ronald Bowers, who has been on town council for 32 years, is seeking another four-year term. Im Just Me Movement Co-Founder Christine Tina Stevens, who won a special election to Town Council in November, is seeking her first four-year term. Newcomer Julia Young, who is studying political science at Lord Fairfax Community College, is seeking office for the first time.

Council member Joseph Hollis, who has been on the council for 18 years, did not file for re-election.

Stevens, 45, said her priorities for the next four years include continuing to make adjustments to the Capital Improvement Plan, improving the sidewalks and finding ways to expand the roads to improve traffic.

She would also like to see a community center that could be used by the elderly and veterans. She also wants there to be interest and young blood on the council and hopes to encourage more town residents to attend council meetings. Helping the community heal from the COVID-19 pandemic is another priority.

We are in a double whammy here, Stevens said. Weve got COVID-19, but we also have a lot of racial tensions around the world. I think as a council we can be more intentional in our messages. I think we can help support our communities and people of color and let them know that their voices do matter and that Stephens City is here for them. We are here for them for any concerns they may have with these racial tensions. And in terms of COVID-19, we are stronger together, so being able to support our community with any challenges they have faced.

Young, 28, grew up in Winchester and currently lives in Stephens City with her husband and three children. She would like to see Stephens City become a more welcoming place for people of color and the LGBTQ community.

I definitely think theres still a lot of work that needs to be done, said Young, who is bisexual. My husband and my children, they are actually Latino. They are white-passing so nobody would expect it. But we live right on Main Street. I see kids with their basketball and running. And I see people cross the street to avoid teenage black men. We see things all of the time because we are always sitting on our porch. And so there is definitely work to be done. I think theres work to be done everywhere, but especially in a place like this where our history is the Civil War. Our history is divisive. Theres a lot more work to be done than people would like to admit needs to be done.

Like Stevens, Young also wants council to find ways to support the community during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. She said she would like there to be a town-commissioned food pantry drop off or coordination to help the Sherando Food Pantry. She also wants the town to provide handicapped-accessible playgrounds and parks for disabled children.

If elected, Young also hopes to foster growth of residential and commercial development.

To be perfectly honest, I think the only way is to move forward and growth is key, Young said. There are things that are treasured about small towns, but you dont have to lose the neighborly quality that people desire and knowing each other and the warmth that small towns can exude when you wind up expanding.

As for Bowers, 83, he said, I just would like to continue to serve the citizens of the town. He said there are several housing developments planned and that there certainly is going to be a lot of changes in the next four years.

Rich Venskoske, director of elections/general registrar for Frederick County, said because the three candidates are the only ones who filed by Tuesdays deadline, they are expected to win the election unless there is an extremely popular write-in candidate. Town council members are not paid.

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Stephens City Town Council election to be uncontested - The Winchester Star

1.How is a small-business person supposed to feel about being looted by members of their own community, not being protected by the police, not being allowed to protect their own property, then being financially victimized, when they have to take out a loan to pay for something that wasnt their fault? Will frequenting their businesses if they survive the financial consequences of the pandemic even scratch the surface of what needs to be done to restore their faith in humanity?

2.When looters were destroying the businesses large and small in south Minneapolis destroying the hopes, dreams and life savings of businesses that are the economic lifeblood of the community, what should the police have done about it that would have met with the approval of the protesters?

3.If most cops are good cops, would dismantling or defunding the Minneapolis Police Department be an assault primarily on the bad cops, or on the good cops?

4.To what extent would dismantling or defunding the Minneapolis Police Department be a de facto but intentional victimization of the families of good police officers? What constructive value would there be in doing that?

5.In the sphere of public opinion of the voters across the state, will what happened in the Twin Cities during the protests increase or decrease the city-rural divide?

6.Did the protesters here and across the nation make a good impression on the National Guard and on the law enforcement officers who were called in to keep the peace? Does this matter? Yes, it does! The voting friends, neighbors and co-workers of the National Guard members and law-enforcement officers are going to want to know from the people they know from the people who were actually there what their impression was of the protesters and the way that they conducted themselves.

7.Did the echoing of protesters inflammatory language by government officials to describe the officers involved in the George Floyd incident increase or decrease the odds that those officers will be convicted during a fair trial, anywhere in Minnesota? If they are convicted by a tainted jury, will that conviction be justice or retribution? If they are acquitted on appeal because it can be shown that the jury was tainted by inflammatory language, who will take responsibility for tainting the jury pool?

8.Could it be that what we are seeing in the nationwide protests the long-awaited awkward emergence of the younger generation, stepping up to take control and responsibility for the future of our nation? Can that possibly happen without a grand-scale revolution in the way we now view our world?

9.There is a world of difference between we the people empowering politicians with our vote so that they can do great things for us, and politicians empowering we the people so that we can do great things for ourselves. Will the obviously well-intended effort of Gov. Tim Walz and other politicians to bring about community and police reforms through legislation and programs result in a different outcome than past initiatives that followed that same path? Or, should we be trying new solutions that were created by we the people solutions the likes of which no one has ever seen or tried before? Which is most likely to succeed?

10.In a crisis, some people turn their negativity inward and suffer a lot rather than risk hurting others with their anger. Some people, in need of an emotional punching bag and someone to blame for the way that they feel, release the wrath of their negative energy anger on to other people and other entities. Some people, like Gov. Walz and the volunteers who showed up to clean up afterward, convert their negative energy into positive energy in an effort to solve problems. Which use of negative energy is most likely to create constructive solutions that will fix the problems in the Minneapolis Police Department and in the communities they serve? What can be done to pre-emptively convert future negative destructive energy into constructive energy, so as to prevent dysfunctional consequences like the looting of neighborhood businesses?

11.Which is greater prejudice?

a)Painting all blacks with the same paintbrush, and claiming that the blacks all do this, or that the blacks all think that?

b)Lumping all the protesters who defied the curfew together with the looters, and calling them the black community?

c)Lumping all individual police officers together and saying that the police think this or that the police do that?

I am a 70-year-old retired federal law enforcement officer who worked in a federal prison for 28 years. I was on the riot squad for 20 years. I was a Bureau of Prisons certified self-defense instructor who never taught a chokehold. I was a union official in various capacities for 25 years. I was in the Minnesota Air National Guard for six years.

Ah! That explains a lot, doesnt it? Im a right-winger, and an unconditional supporter of the Minneapolis Police Department, right?

I have the better part of a masters degree in secondary education with a minor in psychology, and almost a minor in industrial arts. Married for 49 years to a schoolteacher. We have three grown adopted Korean children. I bought as a kit, built, then flew one of the first motorized hang gliders in the state of Minnesota back in 1980, back when these things were in their infancy. We have bicycled almost 125,000 miles.

Politically, on a left/right scale, I am a left-of-center moderate. On a vertical scale between progressive and regressive, I am an off-the-charts progressive. I am all about doing things that are experimental, in an effort to do things better than they have ever been done before.

Lumping people together and painting them with the same brush is prejudice personified. Prejudice is the gross failure of individuals to have the empathy and foresight to see, to value, and to tolerate the souls of others. People are prejudiced because being prejudiced is simple, convenient and easy, and because an emotionally satisfying buzz of passion binds them together with other like-minded people, in the belief that if they are all saying the same thing, that they all must then be right.

Footnote: My wife and I have participated in five protests in the past four years.

John A. Mattsen lives in New Brighton.

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OPINION EXCHANGE | The unasked questions about George Floyd's death and the aftermath - Minneapolis Star Tribune

On Memorial Day, communities across this country watched in horror as a former officer in Minneapolis held George Floyd to the ground, his knee restraining Floyd by his neck, actions which directly led to Floyds death.

Police agencies across the country, including the Mountain View Police Department, came out to condemn, in no uncertain terms, the inexcusable actions of the officer. The Mountain View Police Department reiterated a vow to continue the strong partnership with the community, as it has for decades. The actions of the former Minneapolis police officers, at their very core, went against everything the Mountain View Police Department stands for, from human rights to rendering immediate medical aid for those calling out for help.

With more than 36,000 calls for service in 2019 alone, the Mountain View Police Department is a valuable organization in our community, serving vulnerable populations, our children, and more with a Mountain View-first mentality. The department is known as a dedicated leader in the community policing model. In the last three months alone, the police department has single-handedly helped distribute nearly 10,000 face coverings to those who need them to help us flatten the curve of COVID-19. They have distributed more than 2,000 bags of food to those in need. And they have been working in close collaboration, as they have for years, with community-based organizations to help find housing resources for those who need to stay healthy and stay safe while we battle this pandemic.

For more than 20 years, officers have served the children of Mountain View as mentors and trusted adults with the Dreams and Futures program, which helps students learn and deal with peer pressure, family issues, drugs, and more. These officers are beloved by their students, and they are repeatedly requested for reading days, assemblies, and more.

And thats not all our community comes out in force every year to help the Mountain View Police Department build meal baskets for families in need for Cops N Gobblers, thanks to the incredible donations made from our community members. Last year, in less than 45 minutes, Mountain Viewers, in tandem with officers, built over 400 baskets, that were in turn distributed by both officers and families to those who needed some help making their Thanksgiving Day special.

Every year in December, Mountain View officers help bring holiday gifts to thousands of Mountain View students with the Cops That Care program this event takes months to coordinate, but is worth every smile of the more than 1,000 children that walk through the door to receive a present of their choosing in time for the holidays.

These are just some of the efforts you may know about, and are part of the fabric of who we are and the values we hold. They are ingrained in the community policing model, which the Mountain View Police Department wholeheartedly embraces and follows. This doesnt include the tens of thousands of calls for service Mountain View officers were dispatched to last year calls for crime, calls for help, calls for someone to be there to support them when no one else was.

Of those 36,000 calls last year, less than a fraction of 1% just 26 calls total resulted in use of force, resulting in at most, minor injuries. Thats because Mountain View officers are trained holistically to constantly work to de-escalate, to help those in need at their pace, and to ensure that every possible avenue is taken before force is even brought to the table as an option. This isnt just a policy that we have it is ingrained in multiple policies, it is repeatedly covered in training every year, and it is a constant topic of discussion within the department.

Your Mountain View police officers care deeply for this community. They work to build bridges every day, not because its their job, but because they, like you, are men and women searching for a better way to serve the greater good. They will continue to meet you at the table, be there when you are having your worst day, and be there for every call in between. Because that is what it means to be a police officer in Mountain View.

Going forward, there will be many moments and conversations with many community members in many neighborhoods. Mountain View police will continue to be there to listen, to learn, and to help create intentional, meaningful movements forward.

Margaret Abe-Koga is the mayor of Mountain View and Max Bosel is the police chief.

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Guest opinion: A message from the Mountain View mayor and police chief - Mountain View Voice

The death of George Floyd and the protests that followed have brought on a range of emotions for Steven Harris, CPA, CGMA, and Herschel Frierson as they advocate for racial justice, diversity, and inclusion in the accounting profession and the world.

As African American men and leaders in the accounting profession, they have wrestled with anger over injustice. They feel compassion for the victims and those who are pursuing helpful change. They are disappointed by the lack of progress in this area in society and the business community.

As fathers of college students, they admit to fear for what could happen to their children if they come into contact with the police. But the events of recent weeks also give them hope that they can help lead the accounting profession and their communities toward positive, lasting change.

Harris, partner in charge of the Entrepreneurial Services Group at RubinBrown LLP in St. Louis, is the chairman of the board of the National Association of Black Accountants (NABA), a not-for-profit association open to all accounting or finance professionals and students. Frierson, a managing director in the consulting group at Crowe LLP in Indianapolis, will replace Harris as chairman of the NABA board on July 1.

In this Q&A, they shared their thoughts on the tension thats gripping the United States as well as how leaders of the accounting profession can advocate for racial justice, diversity, and inclusion.

Steven Harris: For me, this started before the unrest. It started with COVID-19 and what was happening in the African American community, how the virus was really hitting our communities very, very hard. A lot of underrepresented minorities lack access to resources. Then this virus comes in, and it just really impacted our communities in a major, major way. Then on top of that, you see this unrest that takes place [following Floyds death], and Im just going to be honest, were not strangers to these incidents.

We just keep replacing the name and the situation thats happening. Our organizations have always been at the forefront of standing up for equality and really being totally against racism and injustice in any form or fashion whether its in our profession or within our overall community and across our nation. So were quick to take action and really denounce it.

But I think this time it was a little different, and I think it was different because of what we were already facing in the COVID-19 environment. You just felt the sense that we had to do more, we need to do more, and the sense that theres an exhaustion that has come over all of us in this situation. In the course of two to three months, there were multiple incidents. Different states. Different people. Different situations that had a very profound impact on us because you could see racism live. You could see it happening.

There was the incident in Georgia. There was the incident in Kentucky. There was the incident in Minnesota. So weve got to take it to the forefront of what were going to do, and theres a bigger calling to action for us to make some change.

Herschel Frierson: Within our profession, why dont we have more CPAs? CIAs? Why dont we have more African Americans in our profession? What can I do to bring more people to our profession?

The question comes: I dont know what to do. Yes, you do. Everybody feels like they dont know what to do and they want the answer. The answer is in the mirror. People, go to lunch with someone who doesnt look like you or have the same beliefs as you or maybe not the same religion, or someone from the LGBTQ community. Thats the answer.

Within your firm, within your profession, go to someone else. Ask: How can I make you successful in your career? How can I support you in your community? We get so many questions like, I dont know what to do. I dont know what to say. And Ill push back: You have that opportunity. You extend that hand out to someone else. You have that opportunity to change. You go mentor someone. You go volunteer in the community. You have that answer.

Harris: In a time like this, every word of the statement that your firm wants and needs to send is analyzed. Being intentional about whats said, whats not said, and also understanding the perspective and the mindset of how people are going to receive it is so important right now.

Herschel and I have had conversations about how you think youre saying the right things, and how some people feel like youre not saying enough. Some people might feel like you said it just right with your tone and temperament.

I want to challenge everybody to move beyond the message and move into the actions, how we make the changes.

Harris: One thing were missing the boat on as a profession is we need to do a real assessment across every organization and every company, and look at leadership, and really say, What does the leadership of this organization look like? Because if were all sitting around and the board of directors all look alike, were not moving the needle there.

And when we look at top leadership of organizations and there are no people of color or no women in those organizations, were going to continue to get the same results that were getting because theres not enough diversity of thought in the rooms where these decisions are being made.

Frierson: Go outside your typical colleges where you recruit. Emphasize the historically black colleges and universities because they have great accounting and finance programs. If you stick with your typical colleges and universities, are you working with diverse student organizations on campus?

NABA has student chapters across this country at major universities. And the question is, what are you doing to connect with those organizations? Thats very powerful.

The profession needs more diverse partners. Quite simply, the table needs to be bigger. Every single firm and company in our profession should be reaching out to NABA. Youre talking about diverse talent. Youre talking about what do we need to do to make a change. Who can I talk to? How can we work together? NABA is there for you. There are resources there for you in our profession that can help you move the needle.

Frierson: What is your true passion? Our profession, as much as we talk about policies and procedures and GAAP rules and things of that nature, at the end of the day, were a people business. The profession will not survive without our people. So we need to take a step back and look at our people and really look at our company mission statement. Its good that everybody is putting out statements in support.

But I think our next step is to go back and look at what your values are and challenge them, and really do a test. Really look at your value statement and your mission statement and ask, When I look back at the past 10, 15 years, are we truly, truly living up to what we say on our website?

Ken Tysiac (Kenneth.Tysiac@aicpa-cima.com) is the JofAs editorial director.

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Q&A: Advocating for justice, diversity, and inclusion - Journal of Accountancy